Scope and funding

The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship offers outstanding early career researchers the opportunity to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in an academic environment. The primary emphasis is on the completion of a significant piece of publishable research, and the integration of the award holder into the community of established scholars within their field.

These awards are for applicants who do not currently hold a permanent contract.

The Academy typically funds 80% of salary costs, directly allocated and indirect costs under FEC. Research expenses are covered at 100% within the upper limit, which is set at £6000 over the three years.

When to apply

• Internal application process is now closed – this will reopen Spring 2024 in advance of the next round.
• The call will open mid-July 2023 on the British Academy website and will close early-mid October 2024 (exact dates TBC).

How to apply through the University of Bristol

Please note, the following covers the 2023 internal process and remains here for information only – details may change for the 2024 internal process.

We have an internal process for all applicants wanting to complete their postdoc in the Faculty with funding through this scheme. Those selected for submission will be given the support of Research Development (RD) in the Division of Research, Enterprise and Innovation (DREI).

1. Applicant requests a blank copy of a British Academy DREI outline form (if you have any problems accessing the form, please contact rdo-rduk@bristol.ac.uk). 
2. Applicant approaches a potential mentor at Bristol with an outline of a proposal on the DREI outline template and a combined two-page CV and publication list.  
3. Approval Stage 1: The mentor will make a decision about whether to support your application. This decision is based on: 

   - If the project and candidate will be competitive, given a likely success rate of less than 8%.

   - If the applicant will have publications at the point of external submission. Our feedback suggests that candidates need at least one article published or in press (and the best have at least three publications). 

   - The mentor's capacity to give a strong level of support in developing the application (experience suggests that most successful applications have been developed with close support of the mentor).  

4. The Mentor contacts the School Research Director (SRD) (copying in the Head of School) to request final authorisation.
5. Approval Stage 2: SRDs communicate to mentors whether School support can be offered for the application. NOTE: while there is no institutional quota, SRDs will only authorise applications that they consider to be competitive. The Head of School will notify the Research Development team of their intention to support the application.
6. Selected applicants work up a full external application, with the support of their mentor, the School and Research Development. In order for the faculty and for Research Development to provide full support for the external bid, outlines should be submitted to SRDs on or before 4pm Monday 3rd July. Applications will be considered after that point, but it may not be possible to guarantee the full level of support offered by Bristol.
7. In previous years, applicants have been invited to attend a training day in Bristol, scheduled this year as 10am-12.30pm on Wednesday 19^th July. This will be held in a hybrid format, with some applicants attending virtually and some attending in person – we plan for there to be an opportunity to meet with your mentors on this day. Attendance at this day/session is not compulsory – all will receive support of the Faculty going forward to the external deadline, expected to be at the end of October. If you are based within the UK and the School agrees to support your application, the University of Bristol will be able to contribute to the cost of your travel to attend the workshop in person. More details will follow after selection. 

Eligibility and further details

Find full eligibility guidelines and more information about the scheme on the British Academy website.