Fellowship FAQs

There is some flexibility over the location of fellows. However, you would be required to be in Birmingham, in-person, for specific events, including training sessions (e.g., a monthly fellow networking meeting, an annual Challenge Day, our Celebrating Research and Impact Event).

Fellows are expected to have regular meetings with their mentors, the frequency of which is determined collaboratively by the fellow and mentors. Fellows also receive a programme of training provided by different university teams. The exact activities per month can differ, if we have specific training or events or depending on whether events are relevant to your area of research/impact, but typically includes:

• Networking session for our community of fellows, 1 x per month (in person and compulsory)
• Webinars, 1 x per month (online and compulsory)
• Masterclasses, quarterly (online and optional)
• Challenge day, 1 x annually (in person and compulsory)
• Celebrating Research and Impact event, 1 x annually (in person and compulsory)
• Induction, 2 x per year (in person and compulsory)
• Public Engagement event, 1 x annually (in person and optional)

The fellowships are co-designed with a partner organisation, an academic mentor from the University of Birmingham, and the prospective fellow. If you need help finding a mentor, we can assist with that. In some cases, mentors may also be able to recommend suitable candidates for the fellowship, which can be beneficial.

The fellow would be on payroll as a University of Birmingham employee. They are, therefore, on the University’s headcount and not the partner organisation.

Partner organisations are welcome to financially contribute towards the fellowship, but there is no obligation to do so. Partner organisations are expected to contribute in-kind (e.g., providing access to facilities to support the activities in the fellowship application). This in-kind support should be discussed while planning the fellowship.

We do host several events throughout the year, such as the Celebrating Research  and  Impact Event and Fellow Induction Days. We encourage partner organisation mentors to attend these events to support their fellow. Invitations will be sent in advance.

There is scope for involving multiple partner organisations, however, we ask that you clearly demonstrate what each partner is contributing to the project. Another aspect to consider is the role of the mentor within the partner organisation. If you have several partner organisations, you might end up with several mentors, and we like to avoid ‘over-mentoring’ the fellow. Each partner should be included in the application with a clear rationale.