ESRC DTP Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025

The Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership (GUDTP) is pleased to invite applications for ESRC-funded Postdoctoral Fellowships to commence 1 October 2025. They will be based at one of our three partner institutions: Brunel University London, The Open University or the University of Oxford.

For 2025, the Expression of Interest stage which was trialled last year will be used again. There has been a change to candidate eligibility criteria and applicants are no longer required to have completed their PhD at a DTP institution, but can have completed their PhD at any UK Institution.

Fellowships are aimed at those in the immediately postdoctoral stage of their career. Salaries will be commensurate with this early career researcher stage. The grant gives fellows the opportunity to consolidate their PhD research through developing publications, networks, and professional skills.

Proposals are welcome from single or multi-disciplinary backgrounds but the fellowship activities must be aligned to one of the Grand Union DTP’s 23 Thematic Pathways and be based at least 50% within the social sciences.

The DTP expects to award a total of four one-year Fellowships across the three partner institutions.

Information about the Call and FAQs are available here: Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership Postdoctoral Fellowships.
 

Grants will cover salary costs, and candidates can apply for up to £10,000 to support mentoring costs and additional research activity (eg. travel conference attendance, training, and fieldwork). As a general guide, mentor costs will be around £4,000 and candidates can apply for around £6,000 for additional activity. 

Fellows must be based in a Department or academic unit that is a host for the relevant pathway (these are listed on the individual pathway pages).

 

Eligibility
The call is open to applicants who have completed their PhD at a UK research organisation, and the fellowship must be held at a UK research organisation that is part of a DTP. Applicants are eligible for funding whether or not they are established members of the research organisation at which they are applying. Applicants are not required to have previously held an ESRC-funded scholarship in order to be eligible to apply. 

To be eligible applicants must:

  • At the application submission deadline (25 March 2025), either have been awarded a PhD or have submitted their thesis and passed their viva voce with minor corrections, with the expectation that the PhD will be awarded by the fellowship start date (expected to be 01 October 2025).
  • Grants are restricted to those with no more than 12 months of active postdoctoral experience. This is measured from the applicant's viva voce pass date to the application deadline of 25 March 2025.

SAME Application Process 2025

The School is able to nominate one application to this scheme. We will therefore be running a departmental selection process.

Candidates must first ensure that they meet the Grand Union DTP eligibility requirements for this call (see above). Candidates must also seek and approach a mentor or sponsor who is an academic member of the School who is willing and able to act as a mentor during the duration of the fellowship.

Candidates must then submit the following documents to research@anthro.ox.ac.uk by midday on 20th January 2025:

  • The Expression of Interest Application Form found on the Grand Union DTP page here
  • A statement of support from the proposed SAME mentor (maximum 1 side A4)
  • A covering email, detailing your doctoral institution, date of PhD completion, and to which of the Grand Union DTP’s 23 thematic pathways the proposal will be aligned.

Candidates who wish to be hosted at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME) are welcome to get in touch with us at research@anthro.ox.ac.uk with any questions. Prospective mentors are also welcome to contact us to clarify what the role involves.

Applicants will be informed by 21st February 2025 whether or not they have been selected by the School to submit an application in full to the GUDPT.
 

Timeline for selected candidate:

If invited by the School to submit a full application, the SAME Research Support team will work with the nominee to complete a full application by the GUDTP deadline of 25th March 2025. The GUDTP will not accept applications submitted directly by candidates who have not been selected by a host department. Applicants will need to submit 9-10 documents with their application. 

In order to support ESRC equality and diversity monitoring, full stage applicants are also asked to complete and return an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form, separately to the main application. Information received will be anonymised, will not form part of any selection process and will not be disclosed to the selection panel or department/academic unit.

The Grand Union DTP will peer review the proposals and make funding decisions on behalf of the ESRC by end of June 2025. ESRC funded fellowships will then commence on 1 October 2025.

Some general pointers to bear in mind whilst completing the application:

    • The Fellowship is not for applicants who wish to hold the fellowship and continue other employment. The exception to this is applicants whose PhD was undertaken on a part-time basis alongside permanent part-time employment, and wish to continue this arrangement.
    • Feedback from the ESRC has indicated that in some instances they felt the mentor statement appeared to be more of a personal statement of support rather than articulating the proposed mentoring arrangements.
    • As part of your application, please consider details relating to the Data Management Plan. A Data Management Plan is required for any new dataset which is created during the fellowship.
    • If applications propose new research, the work plan should clearly show that all activity related to new research does not exceed 25% of the total fellowship time.