Imperial College Research Fellowships

The Imperial College Research Fellowship (ICRF) scheme is designed for outstanding early career researchers looking for an opportunity to focus on research and establish scientific independence.

About Imperial College Research Fellowships

Opportunity Details

Date Published: June 26, 2025
Application Deadline: August 18, 2025
Category: Fellowship
Oppotunity Locations: United Kingdom

The Imperial College Research Fellowship (ICRF) scheme is designed for outstanding early career researchers looking for an opportunity to focus on research and establish scientific independence.

Imperial College London is promoting their exciting opportunity for outstanding early career researchers to develop independent research programmes as part of the Imperial College Research Fellowship (ICRF) scheme. They aim to recruit the best talent and encourage applications from researchers from all backgrounds, from all over the world, across research fields active at Imperial.

It is anticipated that applicants will be at the early stages of their research career and be able to demonstrate the potential to establish research independence. Candidates are expected to have no more than four years of post-doctoral research experience. Extensions to this time period will be considered in circumstances that support our commitment to diversity, a positive research culture and non-traditional career paths.

Fellowships must be based at Imperial College London (any of its campuses) or at fieldwork locations.

Fellows may spend up to twelve months in total visiting other research institutions and/ or in industry including overseas; the maximum time spent at any one institution being six months.

Key Dates

Closing date for applications: Monday 18 August 2025 (23:59 BST)
Review period: September to December 2025
Start date for fellowships: between 1 August 2026 and 1 December 2026

School: Imperial College London

Benefits of Imperial College Research Fellowships

As an ICRF you will receive a four-year fellowship which includes:

A competitive salary (£48,056 - £56,345 per annum)
A contribution toward research and travel costs (up to £45,000)
Personal mentoring support from a senior Imperial member of academic staff (sponsor)
Focused career support, training courses and development opportunities from the College's Early Career Researcher Institute
The chance to take full responsibility for setting and directing your own research agenda and career trajectory, with no obligatory teaching, and with the possibility of spending up to twelve months visiting other research institutions and/or in industry

Imperial College Research Fellowships Requirements

Applicants should have a PhD.
It is anticipated that applicants will be at the early stages of their research career and be able to demonstrate the potential to establish research independence.
Candidates are expected to be a maximum of PhD + 4 years (calculated from PhD defence date to scheme application deadline);
many successful candidates are 0-2 years post-PhD. Extensions to this time period will be considered in circumstances that support our commitment to diversity, a positive research culture and non-traditional career paths, e.g.

Career breaks for parental leave/sickness leave
Discipline hopping
Career change outside of research

A total of 4 years post-PhD research experience accounting for these circumstances is still the maximum permitted.

Application Date and Process

Step 1: Contact proposed sponsor and proposed host department

Candidates interested in applying are required to contact their proposed sponsor and proposed host department as early as possible, to discuss their intention to apply and to obtain information about any additional departmental deadlines and local processes. All applications made to the ICRF scheme will require departmental approval, and so early contact will also give departments the opportunity to consider and prepare for providing this approval. Candidates should refer to the departmental information below (Imperial Departments and Key Contacts) for more information. Note that some departments have their own internal deadline for an initial shortlisting of applications to decide which they will support for College-level submission.

Step 2: Prepare and submit application

Applications must be submitted via the Imperial Jobs website (ref: NAT01920). The following forms will be required as part of your application; please follow the file naming conventions stated in the templates and upload as PDFs. The Department approval obtained in Step 1 must be recorded on the ‘Research Proposal and Budget’ form.‌

Candidates are encouraged to write in the first person.

Section 1: Research Proposal and Budget (Word) (required)
Section 2: Imperial Sponsor Details (Word) (required)

Additional forms that must be uploaded as required:

Additional Publications List (Word) (optional)
Francis Crick Institute Co-sponsor Details (Word) (optional)
Research Collaborator letters of support (optional)

Signatures are required from the applicant (Section 1), Head of Department (Section 1) and Sponsor (Section 2)

Signatures may be electronic or original. Typed signatures are not accepted.
Applications without the required signatures will not be accepted.

Step 3: Confidential reference letters

Each application must be supported by two confidential reference letters. These are mandatory.
⁠One reference letter must be from the applicant's current institution. Where the current institution is Imperial, the letter must be provided by someone other than the proposed sponsor or proposed host Head of Department.
The second reference letter should be from a referee who is well-placed to comment on the applicant's current abilities as a researcher.
As these letters are confidential, they must be submitted directly by the referees to the ICRF Office ([email protected]) by 23:59 (BST) on 18 August 2025. Letters will then be paired with the relevant application by the ICRF Office.
Letters should be sent in pdf format using file naming convention ‘APPLICANT SURNAME_ Ref_REFEREE SURNAME'
Applicants should use the relevant section of the online application form to provide the names of the referees, to aid the ICRF Office when matching the letters and application.

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