Here are just a few notes on the stages to go through for fellowship application (NOTE: this is a work in progress and some stages are only relevant if you are working in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Glasgow):
- Read fellowship guidelines (e.g. here for STFC Rutherford Fellowship, or here for Royal Society University Research Fellowship, or here for the RSE/Scottish Government Personal Research Fellowship). Make sure to note the project deadline and any specific details of how much equiqment/travel expenses can be claimed, how many references are required and how the references should be submitted.
- Discuss applying with line manager/research group leader/school head (either locally or at the institution that you wish to apply at). Note that for some fellowships e.g. the STFC Rutherford Fellowhip, schools/departments have maximum quotas of applications that are allowed, so discuss whether you can be one of the quota.
- Download and fill in a “costings request form” from R&E. Fill in:
- Funder Name
- Project type/scheme
- URL of the scheme (see above)
- Project start date (generally 1st October of the following year)
- Duration (generally 5 years)
- List yourself as the PI and put 100% for %age split and %age of time (provided that this is true for the application!)
Remember to fill in travel and equipment budget on second page (the amounts are based on what can be applied for in the fellowship, but think a bit about how you want to split this rather than just putting the maximum possible value in for each year). Email the form to grants@gla.ac.uk.
- Start the application, which often is through an online application form. For the UK research council applications you apply via the Je-S system, and the for Royal Society you apply through the e-GAP system, so if you have not applied before create a new account. For the Je-S system once logged in click on “Documents” and then under the “Create” section click “New document”, you can then select the fellowship you want to apply for. For the e-GAP system once logged in click on “Schemes” find e.g the Royal Society URF scheme and click apply.
- R&E should send you a draft version of your Project Approval Form (PAF) [which contains all the fellowship costings]. Once you have checked this over they will send you a final version. Print this out and take it to one of the school’s research coordinators (currently Sheila Rowan and Andy Harvey) who can double check it and initial it. Once that is done take it to Lynne Stewart to be signed by the head of school (currently Martin Hendry). It finally needs to be signed by the college, so you can either ask Lynne to pass it on, or take it to the college office in the Boyd Orr Building. Once signed it can be returned to R&E.
- R&E need to fill in the finance details of your application. For the online forms you can share the application with R&E staff. For the e-GAP process once in your application click on the “Share Application” button and then “Add Share” – enter the email address grants@gla.ac.uk and then share the relevant section with “Ms Grants Managers”(!). For the Je-S system hover over the “Document Actions” button and click “Administer User Access” then add an editor using the email address of the R&E person you have been dealing with.
- Generally applications require two major sections: a research proposal (e.g. what you’re going to do during the fellowship) and a lay report (e.g. background and context of your field and summary of your research project in laymans/non-specialist terms). Read the fellowship application guidelines to find out requirements for page length/word (or character) counts, and font/font size/border size for these. Often these can either be entered directly into the webform or uploaded as pdfs (which is generally the best way to go about it). Currently for the Royal Society URF the research proposal is a maximum of two sides of A4 with minimum font size of 10pt Arial. For the STFC fellowship the research proposal is a maximum of three sides of A4 with a minimum font size of 11pt Arial and maximum border sizes of 2cm.
- Get someone, or multiple people, to independently read over your application. Feedback is always useful. For lay reports it is especially useful to get someone from out of your field to check it and make sure it’s exciting and lacks technical jargon.
- Submit the form with adequate time to spare. Once you submit email R&E as the application’s not actually submitted until they have signed it off. Give them time to check for any mistakes/omissions, so you can add/correct them. DON’T wait until 5pm on the deadline day to submit.