Fellowship Opportunities

Applications for Research Fellowships

Candidates wishing to select Imperial High Energy Physics 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. If you and a member of academic staff agree to put you forward to the Head of Group they will work with you to prepare the required paperwork.

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 High Energy Physics 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. The majority of the schemes we support applications to can be held part time for personal circumstances such as caring responsibilities or disability/chronic health conditions. Applications are welcome from applicants who are returning from a career break or those working outside of academia. 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 and further resources/support for working at Imperial on our Opportunities page.

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 High Energy Physics 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.

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)

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)
  • Group quota two
  • Please contact a member of staff in your areas of interest by 3rd August at the latest.
  • If supported College deadline 21st August 2023.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships

  • Open.
  • Department quota – none.
  • Confirmation to the Department and ECAS Part A completed 5th September 2023.
  • Imperial participates in the standard European Fellowship mode of the MSCA PF scheme but does not participate in the Global Fellowships mode.
  • Check the Imperial's EU Team webpage with advice and information to help applicants. Some areas of the webpage require an Imperial login, ask your sponsor to share the information. You can also contact the team with questions mscapostdocfellowships@imperial.ac.uk
  • Check the UK Research Office's webinars

Royal Astronomical Society Fellowships

  • Closed.
  • Department quota – five.
  • Nomiations closed 26th 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 your CV, publications list and a one page outline.

Royal Society Newton Fellowships

  • Closed.
  • Department quota – five.
  • Group nomination deadline was 22nd February 2023.
  • Nominations consist of CV, publications list and a one page outline.

Royal Society URF

STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowships

  • Closed.
  • Department quota set by STFC - seven
  • Group nomination deadline was 30th June 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. Group nomination deadline 28th July 2023.
  • Nomination paperwork is CV, publications list and brief research proposal.
  • Scheme has moved to The Funding Service as part of EPSRC Fellowships.