Deadline: 7-Sep-22
The British Academy is inviting Applications for Mid-Career Fellowships to indicate ways in which their proposed programme will contribute to advances in understanding, including public understanding, of their subject area and to the identification of appropriate strategic priorities in the social sciences and humanities.
The Mid-Career Fellowships are designed both to support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding and engagement with humanities and social sciences.
Aims
- The aim of the scheme is to allow successful applicants to obtain time freed from normal teaching and administrative commitments.
- The time bought by the scheme should be devoted to the completion of a major piece of research. In addition, the Academy will look for evidence of a clear commitment to a strategy of public engagement and communication of the research outcomes during the period of the Fellowship.
- The scheme thus contributes to the Academy’s strategic commitment to the support of ideas, individuals and intellectual resources and to public engagement. Awards will be judged both on the quality of the research proposed and on the capacity of the applicant to communicate with abroad audience.
- The Fellowships are tenable for a period of not less than 6 months and not more than 12 months beginning in the autumn of 2023.
Scope
- The awards support outstanding individual researchers and outstanding communicators who will promote public engagement and understanding of the humanities and social sciences.
- Applicants will be asked in their proposal to set out specific plans for the dissemination of their research to a broad audience, in addition to publication in the usual academic press and journals.
- Awards will be judged both on the excellence of the research proposed and on the capacity of the applicant to communicate with a broad audience.
Level of Grant
- The total value of the Fellowship, including Directly Incurred Salary, Directly Incurred Research Expenses, Directly Allocated (Estate Costs) and Indirect Costs is not expected to exceed £200,000 at 100% FEC.
- These Fellowships are covered under the Full Economic Costing (FEC) regime, but the Academy’s contribution to the salary of the Mid-Career Fellow will be capped at an upper limit of £80,000.
- It is not expected that the total value of an award will exceed £160,000 (BA contribution to FEC). Awards can be held over a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 12 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- These Fellowships are awards to individuals employed at UK universities or other UK institutions of higher education, and the Academy is looking particularly to support mid-career scholars.
- The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s physical age or current status in determining eligibility for these awards.
- Rather, these awards are intended primarily to provide opportunities for scholars who have already published works of intellectual distinction or have established a significant track record as an excellent communicator and ‘champion’ in their field, and who are normally within no more than 15 years from the award of their doctorate.
- In considering eligibility, the Academy will make due allowance for applicants who have had career breaks, and for established scholars who do not have doctorates.
- Applicants will be asked in their proposal to set out specific plans for the dissemination of their research to a broad audience, in addition to publication in the usual academic press and journals.
Note: There is no ‘minimum’ time limit from the award of the doctorate for the Mid-Career Fellowship scheme, but applicants who have been awarded their PhD within the last few years should bear in mind that they will be competing with those who will have a whole range of experience so they would need to have a strong case in terms of their track record of research, publication and public engagement already to be sure it is worth applying for a Mid-Career Fellowship.
For more information, visit https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/mid-career-fellowships/