Royal Society covers life & physical sciences including engineering but excluding medical
Lucy Saddleton and Katie Lisanti @Royal Society
Katie Saddleton- Scheme Manager, UK Grants (particularly Fellowships)
Fellowships – they are really flexible, encourage shared parental leave, can accommodate sick leave, parental leave etc. You are all humans and RS will support you.
There are additional free training opportunities available for RS Fellows, workshops, training, mentoring, MP pairing scheme. Funding schemes include:
- University Research Fellows can apply to have a PhD student included in the Fellowship
- ECR Fellowships
- Senior Research Fellowships
- Industry & Innovation – Fellowships & New Short Industry Fellowships
- Industry & Innovation – APEX Award, Paul Instrument Fund
- Research Capacity & Infrastructure – Research Grants
Lucy Lisanti – International Exchanges Manager
International Collaboration & Travel – International Exchanges, JSPS Postdoc Fellowship, Newton International Fellowship (ECR from Newton Countries), Newton Advanced (Early to Mid from Newton Countries), Royal Society Newton Fund (International Fellowships)
GCRF – International Collaboration (bolstering current collaborations), Challenge Led Grants (one off award), FLAIR Fellowships (African researchers to work in sub Saharan /Africa Universities
Application Process – Flexi-Grant – Flexi grant deadline is now 3pm not midnight
What are we looking for?
Think of it like a job interview, track record, creativity, excellent scientific merit
Royal Society don’t mind if you stay at your institution or if you move, and you can transfer your grant/fellowship if you move.
Tips for the Interview
- For ECRs – how is this a route to independence
- Why do you want to stay at institution – having family nearby is a valid reason.
- Need to do an Elevator Pitch
- Hold mock interviews before hand
- There are videos about the interview process on RS website
- Need a really good lay summary, understandable by someone who does not have a discipline specific knowledge.
Scheme notes can change between rounds!! Make sure you are accessing the most up to date version.
Other things to Note
RS do not publish success rates due to variation of award year on year – for some schemes success rates are not high so don’t want to put people off!!
Limited feedback at each stage – further down process you get the more feedback that you get.
Can apply again if unsuccessful (except Henry Dale which is joint with Wellcome Trust, where you need to complete a pre-application pro-forma).
Fellowship Case Studies
Claudia Schneider – Newcastle
University Research Fellowship
Leave lots of time for application
View another person’s proposal
Good to do a mock interview
Route to independence – how is work different to what you have been doing before,
how can you expand your group, what is your next publication
Lars Erik Holmquist- Northumbria
Wolfson Research Merit Award
Salary increase to help recruit someone you might not have been able to recruit otherwise
Biggest benefit is being part of RS network & accessing training
Digital Disruption Network
Del Atkinson – Durham
Royal Society Industry Fellow (can be either way, industry to academic or academic to industry)
Having a great idea and why you are the right person to do this at this time – why you, why now – what are you skill sets?
Working with industry, start small and build, be flexible
Don’t do it if you’re not interested
PANEL SESSION – Q&A
RS are not risk averse, they expect a project to have ambition and stretch the applicant.