Conditions of award
A minimum of half of the URF award (£10k out of £20k) must be used to buy out the University Research Fellow from teaching, assessment, administrative, and/or clinical duties, to allow them to dedicate time on the stated activity.
With prior agreement from the sponsor (normally the head of school), a maximum of half of the URF award (£10k out of £20k) can be used to cover expenses related to the URF’s stated project, including, but not limited to, travel, equipment, or other research related expenses.
It is expected that on-going research commitments such as research council grants and supervisingPGR students during the award year must be continued.
Any changes of circumstance or topic must be reported to DREI as soon as possible.
URF resources must redound to the central URF budget and are not be used by schools/departments for other purposes if the stated research cannot be undertaken as envisaged and agreed at time of award.
It is possible, but not normal, for a URF award to span two separate academic years if a case can be made that the school/department's teaching block structure is not readily alterable. In such cases, ringfenced funding from the following year's allocation would need to be agreed with the Dean and DREI.
A URF Report Form must be submitted by the December following the completion of the URF period. Click here to view the URF Report form.
Criteria for award
The selection process (see process flowchart) is governed by the following criteria. In some cases, Faculties or Schools may have their own additional criteria to guide the process.
quality, coherence, and feasibilityof the proposal
significance of the expected outputs of the activity
contribution of the proposed activity to the University’s strategic priorities. This might include contributing to the research challenge areas, and/or other relevant aims and objectives set out in the research sub-strategy.
importance of the proposed activity for the REF or the University’s World Top 50 ambition.
balance of disciplinarity/interdisciplinarity across the range of successful awards
importance of the award relative to the applicant's career stage
likelihood that the proposed activity will lead to securing external income in the future
environmental sustainability of the proposed activity
EDI considerations
Given these criteria, unsuccessful nominations should not be interpreted by nominees as a negative judgment on the part of the selection panel. Many excellent proposals are unable to be funded given the competition and the need to fund a range of projects and a diverse and inclusive research community.
