Image: Grace Gay for Research Professional News
Successful mid-career researchers will get up to £8m over a 10-year period
The Royal Society is inviting candidates to submit bids for its Faraday Discovery Fellowships for “outstanding” mid-career Stem researchers.
Researchers can apply for grants of up to £8 million for a 10-year period to give them time and freedom to work on high-quality, original research.
Their primary area of research must be in the Royal Society’s remit of natural sciences, which includes, though not exclusively, biological research and biomedical sciences, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics.
Level of funding
Bids should come from researchers recognised in their field internationally who have 10-20 years of experience post-PhD, or equivalent research experience.
Ideally, they should have had changes of discipline or research direction, or time working on industrial research.
Candidates will be assessed on their track record as well as quality and vision of the proposed research, the society said.
Wide range of applications welcomed
“Diversity is essential for delivering excellence in Stem,” the society also said. It wants to “encourage applications from the widest range of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences to maximise innovation and creativity in science for the benefit of humanity”.
The closing date for CVs and a summary of proposals is 2 October and decisions on this first stage of the process will be made by 15 November. Selected applicants will then be invited to submit a full application, with decisions made on these by 31 July next year.
The Faraday Discovery Fellowships are supported through a £250m fund from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.