Please consult these Frequently Asked Questions before contacting us directly.
All ISRF initiatives are announced via our mailing list, and advertised on jobs.ac.uk and EURAXESS. We may also share news of competition launches and deadlines via our social media channels.
Eligibility for ISRF funding opportunities will be unaffected by Brexit. We continue to encourage applications from scholars working within Europe (geographically defined – so, including those at UK institutions).
The ISRF runs Independent Scholar Fellowship competitions aimed specifically at those doing academic work outside of academia. These awards are capped at £28,750 (or Euro equivalent, where applicable), and recipients will be asked to nominate a European (including the UK) academic institution with which they might be affiliated for the duration of their award period.
Applicants are not expected to arrange the affiliation themselves – this would be negotiated by the ISRF post-award decision. Applicants may choose not to fill in the section of the application form relating to the potential host institution – this will not prejudice their application. The nomination of a potential host institution is non-binding, for either the applicant or the institution.
With the ISF competition, the ISRF seeks to address the scholarly needs of non-academics. It is not meant to serve as a temporary alternative to regular academic employment (though successful applicants will be able to show a track record of pursuing academic research outside of academia). Whilst some Independent Scholar Fellowship recipients may subsequently move into an academic setting, the award is not intended for those between posts, or those within 12 months of PhD award (exceptions to the latter may be considered for late-career PhD’s).
Questions of eligibility should be directed to Stuart Wilson.
Independent Scholars are also eligible to apply for other ISRF Fellowship awards, such as the Early, Mid-Career, and Political Economy Fellowship competitions, if an Independent Scholar competition is not running. If doing so, two options are available:
1) Applicants may nominate a host institution willing to host them as a Visiting Fellow, with whom no employment relationship would exist. If successful, award monies would be processed via the host institution. Such applications should not exceed €31,500/£28,750. or
2) Applicants may nominate a host institution willing to employ them on (at least) a fixed-term research contract for the duration of the award. Such applicants could then, effectively, apply to be ‘bought out’ from said employment. Such applications should not exceed the budgetary limits set out for the relevant competition.
There is no limitation on nationality. However, with the exception of the Collaborative Fellowships competitions, the ISRF can only consider applications from those affiliated to a European institution.
PLEASE NOTE: No geographical constraint applies to the Collaborative Fellowships competitions – applicants can be affiliated to any academic institution, worldwide.
Eligibility criteria differ for each of the ISRF’s competitions. For the Independent Scholar Fellow competition, those who are employed in an academic position, whether part-time or full-time, are not eligible. For the First Book Grant, those who are in a permanent academic position, whether part-time or full-time, are not eligible, but those who are in a part-time, fixed-term academic position are.
For each of the ISRF’s other competitions, applications will be considered from those employed part-time, who may seek a buy-out either for that portion of their time, or full-time where the employer is willing to increase the contracted hours for (at least) the duration of the award period.
In all instances, eligibility criteria listed on individual competitions’ pages take precedence over general criteria listed here.
The ISRF will consider applications from those employed on fixed-term contracts (including postdocs), so long as the current contract covers (or would be extended to cover) the intended award period.
Such applicants – who will normally not be considered as Independent Scholars* – are advised to include an explanatory note in a cover letter, which may be uploaded as an additional attachment.
*Where an applicant holds a fixed-term position at time of application, but does not expect to be employed by a university or higher education institution during the intended award period, they may apply to Early, Mid-Career, Political Economy, or Collaborative Fellowship competitions on the following basis:
1) Applicants may nominate a host institution willing to host them as a Visiting Fellow, with whom no employment relationship would exist. If successful, award monies would be processed via the host institution. Such applications should not exceed €31,500/£28,750. or
2) Applicants may nominate a host institution willing to employ them on (at least) a fixed-term research contract for the duration of the award. Such applicants could then, effectively, apply to be ‘bought out’ from said employment. Such applications should not exceed the budgetary limits set out for the relevant competition.
The intention of the ISRF Fellowships is to allow researchers dedicated time, without competing priorities, to complete a piece of research which they might otherwise be unable to pursue.
If the budget limit does not allow for a full-time, 12-month buy-out, the ISRF would prefer to fund a full-time buy-out for a shorter period (i.e. 9 months at 1.0 FTE rather than 12 months at 0.75 FTE).
Joint applications may be considered, although this varies across competition categories.
Where allowed, there are two types of joint application that will be considered:
Co-applicants: whereby one application is submitted for a single project, with a total budget up to the limit set out for the relevant competition, wherein two applicants would work on the same project. In the event that the application is successful, both applicants would be awarded ISRF Fellowships. It is up to the applicants to decide how the budget will be split, and to detail this in the application – for example, a 50-50 split could see each applicant bought out for, say, six months. The total project duration should be no more than 12 months, but buy-out periods may overlap wholly or in part. The application should be submitted in the name of one of the PIs. CVs should be uploaded as one PDF file, and the project Title should begin ‘CoApp’.
Co-investigators: whereby separate applications are submitted, for discrete contributions to an overall project. The budget for each application may be up the limit set out for the relevant competition. The applications will be considered independently of each other, and neither, one or both may be awarded. Each individual project may last up to 12 months, and award periods may overlap wholly or in part. Each application should have the same Project Title, beginning ‘CoInv’.
The costs of Research Assistance (including, but not limited to, Research Assistants) may be included where absolutely necessary – justification must be given in the application, particularly the Methodology and Work Plan sections, and costings must be clearly indicated in the budget.
The budget for Research Expenses – including Research Assistants – will be considered by the Selection Panel in the event that your application reaches that stage of the assessment procedure. In the event that your proposal is awarded, the Selection Panel may, at their discretion, suggest revision of the Research Expenses budget.
Applicants may only submit one application for each competition.
The ISRF may, on occasion, run more than one competition at the same time. Where eligibility criteria are not mutually exclusive, applicants may submit an application for each competition, each containing a discrete project proposal. Such applications will be considered individually – however, multiple awards will not be made to the same applicant in one application period.
Please note, however, that Independent Scholars may only apply for one category of award in the event that an Independent Scholar competition runs concurrently with another category.
Unsuccessful applicants may re-apply for future competitions.
Successful applicants may not re-apply for the same category of award. They can apply for other ISRF competitions so long as they meet the relevant eligibility criteria.
Proposal-specific advice cannot be given to individual potential applicants.
The Academic Aims & Objectives of the ISRF, and details of previous awards, current and past fellows, and current and past projects, should offer sufficient guidance on the breadth of work the ISRF is interested in.
Broadly, the ISRF wishes to support independent-minded researchers to explore and present original research ideas which take new approaches, and suggest new solutions, to real world social problems.
The ISRF seeks to fund innovative research which breaks with existing explanatory frameworks so as to address afresh empirical problems with no currently adequate theory or investigative methodology. Innovation may also come from controversial theoretical approaches motivated by critical challenge of incumbent theories. Interdisciplinarity in the generation of new investigative initiatives may be achieved by combining, cross-fertilising, and so transforming empirical methods and theoretical insights from the social sciences. Projects ranging across the breadth of the social scientific disciplines and interdisciplinary research fields are welcome, and relevant applications from scholars working within the humanities are also encouraged.
In 2021-22, the ISRF is running a pilot for a competition specifically aimed at scholars who have recently completed their PhD and want to turn their thesis into a book. For more information, see the First Book Grant competition page.
The ISRF will normally consider applicants to have successfully completely their PhD once they have received formal confirmation that they have passed all their relevant exams. If your degree has not yet been formally conferred we will ask for a signed and dated letter (in English) from a relevant administrator confirming you have passed all of your exams and will be receiving your doctorate.
All awards are conditional upon acceptance of our Standard Terms & Conditions – click here for a draft version.
The ISRF Standard Charitable Revenue and Equity-Sharing Terms (as referred to in the ISRF Standard Conditions of Award) are available here.
Applicants may only submit one application for each competition.
The ISRF may, on occasion, run more than one competition at the same time. Where eligibility criteria are not mutually exclusive, applicants may submit an application for each competition, each containing a discrete project proposal. Such applications will be considered individually – however, multiple awards will not be made to the same applicant in one application period.
Please note, however, that Independent Scholars may only apply for one category of award in the event that an Independent Scholar competition runs concurrently with another category.
Sample proposal – from previously successful applicants – will be available with each new competition that launches.
For Early Career Fellowship proposals, see the project pages for:
For Flexible Grants for Small Groups proposals, see the project pages for:
For Independent Scholar proposals, see the project pages for:
Applicants are encouraged to upload a bibliography as an additional attachment. This will not count towards the word limit, but should be limited to two sides of A4.
As applications will be considered anonymously until the Selection Panel stage, it is advisable to avoid or minimize self-citation. If it is necessary to cite your own work, you should delete the names of authors and other identifying information and place substitute words in brackets, such as: [reference redacted to preserve anonymity].
As applications will be considered anonymously until the Selection Panel stage, it is advisable to avoid or minimise self-citation throughout the proposal and the bibliography. If it is necessary to cite your own work, you should delete the names of authors and other identifying information (such as article or book titles) and place substitute words in brackets, such as: [reference redacted to preserve anonymity]. You may choose to include details in your bibliography that cannot be used to infer your identity, such as the name of a journal or a publishing house that has published your work.
CVs need not be anonymised as these are not sent to external assessors.
A short CV will be sufficient – CVs should not exceed four pages.
The CV is the only required attachment (though a Bibliography is strongly advised). Applicants may choose to upload a Cover Letter, particularly if they do not directly meet the stated criteria.
This will vary for each institution – it may be a Head of School or Head of Department, or an administrative contact in the Research Office. Whomever is named will only be contacted in the event of a successful application – they may, at that stage, forward any communication on to a more relevant person.
No, by entering the details of a contact at your home institution, and subsequently submitting your application, you are deemed to have sought support for your application.
In the event that your application is successful, the ISRF will contact the named Institutional Approver to confirm that:
Such confirmation is not required at this stage – however, you may upload such a document as an additional attachment.
Unless otherwise indicated in the further particulars specific to any given competition, applicants seeking an affiliation in the UK must apply in GBP (£). All other applicants must apply in EUR (€). Budget limits in both currencies will be stated and fixed at the time of competition launch, and will not be adjusted in the event of GBP/EUR currency fluctuations.
Your budget should be as detailed as possible. Where applicable, a breakdown of salary costs should be given, along with details of salary grade/spine point – your HR or Payroll department should be able to provide this information.
Research Expenses should be itemised. Where matched funding is required as a condition of the award (a standard ISRF requirement for Early, Mid-Career and Political Economy Fellowships), the budget should detail all research expenses, followed by a calculation showing that the ISRF would be funding half (50%) of these.
For Early, Mid-Career and Political Economy Fellowship applications: if a replacement is employed at a lower salary level, that is the amount that should be requested. If no replacement is being employed, or if a replacement is employed at a higher salary level, the budget should cover the applicant’s salary.
The ISRF does not expect Flexible Grants for Small Groups applications to include a request for salary replacement.
The ISRF prefers not to fund overheads or indirect costs, and in many awards to date has not done so. Where these costs are unavoidable, the ISRF will consider Early, Mid-Career and Political Economy Fellowship applications which include them so long as they do not exceed 10% of the total funding requested. The ISRF does not expect Flexible Grants for Small Groups applications to include a request for overheads.
Eligible research expenses will vary depending on the nature of the proposed project. They may include, but are not limited to:
The costs of Research Assistance (including, but not limited to, Research Assistants) may be included where absolutely necessary – justification must be given in the application, particularly the Methodology and Work Plan sections, and costings must be clearly indicated in the budget.
The budget for Research Expenses – including Research Assistants – will be considered by the Selection Panel in the event that your application reaches that stage of the assessment procedure. In the event that your proposal is awarded, the Selection Panel may, at their discretion, suggest revision of the Research Expenses budget.
Applicants may detail their budget in the free-format text box, or may upload a separate document, or both (summary in the former, detail in the latter).
We have no standard format for budgets.
Please see our Assessment Procedure for more information on our selection process.
Applicants should contact Stuart Wilson if they wish to revise their proposal pre-deadline. Once the deadline has passed, updates to the Research Proposal (or attachments) will not be considered.
If your contact details change after you have submitted your proposal, please contact Stuart Wilson.
We aim to inform all applicants of the competition outcome within six months of the competition launch date. In the event that the process takes longer than expected, applicants will be notified by email.
All applicants – successful or otherwise – are notified of the outcome of their application once the Selection Panel has met and made formal recommendations for award.
Notifications are sent by email. Please check your spam folder if you think you might have missed our email – emails from our applications system arrive from [email protected]. To reply to these emails, please use the relevant competition email address or [email protected].
In the event that the selection process takes longer than expected, applicants will be notified by email.
The ISRF will contact your institution, for confirmation that:
Once this has been confirmed, and a start date agreed, the ISRF will issue an Award Letter, incorporating our Standard Terms & Conditions of Award.
Once successful applicants have been contacted and a proposed start date has been confirmed with the host institution, the ISRF will issue an official Award Letter incorporating the Terms & Conditions of award. This process should not be lengthy – as such, it is feasible† for the award period to begin one month after award notification.
†Dependent upon timely correspondence between all three parties (grantee, host institution and the ISRF).
Ordinarily, the ISRF expects that successful applicants will begin their project no later than 31st December of the year following notification. Specific details of the latest start date will be included in the relevant competition Further Particulars, and will be stated clearly in the competition Terms & Conditions.
Feedback on proposals is normally available for those whose applications reached the longlist stage and were reviewed by external assessors (see Assessment Procedure). Assessments will normally be shared with applicants anonymously.
We ask for your understanding that, given the number of applications, it is not possible to provide detailed feedback on every application.
Due to the number of applications received and the generally high standard, it is inevitable that good applications will not be awarded. The ISRF encourages unsuccessful applicants to consider, where available, feedback and to re-apply with updated proposals for future competitions. Please note, however, that the ISRF may change the eligibility criteria in between different iterations of the same competition.