Opportunities

Reasons to work with us

We aim to make the Department a welcoming and supportive environment for everyone. As well as helping you realise your potential and advance your career, we recognise and value the need to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Equality, Diversity and Disability Support

Information about how the College strives to create a welcoming and equitable workplace: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/equality/

Family friendly policies

Information about how the College promotes a family-friendly workplace: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/human-resources/benefits/supporting-you-and-your-family/

Health and Wellbeing

Information about how the College promotes mental and physical health and wellbeing:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/health-and-wellbeing/

People and Organisational Development / Post Doctoral and Fellows Development Centre

Information about how the College provides development activities:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/staff-development/

Juno Transparency and Opportunity Committee

The Committee aims to address the under representation of women and minorities in university physics, and to create a welcoming and inclusive environment in the Department.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/physics/about/juno/

Further information

Life in London - https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/living-in-london/

About Imperial https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/

Job opportunities 

Positions will be advertised on this site and on College employment pages

Should you have any queries about the application process please contact the Astrophysics Group Administration office via astro@imperial.ac.uk.

Fellowship opportunities

Candidates wishing to select Imperial Astrophysics as their host institution are advised to contact a member of academic staff in their area of interest to discuss your application. You are encouraged to contact us early for initial discussions to maximise the support we can give you and also because this is a two way process and you need to assess if we’re the right fit for you.

To ensure submission of high quality, competitive proposals, the Department runs a competitive internal selection process with deadlines for Research Groups to submit their supported nominated candidates to the Department. The Astrophysics Group therefore in turn also has deadlines to consider and select our supported candidates into this process. Requests received after these dates will not be considered.

We strongly encourage applications from all backgrounds, especially those historically underrepresented in Physics. We are an IoP JUNO Practitioner and an Athena Silver SWAN Award winner reflecting our commitment to building a supportive, inclusive and highly motivated community. See our EDI webpage for more Information.

We want to make our application process as inclusive and accessible as possible so if you experience any barriers that we may have overlooked please tell us and we can make adjustments.

We also recognise the unequal impacts of the impact that COVID-19 related disruption might have had. Where disruptions have occurred applicants can highlight this within their application if they wish.

If you are approved to submit a formal application the Department will assist you throughout the application process. We set internal submission deadlines which are substantially earlier than the sponsor deadlines to allow for sufficient preparation and approval time, you will be advised of this and you can also see the deadlines on the application guidance webpage.

The Imperial Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre provides a host of ongoing support from preparing the application to mock interviews available to anyone who is applying through Imperial.  You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this support in conjunction with that from your host Research Group.  For more information applicants should read the guidance on their webpages and contact pfdc-support@imperial.ac.uk.

We’ve successfully supported many research fellowship applications. See Summary of started researcher fellowships in Summary of started researcher fellowships in Astrophysics from 1 August 2013

The common schemes we participate in are listed below. For a currently closed calls the last nomination deadline is given as an indication of when the next might be.

Imperial College Research Fellowships

Open but note Physics is only accepting applications for ICRFs supported by Schmidt Futures under the AI in Science Theme (see College page for information and the guidance on how to indicate this in your application).

Please contact a member of staff in your areas of interest. The expectation is each Group will support their top two applicants.

College deadline 21 August 2023. Requests for the required Department approval on your Research Proposal and Budget form should be made to Louise Hayward and can be accepted until midday on the 21 August.

Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow, a Program of Schmidt Futures 

Closing 28th September 2023, see information below:

  • Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, a program of Schmidt Futures (Research Fellow)
  • Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, a program of Schmidt Futures (Research Associate)
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships

Open.
Department quota - none
Confirmation to the Department and ECAS Part A completed 5 September 2023

Royal Astronomical Society Fellowships 

Closed.
Department quota – five.
Nominations closed 26 September 2022.
Nominations consist of CV, publications list and a one page outline

Royal Commission 1851 Research Fellowships
Closed. (Opens October) 
Department quota - five 
Please contact a member of staff in your areas of interest. Nominations to the Department by 4th December 2023.  
Nominations consist of CV, publications list and a one page outline 

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships

Closed. (Opens 5th September 2023) 
Department quota - none 
Please contact a member of staff in your areas of interest. Nominations to the Department by 11th September 2023. 
Nominations consist of CV, publications list and a one-page outline. 

Royal Society Newton Fellowships
Closed.
Department quota – five
Group nomination deadline was 22 February 2023. Nominations consist of your CV, publications list and a one-page outline.

Royal Society URF

Closed.
Department quota – twelve
Group nomination deadline was 4th July 2023
Nominations to the Department consisted of your CV, publication list and a Request for Support from Imperial Physics form-URF 

STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowships

Closed.
Department quota set by STFC  - seven 
Group nomination deadline was 4th July 2023 

UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships

Closed.
Round 8 was only open to Imperial Physics academic/proleptic staff
College deadline was 17th April 2023

UKRI Stephen Hawking Fellowship

Open.
Department quota - none.
Please contact a member of staff in your area of interest. Nomination deadline 31st July 2023 if you are wanting to apply for the 28th September round. 
Nomination paperwork is CV, publications list and brief research proposal
Scheme has moved to The Funding Service as part of EPSRC Fellowships

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Link to admissions page: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/astrophysics/students-and-prospective-students/

UROP opportunities

We offer a small number of UROP projects per year in a variety of areas. These summer vacation placements will be funded. Note that after summer 2023 the Department of Physics will no longer allow UROPs to take place where no bursary has been organised.

Register your interest in a UROP placement in the group