Deadline: 22-Oct-2025
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is requesting applications for its Personal Research Fellowships to focus on a research project of their choice for up to twelve months.
The award provides funding for the appointment of a temporary replacement to enable the awardee to take research leave, either in their own institution or elsewhere, whilst remaining in continuous employment with their present employer. In addition to funding the salary for the replacement member of staff (including on costs), this grant funds research costs for the awardee.
Applicants for the RSE Personal Research Fellowships must be early or mid-career researchers. An early career researcher is defined as being within seven years of both the award of their PhD and their first academic appointment. The program makes allowances for career breaks, such as up to 18 months of parental leave per child or periods of long-term medical absence. Mid-career academics are defined as being no more than 15 years from the award of their doctorate, not including breaks in career.
To be eligible, applicants must be existing academic staff on open-ended or continuing contracts at a higher education institution, further education institute, research institution, or cultural institution in Scotland. Those on fixed-term contracts must ensure their contract extends for at least three months after the project’s end date. All applicants must pursue their research at an eligible host institution in Scotland. The research project itself can be in any academic discipline. Additionally, a new application will not be considered if a report on a previous RSE award is overdue.
The award funds the salary of a replacement staff member, up to a maximum of £52,000 including on-costs, and provides up to £5,000 for research costs. Eligible research costs include consumables and research-related travel, while ineligible costs include equipment and research assistants. Upon appointment, awardees must devote themselves 100% of their contracted hours to the research project, with allowances made for graduate supervision and limited research-related administration.
Applications for this award close on October 22, 2025, at 12 noon. Applicants will be notified of the outcome by the end of January 2026, and a public announcement of the awards will be made in February 2026. The start date for successful projects can be from March 1, 2026, to August 31, 2026. A new application will not be considered if a report for a previous RSE award is overdue.
For more information, visit RSE.