Pre-announcement – Restricted Call: Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships 2022-23_Round 2

Pre-announcement – Restricted Call: Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships 2022-23_Round 2 (internal deadline: 12pm on 06 February 2023)

Full details for Round Two are not yet available as the call will open on 25 January 2023. This communication is to bring the scheme to your attention to allow candidates sufficient time to prepare strong applications. The University’s internal selection process for Round Two will be confirmed once the call opens in January 2023.

The Royal Society plans to open Round Two of their 2022-23 Wolfson Fellowships scheme in January 2023. The programme is to enable UK Universities to strategically recruit and attract outstanding international researchers to the UK’s scientific community. This can be achieved through one of the following routes:

• A five-year Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship

This strand focuses entirely on recruitment, enabling UK institutions to enhance their offering with a £300,000 fellowship award to international research leaders wishing to relocate to the UK. The funding can be used flexibly to conduct high-quality research as part of their start-up package. The funding can cover salary enhancement of up to 20%, research expenses at 100% fEC, research assistants at 80% fEC, 4-year PhD studentships, and other justified research costs.

• A 12-month sabbatical Visiting Fellowship

This strand allows excellent international researchers a flexible 12-month sabbatical period at a UK university with an award of up to £125,000 to build and develop international collaborations and networks with the host UK university. The fellowship can be held full time for 1 year or flexibly over 2 years – but the total period of the sabbatical must always amount to 12 months. The funding can cover bursary for visiting fellows up to £80k, research expenses including small equipment up to £10k, and other justified costs.

Eligibility for both strands:

• Applicants can be of any nationality.
• Research must be within the eligible subjects.
• The applicant must be currently based overseas.
• Candidates should be exceptional researchers at the peak of their career or established researchers whose career is on a steep upward trajectory.
• The Royal Society recognises that diversity is essential for delivering excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Society 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.

Note on funding:

Please note that the funding might not cover salary on-costs and might require potential commitment to cover the shortfall by the hosting department.

Assessment criteria:

Internal applications will be assessed using the Royal Society criteria:

• Candidate’s track record.
• The strength of the strategic case for the nomination and fit to the University’s research strategy.
• The high quality and originality of the candidate’s proposed research vision – including the potential impact of the research and benefit to the UK science base.
• Visiting Fellowships only: The mutual benefit to the University and the researcher, including potential to develop ongoing international collaborative links.

University Internal selection:

Institutions nominating more than one candidate across both strands will be expected to: (1) make a strong case against the organisation’s strategic priorities, (2) outline internal selection process to the funder, and (3) detail what other support (direct or in-kind) will be provided to the applicants. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure.

We anticipate asking interested departments to complete an online selection form by 12pm on 06 February 2023. The full requirements for the internal process as well as the link to the online submission form will be provided once the call opens in January 2023. For now, for your information and convenience, the attached document outlines the questions we anticipate requesting for the internal selection process.

Funder’s indicative deadline: 23 March 2023

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.

Posted on 13/12/2022