Joint Application Scheme for Early Career Research Fellowships

Churchill College Competition

Welcome to the Churchill College, Clare College, Fitzwilliam College, Murray Edwards College and Trinity Hall Joint Application Scheme for Early Career Research Fellowships 2025.

This year five colleges invite applications for ten Early Career Research Fellowships which will normally be tenable for three years from 1 October 2025. For more information regarding Fellowships on offer this year, please click here. Early Career Research Fellowships are initial (normally) post-doctoral positions appropriate to the start of an academic career.

Applications must be received online by 5.00pm on Monday, 11th November 2024. Referees' references must be received online no later than 5.00pm on Monday, 18th November 2024. Incomplete applications will NOT be accepted. Please make sure that your application and your references reach us before the respective closing dates.

To apply, you are required to register. This enables you to save your application and revisit/edit it before submitting, or to check its status. It is recommended that you register as soon as possible.

To register, please go to the Application Registration page.

Competition Details

Eligibility Requirements

  • Early Career Research Fellowships are open to graduates of any university who have recently or are about to complete their doctorates.
  • Candidates would normally be expected to have completed no more than 5 years full time equivalent post-doctoral research. Research Fellowships will not normally be awarded to people who have held comparable post-doctoral positions.
  • Successful candidates will normally have submitted their theses by the commencement of the Fellowship.
  • The statements of research should be no more than 1,000 words outlining the work candidates would submit in support of their applications, if requested, and the research they propose to do if elected. Please note that it will be read by people outside, as well as within, the candidate's own discipline and should therefore be intelligible to scholars in other subjects.
  • Candidates must provide details for two referees who have agreed to submit a reference through the website by 5.00pm on Monday, 18th November 2024. The referees should be familiar with the work to be submitted and one should normally be your PhD supervisor.
  • Candidates are advised that they are responsible for checking their eligibility to take up the post under UK immigration rules.
  • The application must be submitted online by 5.00pm on Monday, 11th November 2024.

Written Work

  • Written material is not required at this stage, but it is essential to have written work readily accessible, because those candidates whose applications are selected for further assessment will be invited by 10th January 2025 to submit a copy of their chosen written work electronically. This must be received no later than 10.00am on Monday, 13th January 2025. Please ensure that your contact details on your application are kept up to date (preferably giving your e-mail and phone details).
  • The Colleges are concerned with the quality, rather than quantity, of the work submitted but, in order that an informed assessment may be made, it is important that sufficient material should be available. The work for submission to external assessors should be in the region of 10,000 words and no more than 12,000 words at the absolute maximum. This limit does not include references or figure legends, but does include footnotes and endnotes.
  • Submitted work should normally be in English but if candidates intend to submit work in a foreign language, they should give notice by indicating this on the Application Form where they enter the title of the work.

Fellowship Details

  • For more information regarding Fellowships on offer this year, please click here.

Application Timetable

  • The application process begins on Friday, 11th October 2024.
  • The application must be submitted through the website by 5.00pm on Monday, 11th November 2024. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
  • Two references must be submitted through the website by 5.00pm on Monday, 18th November 2024.
  • Candidates who are selected to send samples of written work, must do so by 10.00am on Monday, 13th January 2025.
  • Candidates will be called to interview in early March 2025.
  • Elections will be made no later than the week commencing 21st March 2025.
  • Successful candidates will enter into their Fellowships on 1st October 2025.