Fellowships are prestigious funding awards for individuals to enable challenging transitions or targeted capability development. They provide the fellow freedom to undertake activities, over at least 12 months, that require significant focused time (between 0.5 and 1 full time equivalent) to achieve the proposed outcome.
As part of our Collective Talent Funding programme we are improving our fellowship offer by creating a fellowship investment framework to:
- make fellowship funding easier for applicants to understand and award holders to manage
- make it easier to respond to emerging opportunities and widen fellowship support
- reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency of application and delivery
To achieve this the framework will:
- align award types
- simplify fellowship characteristics
All fellowships specify the criteria and application process in the funding opportunity. The improvements from the framework will not change how you find and apply for fellowships.
Types of fellowship
The framework will categorise all fellowships as one of three types. This will apply to all fellowship funding opportunities across UKRI including those managed within councils. The types will give each fellowship a distinct purpose and make it easier for applicants to decide on the right opportunity.
Our fellowship framework diagram shows how the different fellowship types listed support researchers at different stages of their career to achieve the intended outcomes.
Type 1: Career transition
This includes fellowships that support individuals to:
- combine their professional activity, such as clinical duties, with completing a doctorate to enable a research career, for example a Professional PhD
- establish their own research niche and evidence of independence, for example an Early Independence Fellowship
- establish themselves as independent leaders in a research area, for example a Future Leaders Fellowship
Type 2: Capacity building and discipline transition
This category is for fellowships which will boost the research and innovation capacity in a specific research area. It includes:
- supporting movement between disciplines
- further skills development after doctoral level qualification,
- reskilling to rapidly build capability in priority areas
Type 3: Sector transition
Fellowships which transfer knowledge or skills across sectors to enable new approaches. This is usually temporary, fixed term mobility of individuals to enable the transfer of knowledge and skills between sectors. For example, someone from industry moving into academia or an academic focusing on knowledge exchange with industry partners.
Fellowship characteristics
Existing UKRI fellowships vary, the framework will not be applied retrospectively. Over time, the Fellowship Investment Framework will allow us to simplify and align characteristics across all UKRI fellowships. By using common principles, the framework will make sure fellowships:
- adopt standardised fellowship eligibility criteria , so they are open to a diversity of research and innovation staff
- do not use time-bound individual eligibility criteria, such as placing limits on the time since completing a doctorate before applying for a fellowship
- embed support for diverse career paths and those returning to research and innovation after a career break
The framework will also widen access to leadership and development programmes, including those provided by the Future Leaders Fellows Development Network.
We will continue to work on simplifying and aligning other fellowship characteristics, including application question sets and assessment approaches.
When the changes will happen
We are developing and implementing the Fellowship Investment Framework in stages. The framework will be applied from late 2025 to any new UKRI fellowship opportunities including those managed by councils.
Existing UKRI fellowship schemes will come in line with the framework as the next associated funding opportunity opens. Where UKRI have funded longer-term investments with multiple intakes of fellows, we recognise that the framework may not apply until a new funding investment is made.
Last updated: 14 October 2025