NINE DTP postdoctoral fellowships are aimed at those in the immediately postdoctoral stage of their career, to provide the opportunity to consolidate their PhD through developing publications, their networks, and their research and professional skills.

Full details about the fellowship scheme can be found on the ESRC’s Call Specification and FAQ pages.

Fellowship purpose

Unlike some postdoctoral fellowships, this scheme is designed to help recent PhDs consolidate their recently completed doctoral work, e.g. through developing publications, establishing networks, and implementing impact-orientated activities. (See the Call Specification for a more extensive list of potential ‘consolidation’ activities.) Fellows may devote a maximum of 25 percent of their time to new research.

Eligibility

Applicants must have received their PhD from a UK Research Organisation. Specifically, they must have taken had their viva (and either passed or passed with minor revisions) no later than 16 May 2024, and they also may have had no more than 12 months of postdoctoral research experience. For the 2024 competition, there will be a small pool of candidates who did not have their viva voce in time to be eligible for the 2023 competition but will now have more than 12 months of active postdoctoral experience by this year’s closing date of 16 May 2024. In these specific circumstances only, candidates may be considered eligible with up to a maximum of 14 months active postdoctoral experience. Successful candidates must also meet conditions for employment at the university where they will be carrying out their fellowship, as well as securing a valid visa or work permit, if required.

Mentoring

A key component of the fellowship is mentorship from a permanent member of staff at the institution hosting the postdoctoral fellowship (this can be any of the seven institutions within NINE DTP). To identify a potential mentors, in addition to perusing department webpages, you may wish to consult relevant pathway leads at the institution(s) you are considering. Pathway leads can be identified via our Pathways page.

Benefits

This one-year (two-year if part-time) fellowship provides salary (generally at Point 30 on the national Higher Education pay-scale, set at £37,099 for 2023-24). In addition, fellows may budget £10,000 for other costs including mentoring costs, travel and subsistence, conference attendance, training, and fieldwork.

Applications

Applications must include:

• Application form
• Case for support
• Justification of resources (budget justification)
• CV
• List of publications (references from case for support)
• Head of department statement
• Mentor statement and summary CV
• Referee statement
• Workplan
• Data management plan
• Data sharing consent form
• Equal opportunities monitoring form (submitted separately, online)

Further instructions on each of these components can be found in the ESRC Call Specification.

Applications must be submitted as a single PDF file to [email protected] no later than 4pm (UK time) on 16 May 2024.

Assessment

Applications will be assessed according to six criteria (each of which is described further in the ESRC Call Specification):

• Quality of work programme
• Value for money
• Mentoring arrangements
• Impact and outputs
• Consideration of ethical issues
• Data management plans

An initial panel, consisting of pathway leads from the institution at which you are hoping to undertake your placement, will use these criteria as well as a seventh criterion of ‘overall assessment’ to select a shortlist to forward on to the NINE DTP fellowship panel. The NINE DTP panel – the seven NINE DTP directors – with further input from external reviewers as well as a university impact officer, will then announce awards in July 2024. We anticipate making a minimum of four awards across NINE DTP.