How to apply for a fellowship

The Centre for National Training and Research Excellence in Understanding Behaviour (Centre-UB) is pleased to announce our 2025 call for applications for early career researcher fellows. Centre-UB is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and forms part of the ESRC’s investment in behavioural research and support for early career researchers.

Please see below for more information about the aims and objectives of the fellowship programme, eligibility criteria, and the application process. The full fellowship guidance can be found here.

Aims and Objectives of Early Career Researcher Fellowship Programme

Centre-UB will recruit three cohorts of 8 early career researcher fellows into the centre to advance their training in behavioural research. The fellows will be part of the University of Birmingham and will be mentored by both the University of Birmingham and the partner organisation. Throughout their fellowship, early career researcher fellows will work together with the University of Birmingham and partner organisations to capitalise the knowledge exchange and impact of their behavioural research, continue their development as a behavioural researcher, conduct further behavioural research, and promote a positive research culture and a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Centre-UB behavioural research innovation and excellence is focussed around understanding behaviour. Key to Centre-UB is that subject matter expertise is not siloed within individual research disciplines; instead, early career researcher fellows are encouraged to work with colleagues from other disciplines. Interdisciplinary projects are highly encouraged, but the majority of the fellowship should be within social sciences (at least 50%). Each Centre-UB fellowship should also fit within the ESRC remit.

To achieve the aims and objectives of the early career researcher fellowship programme, fellowships are expected to contain the following components:

• Translation of behavioural research to knowledge exchange and impact – at least 25% of fellowship

Example activities are development of policy briefings, development and implementation of dissemination materials (e.g., toolkit, website, support programmes), assessment of effectiveness of dissemination materials developed based on their behavioural research. This can be based on their own previous research or research conducted with or by the partner organisation.

• Development as behavioural researcher – at least 25% of the fellowship

Example activities are training workshops (e.g., at the University of Birmingham, the partner organisation), networking events, training visits to (international) partners, development of grant applications for further research.

Fellowships can include the following additional component:

• Conducting further behavioural research – no more than 50% of fellowship

Example activities are completing a new project with the partner to learn how behavioural research is used in their organisation, collecting data to support the development of knowledge exchange and impact activities, collecting pilot data to support grant applications.

These components are interdependent and should be embedded in a coherent way across the fellowship, and the activities should be underpinned by the fellow’s career aspirations.

Each research fellow will have a mentor from the University of Birmingham and a mentor from the non-academic partner organisation. Each fellowship will be co-developed with the partner organisation, building on the research expertise of the early career researcher fellow as well as the expertise of the University of Birmingham and partner organisation mentors. Fellowship activities should support the development of the early career fellow in achieving the aims of the fellowship and be in line with the fellow’s longer-term career aspiration. Partner organisations can be public, private, or third sector partners, with interest and expertise in human behaviour and based in the UK. Early career fellowship applicants can use their existing connections with non-academic organisations to co-develop their application. In addition, Centre-UB can facilitate the connection between fellowship applicants, with mentors from partner organisations and the University of Birmingham (please note, these opportunities closed on 14^th March 2025). The fellowship application form will need to include information related to the contribution of the partner organisation to the fellowship (including the arrangements of mentoring, training and development support, working within the partner organisation, access to information from the partner organisation) and the expected academic outputs and partner-related outcomes.

Overview of Fellowship

Centre-UB will award 8 early career researcher fellowships per cohort. The second cohort will start in October 2025.

The Centre-UB early career researcher fellowship will cover salary and associated costs and up to £10K for all other costs (e.g., research costs, travel, dissemination). Successful candidates will be appointed at entry level Grade 7. Please look at the University’s salary scales so you are clear on the salary available.

The fellowships provide funding and support for up to one year full-time, or up to two years part-time to give early career researcher fellows time to prepare for a successful career in research either within or beyond academia. Part-time grants are intended for applicants whose normal working hours are part-time and not for applicants who wish to hold the fellowship and continue other employment. The exception to this are applicants whose PhD was undertaken on a part-time basis alongside permanent part-time employment. Applicants in this position can continue to hold their part-time employment alongside the fellowship but all other fellows must spend 100% of their working time (whether full-time or part-time) on the fellowship and cannot take any secondary paid employment during the course of the grant.

All Centre-UB early career researcher fellows will receive training from the University’s Impact Hub on putting their research into action to ensure they are well-equipped for careers within and beyond academia. They will be able to participate in workshops regarding impact, working with industry and commercialisation, working with policy-makers, public engagement, media training, and writing for non-academic audiences. Early career researcher fellows will play a central role in the Centre-UB research community, together with the cohorts of Centre-UB postgraduate researchers. Early career researcher fellows will have access to all Centre-UB webinars, masterclasses, and workshops, as well as research seminar series and internal research conferences within their ‘home’ department at the University of Birmingham. Together with their mentors, the research fellows will create an individualised training and development plan tailored towards their skills, knowledge, and career aims. Activities to support their development as a behavioural researcher should align with their career aspirations and will need to be specified in the fellowship application form.

Eligibility

We invite applications from candidates who have recently completed their PhD (see eligibility criteria) and would like to continue their training in behavioural research, as well as applications from candidates who aim to return to a period of training within academia following time working within a non-academic organisation. We specifically invite applicants who have completed their PhD in an area related to behavioural research and within the ESRC remit. Applicants from different research backgrounds will need to justify in their application how their background makes them a suitable candidate for a fellowship in the area of behavioural research and within the ESRC remit, and how the fellowship aligns with their career aspirations as a behavioural researcher.

Eligibility criteria for candidates who have recently completed their PhD:

• PhD graduates who completed their PhD at a UK research organisation.
• Awarded their PhD no more than two years prior to 8 May 2025 – please note that the date for awarding the PhD is the date of the formal notification of the award of the PhD from the awarding institute. Exceptions can be made in the case of a career break for personal circumstances, e.g., parental or maternity leave. Please contact us on [email protected] for advice on this.
• Candidates who have not been awarded their PhD yet at the time of submitting their application are eligible on the condition that they have passed their viva voce subject to amendments by the application deadline (i.e., 8 May 2025) and have been awarded their PhD by the fellowship start date of 1 October 2025. The date for awarding the PhD is the date of the formal notification of the award of the PhD from the awarding institute.
• Candidates who have worked as a post-doctoral researcher, research associate, or teaching fellow, as part of larger projects where they were not the principal investigator, are eligible to apply. Those who have received a substantial individual award as the primary investigator (e.g., fellowship) after handing in their PhD thesis are not eligible to apply. Please contact us on [email protected] to check eligibility.
• Permanent members of staff in an academic position with a research component are not eligible to apply.

Eligibility for candidates who aim to return to a period of training within academia following time working in a non-academic organisation:

• PhD graduates who completed their PhD at a UK research organisation.
• Candidates who have worked in a non-academic organisation for at least two years.
• Prior to their career within a non-academic organisation, candidates who worked no more than two years within an academic organisation as a post-doctoral researcher, research associate, or teaching fellow following their PhD. Those who have received a substantial individual award as the primary investigator (e.g., personal fellowship) after handing in their PhD thesis are not eligible to apply. Please contact us on [email protected] to check eligibility.

Please see the Fellowship Guidance document for more detail about the application process and the required attachments to be submitted with the application form.

Briefly, applicants will need to provide the following information in their application:

1. Aim of the fellowship, including the relevance of the research area and broader project, fit within the remit of the ESRC and understanding behaviour, as well as the personal career aspirations of the applicant.
2. Description of the components of the fellowship, which includes activities related to a) knowledge exchange and impact (at least 25% of fellowship), b) development as behavioural researcher (at least 25% of fellowship), and, if applicable, c) further research (no more than 50% of fellowship). It should be clear how the activities will support the overall aims of the fellowship.
3. Anticipated outcomes of the fellowship, including academic and non-academic outputs.
4. The process adopted for co-development of the fellowship together with the partner organisation in line with the aims of the fellowship and the career aspirations of the fellow.
5. Mentoring arrangement with UoB and partner organisation mentors.

Assessment of applications

Each application will be assessed using the following criteria

• Aims of the fellowship
• Impact and outcomes
• Partner organisation collaboration
• Mentors
• Value for money
• Data management plan (if applicable)

Timeline

• Call announced – December 2025
• Online information event – Thursday February 6, 2025 at 11am to provide more information about the fellowship process.
• Deadline for Expression of Interest form – 4pm 1 May 2025
• Closing dates for applications – 4pm 8 May 2025
• Decisions confirmed to applicants – June 2025
• Successful proposals submitted to ESRC – July 2025
• Fellowships commence – 1 October 2025

Support for connecting fellows, partner organisations and academic mentors.

Centre-UB can provide support for connecting fellows, partner organisations, and University of Birmingham mentors in several ways:

• If you are a fellowship applicant and have a fellowship idea, but are looking for appropriate University of Birmingham and partner organisation mentors, please complete this online form and we can link you with potential mentors from within our network.
• If you are a partner organisation, have a specific interest related to behavioural research, and are interested in supporting the development of an early career fellow, but are looking for an appropriate applicant and/or University of Birmingham mentor, we can advertise your area of interest on our website and put you in touch with a suitable University of Birmingham mentor. Please complete this online form.
• If you are a University of Birmingham academic member of staff and are interested in being a mentor for a fellowship, please complete this online form and we can connect you with potential fellows, if appropriate.

To allow sufficient time to make the connections and prepare a fellowship application, we ask you to complete these forms as soon as possible and no later than 14 March 2025.