You should ensure you are aware of and comply with any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place.
Applying using Je-S
You must apply using the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system.
We recommend you start your application early. You can save completed details in Je-S at any time and return to continue your application later.
When applying, select ‘new document’ then:
- council: STFC
- document type: fellowship proposal
- scheme: Ernest Rutherford Fellowship
- call/type/mode: ERF 2022.
Once you have completed your application, make sure you ‘submit document’.
You can find advice on completing your application in the Je-S handbook.
Your host organisation will also be able to provide advice and guidance on completing your application. Applicants may submit only one application to STFC for an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship per year.
STFC must receive your application by 13 September 2022 at 16:00.
You will not be able to apply after this time. Please leave enough time for your proposal to pass through your organisation’s Je-S submission route before this date.
Salary
You are advised to discuss and agree your starting salary with your proposed host institution, before your application is submitted.
The agreed salary should be in accordance with the institution’s standard recruitment and employment practices. The appointment level on the institution’s salary scale should be justified in the application.
The salary costs requested should include employer’s national insurance and superannuation contributions. Salary increments over the period of the fellowship should be taken into account, but not anticipated future pay awards.
STFC will award funds on the basis of the agreed salary scales at the time of announcement, with provision for future years increase on the basis of standard UKRI indexation rates. Once announced, the grant will not normally be increased to take account of different indexation rates.
Travel
Personal travel is taken to include necessary collaborative visits and fieldwork, and attendance at one conference workshop or symposium during each year of the fellowship. This excludes fieldwork and visits that form part of the work of a research group with which you may be associated.
If you are associated with an STFC research grant, you must ensure that any travel connected with the research project for which the grant was given is claimed from that source.
You should estimate in your application all personal travel and subsistence funds required during the lifetime of the fellowship. Travel and subsistence costs are expected to be around £2,000 per annum. If there are exceptional circumstances for applying for additional funding in excess of the guidance levels, justification will need to be made in your case for support.
Other costs
Applicants may request minor equipment and consumables up to a total of £5,000 for the duration of the fellowship under ‘directly incurred other costs’.
At the end of the fellowship, any resources purchased will belong to the institution. If there are exceptional reasons for applying for more than the guideline level, then justification of these costs should be included in your case for support.
STFC do not fund mentoring time and this cost should not be included in the funding costs.
Laptops may be costed where a new member of staff (for example, a fellow) who is employed purely for the grant will require this, or where a higher specification is required for the completion of specific grant related activities such as data modelling or enhanced graphics.
These costs should be applied for under ‘directly incurred other costs’.
Relocation and visas
Applicants moving to the UK from overseas to take up an award may request relocation and visa costs.
These costs should be applied for under the ‘directly incurred other costs’ heading on the proforma and are in addition to the £5,000 under ‘other costs’.
STFC will award a maximum of £1,200 if moving from Europe or £3,000 if moving from outside of Europe.
NHS surcharge payment is not an eligible cost as part of a visa application.
Publication costs
STFC will no longer provide funding in research grants for any publication costs associated with peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers.
UKRI provides direct funding to research organisations for this purpose. Publication costs associated with research outputs other than journal articles and conference papers, such as books, monographs, critical editions and catalogues, may, however, continue to be included in grants as a ‘directly incurred other cost’.
Any request for such costs will of course need to be fully justified in the case for support.
Directly allocated costs
Estates costs include building and premises costs, basic services and utilities and appear under the ‘directly allocated costs’ heading. Estates costs are calculated by the research organisation and a single figure will appear on the application.
Directly incurred costs
Costs that are explicitly identifiable as arising from the conduct of a project are charged as the
cash value actually spent and are supported by an auditable record. Ernest Rutherford Fellowships provide funds to cover your salary, the costs of personal travel and some minor equipment costs.
These should be requested under the ‘directly incurred costs’ heading. Applicants who are returning from a career break may also apply for funds for retraining and updating their skills where this can be justified in the context of the proposed research project.
Indirect costs
Indirect costs include the costs of administration, such as personnel, finance, library and some departmental services. Like estate costs, indirect costs will be calculated by the research organisation and a single figure will be entered on the application.
Mandatory attachments
As well as your application form, you must include the following PDF attachments:
- narrative CV template (DOCX, 69KB) (no other template will be accepted, maximum of four sides of A4)
- list of publications by year, which should not include presentations. List only those publications that have been submitted and not in progress
- case for support (maximum of four sides of A4)
- data management plan (maximum of two sides of A4).
All documents must be submitted as PDF attachments and must abide by the page limits (outlined above) and the restrictions on font size, font type and margins (described in STFC requirements).
These rules will be strictly enforced. STFC will reject a proposal if any of the documents submitted breach the rules on page limits, font size, font type or margins.
Proposals that are in breach of the application rules will not be returned for amendment. The only exception would be where a breach occurred because of issues downloading the proposal into UKRI systems.
No other documents will be considered and will be removed from the application.
See ‘how we will assess your application’ for the assessment criteria and where evidence of the competencies should be referenced.
Case for support
This should be a clear and concise description including the vision, aims and context of your proposed research (maximum length of four sides of A4 including references, diagrams, timelines and illustrations).
You should not duplicate material given in your narrative CV or publication list. You should focus on the assessment criteria and the competencies associated with these criteria.
The description of your proposed fellowship research should:
- describe the context and aims
- indicate the approach you intend to take and the timetable for your work, highlighting the excellence, timeliness, feasibility, distinctive vision and importance of your proposal.
You should set your programme of research in the wider international context and explain why you are the right person to do the work.
A separate ‘Pathways to Impact’ statement is no longer required, but applicants must still consider how they will or might achieve impact throughout their projects and include this as part of their case for support.
Learn more about impact funding.
Applicants should note that, whilst there are no set rules against including web links in the case for support, reviewers and panel members are under no obligation to follow them so they should not be used as a way to provide critical or additional information.
Data management plan
If your proposal is for a project that would result in the production or collection of scientific data, then a data management plan should be added as an attachment.
The data management plan should explain how the data will be managed over the lifetime of the project and, where appropriate, preserved for future re-use.
This is a mandatory requirement. Therefore, if a data management plan is not relevant to your proposal then an attachment explaining this should be uploaded to pass the Je-S validation requirement.
Learn more about including data management plans.
Narrative CV
You must submit the mandatory narrative template. No other CV will be considered.
No section or text in bold in the narrative CV should be deleted. However, all text attaining to the competencies that is in italic should be deleted as they are a reminder of what you need to include under each section.
The information you provide should be evidenced based and address the relevant criteria under ‘how we will assess your application’.
In section four ‘additional Information’, you should include any periods of:
- part-time working
- maternity, paternity or adoption leave
- parental leave
- disability
- ill-health
- childcare or other caring responsibilities.
Please be aware that any information provided will be shared with reviewers and panel members.
Career breaks
If your application has been affected by an earlier career break or other extenuating circumstances, please indicate this so that it can be taken into account in the assessment of your application.
Applicants should make clear any substantive periods of absence from research within their application and narrative CV. Further details on the nature of the absence and how it has affected track record, productivity and career progression may be provided, if desired.
Information will be used only to make appropriate adjustments when assessing an individual’s track record, productivity and career progression.
