The EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship scheme is intended to help universities recruit and retain the very best newly qualified doctoral (eg PhD, EngD) students, and help them launch careers in research.
UCL is currently inviting applications for Fellows to start in April 2025.
For this round, there will be two Doctoral Prize schemes running: the standard Doctoral Prize Fellowship and the Impact Acceleration Doctoral Prize Fellowship (IAF).
Fellowships may be held in any Faculty or Department within UCL, provided that the research proposed lies within the EPSRC Themes (
https://tinyurl.com/37pfa2cz) and Research Areas (
https://tinyurl.com/43tp4vmn). The list of UCL Faculty websites (
https://tinyurl.com/yzz9r6cw) may help you to find more information and contact details for their constituent departments.
We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic candidates, who are currently under-represented within UCL at this level.
Eligibility
Any student who received EPSRC funding support during their doctoral study (DTP, DTP-CASE, I-CASE, CDT, and CDT incorporated) at a UK institution is eligible to apply. Their funded studentship must have ended no earlier than 31-Dec-2023.
The award requires the Fellow to have submitted their thesis prior to the start of the award (21-Apr-2025) and no earlier than 31-Dec-2023. Candidates who have not yet submitted their thesis at the time of application are still eligible, but they must have submitted their thesis prior to the Fellowship start date, and the supervisor’s letter of support must clearly state the expected submission date. Where the PhD viva has not taken place before the start of the Fellowship, the outcome must be an outright pass or pass with minor corrections otherwise the Fellowship offer will be withdrawn.
Applicants who finished their funded studentship period or submitted their thesis for examination before 31-Dec-2023 are NOT eligible.
Funding
Funding is available for a maximum of two years. Successful candidates will be asked to submit a progress report mid-way through their appointment.
As newly qualified Postdoctoral Researchers, Fellows will be appointed to Grade 7 point 30 on the UCL salary scale.
Non-salary costs are available for research expenses (e.g. facilities use, consumables), travel (e.g. visits to collaborators, conferences), and outreach activities (e.g. public engagement, knowledge transfer). A guide figure for non-salary costs is £10k per annum (p.a.). However, due to the breadth of subject areas that may be funded by the EPSRC, this is expected to vary between Fellows, and the requested costs should be appropriate to the proposed project. Projects that require very little in the way of physical resources are expected to request less funds, while higher requests can be approved where needed for projects when accompanied by strong justification.
How to Apply
For full details on how to apply, please see the UCL EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowships call webpage (
https://tinyurl.com/29tfc6a4). Prospective applicants should ensure they contact their proposed host department for support in preparing and submitting their application.
All applications must be submitted by 13:00 on 16 January 2025.
