The British Council’s ISPF Early Career Fellowships are specifically designed to widen participation and to support the careers of researchers from a variety of backgrounds, including those whose backgrounds are underrepresented in their research field.
This opportunity is available to early career researchers:
- who have not yet held a permanent research-related post or academic post with a research specific element,
- who wish to have a research experience at a UK university or research institution.
This could include converting their doctoral work into publications or other academic outputs and establishing new research relationships.
The scheme will have a focus on inclusivity: it will provide early career researchers with a
foundation to launch their careers. It creates lasting benefits to the fellow, the UK and the international partners’ research communities through sustainable collaboration.
To qualify for the ISPF Early Career Fellowship, you must:
- Be a permanent resident of Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam (Transformative Technologies for Healthcare and Environmental Resilience (TTHER) project)
- Be a permanent resident of Malaysia or Indonesia (Accelerating Transformative Technology for Sustainable Clean Energy Development (ASCEND) project)
- Be an Early Career Researcher [see Footnote]
- Not currently in receipt of financial support or funding towards any other programme in the UK from any other sources.
- Meet the English language requirement of the Edinburgh Napier University
- Have a background or a proven interest in the proposed research area.
- Be willing to demonstrate future contribution to capacity-building and socio-economic advancement through the benefits achieved after completing the fellowship programme.
- Agree to maintain contact with the British Council for purposes of monitoring and evaluation during and after their fellowship.
- Demonstrate a plan and a passion to engage other early career researchers from their home country.
- Employees of the British Council, the UK government or Scottish, Welsh, or Northern Irish governments are not eligible to apply for this programme.
[Footnote]
Early Career Researchers (ECRs) have completed or are close to completion of their PhD, potentially waiting for their final viva voce examination, which must be passed prior to taking up the award. ECRs will not have held a permanent academic post or a permanent post with a research-related element, or one which allowed them to supervise PhD students or submit research grants as a principal investigator. Time spent in teaching-only roles or academic related roles does not affect ECR status, provided no research element was part of the role. If a researcher does not hold a PhD but has research experience equivalent to a PhD holder and works in a field where a PhD is not a prerequisite for established research activity, they can still be considered eligible. Participants from for-profit organisations cannot be funded. As we move toward greater inclusivity for ECRs from a wide range of backgrounds, we are no longer counting years spent in a specific career stage. Career breaks and alternative trajectories to an early academic career are all considered outside the definition of career stage.