Restricted Call: Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships 2026, Round 2 (internal deadline: 28 April 2026)
Round 2 of the Royal Society’s 2026 Wolfson Fellowships scheme will be opening on 06 May 2026, and the University’s internal selection process will now commence.
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:
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. Award holders are expected to hold a full-time post at the University.
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. The scheme requires for the candidate to be employed at an overseas institution.
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 talented researchers with a proven track record for high quality scientific research. This may include, as appropriate: a strong publication record, being invited to conferences as keynote speaker and evidence of scientific leadership and/or supervising or mentoring junior researchers.
- 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.
Recent changes to the 5-year Fellowship strand
- Candidates no longer need to have a formal offer of employment at the point of application. However, award holders will still be expected to be offered (the equivalent of) a permanent post at a UK institution. This intention should be clearly stated in the institutional letter of support.
- Overseas researchers who have arrived in the UK prior to the application deadline will now be eligible to apply for the scheme, with the expectation that they would not normally have been in the UK for more than six months prior to the round closing deadline. A justification will be requested for applicants already based in the UK at the point of application.
- Award holders can now start their Fellowship up to one year from the offer of award being made, allowing flexibility on moving dates and all the arrangements that need to occur to enable a significant move to the UK.
- The contract start date no longer needs to correlate with the award start dates.
- Check the 2026 Round 2 scheme notes on the Royal Society website (when available) for more details of when Fellowships are expected to commence.
Note on funding: Please note that this funding (both strands) cannot be used to cover salary on-costs (employer’s NI and pension contributions) or Estate and Indirect costs directly associated with the Fellow.
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, supervise or mentor junior researchers, share ideas and practice.
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.
If interested in nominating a candidate, departments are requested to complete our online form by 28 April 2026. If asked to log-in, please use your University SSO/Raven details.
Internal deadline: 28 April 2026
Funder deadline: 01 July 2026
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk
Posted on 21/04/2026
