Information for applicants

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Round 8

Applications to Imperial for Round 8 are now CLOSED

 

Background

UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships (UKRI FLFs) are an exciting new opportunity to join Imperial. This scheme intends to grow the strong supply of talented individuals needed to ensure that UK research and innovation continues to be world class. These Fellowships support applicants from diverse career paths, including those returning from a career break or following time in other roles. UKRI encourages a broad range of applicants to include diversity of backgrounds, career paths, research areas, thought and approach as well as protected characteristics.

Fellowships are not restricted to work that would be seen as formal research in an applicant's chosen area but can also lead and develop innovation. FLF applications can be submitted within or across any area(s) of research and/or innovation covered by UKRI, from basic through to applied research and innovation.

Applications to UKRI where the fellowship is intended to be held at Imperial must be made via the College to ensure you have approved support from the proposed host Department.

More information about this fellowship can be found on the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships webpage.

Holding a FLF at Imperial

At Imperial we encourage a diverse range of applicants and are therefore using an open selection process to identify individuals to support in applying to this funding opportunity. All interested candidates, both external and internal, must complete an online application form, which will be shared with the relevant department to consider. Applicants will be contacted directly by the relevant academic department in order to establish the level of support available.

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader, A Race Equality Charter Bronze Award winner and a Stonewall Diversity Champion. 

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring, promotion and research funding decisions we will evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the impact factor of the journal where it is published. More information is available on the research evaluation webpage.

Applying

Applicant eligibility

These fellowships are for early career academics and innovators who are transitioning to or establishing independence. Applicants should view the UKRI's person specification (Annex B of the UKRI Round 8 guidance (pdf)) to assess and justify their suitability for the scheme. 

Applicants are expected to hold a doctorate by the start date of the fellowship, however there are no eligibility rules based on years since PhD or whether the applicant currently holds a permanent/open-ended academic position or job role. Applicants who have already achieved research/innovation independence (for example, by securing funding aimed at this career stage) will not be competitive.

How to apply

  • Contact your Department of interest as early as possible for initial discussions (some Departments have specific strategic research areas they want to recruit in - see the sections below for details - or local processes)
  • Complete the short online application form by 17 April, midday and upload where indicated within the form:
  • Submitted forms will be shared with the relevant departments for consideration. Incomplete forms will not be considered.

Useful information

  • Where multiple submissions are made to the online application form, the last complete submission will be taken as the final version.
  • If you use the same device and browser, you can resume a partly finished application rather than start from the beginning. 
  • Online application form content:
    • Name and email
    • Current position and institution/employer
    • PhD awarded/expected date
    • Project title
    • Project area of research/innovation and most closely related UKRI council
    • Proposed host department
    • Demographic information (voluntary disclosure)

Next steps

  • Applicants will be contacted by departments to discuss their request for support.
  • Faculties will work with departments to shortlist their chosen candidates and a final central panel will select the 8 candidates Imperial is permitted to support. Final decisions will be communicated by the end of May. 
  • Chosen candidates will be supported to apply to UKRI. 
    • Full stage - deadline 4 July (letter of support from College required)

Imperial Departments

UKRI view it positively when the host institution makes clear statements about how the candidate may fit into their strategic vision/commitment to the specific research area. To facilitate this, individuals interested in applying for a FLF hosted at Imperial should initially approach their department of interest as soon as possible to ensure their research aligns to its strategic aims. Some departments have also declared particular areas in which they would be willing to host a fellow, or might have local processes for this scheme prior to the central application.

Note: Departments in the Faculty of Engineering are limiting their shortlisting to two candidates each. Please get in touch with your proposed host department as soon as possible to check their local shortlist selection process. 

Faculty of Engineering

Aeronautics

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas, with a particular interest in Sustainable Aviation Technologies, Systems Engineering and Optimisation, and Scientific Machine Learning and data-driven Aerospace Engineering (General contact - Sian Haynes)

Bioengineering

The Department will only be considering applications from internal academic staff in all relevant research areas (General contact - Bioengineering Fellowship Support Team)

Chemical Engineering

The Department will only be considering applications from internal academic staff in all relevant research areas (General contact - Anusha Sri-Pathmanathan)

Civil & Environmental

The Department will only be considering applications from internal academic staff in all relevant research areas (General contact - Sarah Willis)

Computing

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Peter Pietzuch)

Faculty of Engineering 2

Design Engineering

The Department will only be considering applications from internal academic staff in all relevant research areas (General contact - Natalia Goehring)

Earth Science & Engineering

The Department will only be considering applications from internal academic staff in all relevant research areas (General contact - Matt Jackson)

Electrical & Electronic

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Rob Millwood)

Materials

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Claire Tibble)

Mechanical Engineering

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to the following strategic research topics:

  • Affordable and Clean Energy, including: future vehicle technology, propulsion, drive trains, lightweight construction; power generation, net zero, thermal management, nuclear power.
  • Responsible Consumption and Production, including: sustainable manufacturing, environmentally friendly materials, recycling and life cycles;  infrastructure, life extension, fire mitigation.
  • Good Health and Wellbeing, including: medical robotics, imaging, sensing, affordable healthcare.

 (General contact - Nina Hancock)

Faculty of Medicine

Brain Sciences

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Chrystalla Orphanides)

Immunology and Inflammation

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Chrystalla Orphanides)

Infectious Disease

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Chrystalla Orphanides) 

Institute of Clinical Sciences

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Peter Norsworthy)

Faculty of Medicine

Metabolism, Digestion & Repro

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Chrystalla Orphanides)

NHLI

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to the following research areas (General contact - Alun Owen)

  • Vascular, myocardial and lung cell biology
  • Lung immunology, allergy and infection
  • Cardiac electrophysiology
  • Advanced therapies: genes, drugs, stem cells & devices
  • Population health: including environmental and occupational causes of heart, lung and vascular disease
  • Disease progression: early disease, repair, aging & fibrosis
  • Genomics, imaging, big data and artificial intelligence
  • Clinical trials: patient cohorts, volunteer studies, bioresources and trial design

NHLI has launched its strategic plan for 2019-2024 (PDF download) including our mission and aim. 

School of Public Health

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Lyndsey Pallant)

 

Surgery and Cancer

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas,  please ensure you have contacted the relevant Head of Division before starting an application (General contact - Rita Carvalho)

Faculty of Natural Sciences

Centre for Environmental Policy

The Department will only be considering applications from internal candidates in all relevant research areas (General contact - Anca Gourlay) 

Chemistry

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Sarah Al-Beidh) 

Life Sciences

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Stephen Brickley - Fellowships and Honours Committee)

Mathematics

The Department is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - Rusudan Svanidze)

Physics

The Department will only be considering applications from internal academic staff in all relevant research areas (General contact - Louise Hayward)

 

Business School

The Business School (Departments of Finance; Economics and Public Policy; Management & Entrepreneurship; Analytics, Marketing and Operations) is willing to accept enquiries related to all relevant research areas (General contact - David Wilson)