International Fellowships 2023 guidance notes

18. This round of Fellowships will be for a duration of three years and the award is offered at 80% FEC. Applicants may apply for research expenses of up to £12,000 and relocation costs of up to £8,000. Applicants will need to justify the level of research expenses and relocation costs requested in their application. In exceptional circumstances, the Academy will consider bids for relocation costs above £8,000, however, this will require a full justification.

19. 80% FEC is understood in the following manner:

20. From this round onwards, the British Academy International Fellowship award holders will no longer be classified as visiting researchers on a stipend, but salaried employees. Award holders will receive a reasonable salary set by their host institution. Fellowships awarded in the 2023 round will be awarded for three years instead of two. These changes will help to enhance the awards that the Academy can offer, ensuring that we can continue to support and attract excellent international early career researchers to engage with the UK.

21. Changes to the British Academy International Fellowship are based on programme evaluations to attract outstanding early career researchers who wish to make a first step towards developing an independent research career through gaining experience across international borders. The Academy has secured additional funding from Government to trial extending the fellowship for a third year; a decision on whether to retain this change in subsequent years will be made in the next 12 months.

22. Funding may be sought to cover the following elements:

A contribution to the directly incurred salary costs of the award-holder at 80% FEC – the salary is to be negotiated between the applicant and the UK host institution. The Academy will be monitoring the proposed salaries from an equality, diversity, and inclusion perspective. Salaries should be commensurate with skills, responsibilities, expertise, and experience. It is expected that the requested basic salary for the first year will be comparable to academic staff at an equivalent career stage. Inflation should be applied to salaries by institutions with a justification provided for the level that they are using.
Estates and indirect costs – 80% of the award holder’s estates and indirect costs.
Research expenses at 100% including travel, field trips, subsistence, accommodation, consumables, training, conferences, dissemination, and one-off relocation and visa expenses.

23. Support for the cost of childcare will be considered as part of the allowable research expenses.

24. Consumables include the purchase of specialist software (not readily available at the UK host organisation), datasets, photocopies, microfilms, etc., and any other minor items that will be used up during the course of the award.

25. Travel related to progressing the research and/or innovation activities of the award is an eligible cost with relevant fieldwork in the UK or internationally being encouraged where appropriate. Applications, however, must be for awards based in the host organisation applied to where it is expected that the majority of the research supported will be undertaken.

26. The Academy expects award holders to minimise their travel and carbon footprint using alternatives where possible (for example video conferencing), and choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, where practical.

27. The following items are not eligible for funding (applicants registered with special needs may consult the Academy about possible exceptions prior to application):

salary costs for research staff/assistants;
salary costs, research expenses or other research support for the sponsor;
purchasing equipment;
open access fees;
computer hardware including laptops, electronic notebooks, digital cameras, etc;
books and other permanent resources;
the preparation of camera-ready copy, copy-editing, proof-reading, indexing, nor any other editorial task;
subventions for direct production costs (printing, binding, distribution, marketing etc);
costs of publication in electronic media;
carbon offsetting.

28. In addition, funding provided through the grant must not be duplicated through other sources.

29. All payments will be made quarterly in arrears in instalments directly to the UK host organisation.

30. The Academy reserves the right to reduce the funding requested if it does not consider the rates applied to be reasonable, such as in relation to inflation, research expenses and relocation costs.

37. The Academy welcomes applications from a diverse range of eligible UK host institutions. The award must be held at a UK institution recognised by the Academy. The following types of organisations will be eligible to apply to host the award:

Higher Education Institutes that received funding from one of the UK higher education funding bodies
Research institutes (RIs), for which research councils have established a long-term involvement as major funder as part of the national research base.
Approved relevant Independent Research Organisations.

38. The Academy is aware that individuals will have had different opportunities to balance their research with other commitments during their career. There is a question in the application form (the personal statement) that will enable applicants to provide further information on any significant periods of leave or any periods of significant teaching or administrative workload that may have impacted on their research, so the Academy can take this into account when assessing applicants’ track record.

39. Where applicants have taken formal periods of maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoptive leave as the primary carer (either the mother, father, partner, or adopter), or extended sick leave, the Academy will allow an additional amount of time on top of each period of leave when assessing eligibility.

40. Applications from individuals who have not studied or worked in the UK previously are encouraged as the scheme aims to establish new links between the applicant and the UK.

41. The Academy wishes to encourage applications from historically and/or structurally disadvantaged groups and female researchers.

42. Applications from researchers with disabilities are welcome and encouraged. The Academy will provide adjustments to ensure they can participate fully in the selection process. If an adjustment is required when accessing the application form or for any other part of the application process then please contact [email protected] In addition, costs that are required for the researcher to undertake their award will be considered eligible regardless to what is set out in paragraph 27 above. The Academy welcomes any questions applicants may have on this matter.

43. Applicants for the International Fellowships must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Applicants must hold a doctoral degree or be in the final stage of their PhD provided that it will be completed (including viva) before the start date of the fellowship award (or have equivalent research experience).
Applicants should have no more than seven years active full-time postdoctoral experience atthe time of application, including teaching experience, time spent in industry on research, honorary positions and/or visiting researcher positions. Career breaks must be clearly detailed and explained in the application, for example “Start and end dates - career break – maternity/paternity leave.”
Applicants should be working outside the UK and should not hold UK citizenship at the time of application. Applicants cannot have lived, worked, or undertaken research in the UK in the 12 months immediately prior to the application, with the exception of short-term visits of less than three months in total and applicants who are refugees in the UK according to the Geneva Convention.
Applicants who are not currently employed are still eligible but will need to provide details of their previous supervisor.
Individuals already living, working, or undertaking research in the UK are not eligible to apply.
Individuals working outside the UK but employed by a UK organisation are also not eligible to apply.
Applicants who completed their PhD at a UK organisation must have been working and based outside the UK for at least one year at the deadline for the application.
Applicants proposing to return to their UK-based PhD organisation and/or PhD supervisor or to their post-doctoral supervisor will normally be considered to be ineligible and so applicants must have exceptional reasons for proposing to do so.
Applicants must be competent in oral and written English. The applicant must confirm their competency on the application form and the UK Sponsor needs to include the applicant’s competency in their supporting statement.
Applicants may only submit one application in a round. The application must be with only one UK Sponsor.
Applications who have been unsuccessful in a previous round of the competition may make another application in this round.
Applications who have previously held a Newton International Fellowship are ineligible to apply for an International Fellowship.

59. To complete and submit the application form, the lead applicant is required to provide supporting statements or references from the following individuals:

Departmental support
- The UK-based Head of Department is expected to detail your suitability for the department and the intentions for your career development and must confirm that the host organisation will give the award holder the necessary departmental and institutional support to complete their Fellowship successfully, including adequate office and laboratory space and access to essential equipment, software and facilities. This must include that the award holder will be appointed on terms that are no less favourable than those of comparable posts in the host organisation.
- UK Sponsor
- Lead Applicant’s current supervisor

▪ If the applicant is an independent researcher or in industry, please use your direct manager or the most recent academic supervisor, if the applicant is currently unemployed, please use your most recent academic supervisor.

Two nominated referees
- It is requested that one referee be nominated by the Applicant and one by the UK Sponsor.

60. The guidelines for choosing the 2 nominated referees are as follows:

The primary consideration is that they are able to comment independently and authoritatively on your application (i.e., someone in your field, who is as independent a researcher as possible from the applicant/Sponsor). You do not need to know them personally, but you should make sure they are able to provide a reference before adding them to the application.
It is requested that one referee be nominated by the Applicant and one by the UK Sponsor.
At least one nominated referee must be based in the UK. A UK-based researcher is defined as someone who holds a permanent or fixed term contract at a UK research organisation.
Nominated referees from the same institution as the Applicant or Sponsor will not be accepted.
Nominated references from the Applicant’s former/current supervisor (including PhD supervisor) will not be accepted.
The referee must not be a member on the assessment panel for this programme or a member of the British Academy’s Council.
References must be submitted in English. If a reference is not submitted in English, it will not be accepted and may render the application ineligible.
No two references

61. These individuals can be invited through the ‘participants’ tab displayed on the application form summary page, where you will find each of the required participants as described above.

62. Please select ‘invite’ and enter the e-mail address of the person you wish to invite to provide the relevant statements and send the invitation.

63. The recipient will need to accept your invitation before they can participate in the application.

64. You can monitor the progress of your participants’ activity through this section of the application form, and issue reminders as required. Once the recipient has accepted your invitation, their status will be displayed as ‘active.’ Upon completion of their section of the application form, their status will be displayed as ‘complete.’

65. You will not be able to submit your application form until the status of all participants shows ‘complete.’

66. Please note that once an applicant submits an application on Flexi-Grant®, it is then directed to the designated Approver for the UK Host Organisation at which the applicant has applied to host an award.It is recommended that referring and supporting participants fulfil their requirements at least 5 working days before the submission deadline (Tuesday 28 March 2023) to ensure there is sufficient time for organisational approval. The UK Host Organisation approver must approve the completed application by the submission deadline.

67. It is the applicant’s responsibility to liaise with the nominated referees, the UK Host Organisation’s Approver, and the Heads of Department to ensure that the required tasks are completed by the deadline. Please contact the British Academy before the deadline if there is any issue. Alternatively, the UK Host Organisation’s Approver, the Heads of Department, and the nominated referees can contact us directly. The British Academy will not be held responsible for emails that are not received due to address errors or spam filters and no provision is made for non-receipt of emails sent by the British Academy.

68. Once participants have completed all their sections of the application form, please remind them to select ‘Save & Submit’ on the application form page or select ‘Submit your contribution’ on the summary page.

69. On the occasion that an invited participant accidentally submits their section of the application form prematurely, the Lead Applicant has the ability to re-open the application form for the participant. To do this, the Lead Applicant should return to the Participant tab on the application form summary page. You will find a ‘re-open’ button alongside the name of any participant who has completed their section of the form. Once you click this button, the form is reactivated and available for participants to amend.

70. The Research Support role displayed under the participants tab is an optional role, which allows you to invite an individual from the relevant UK Host Organisation research support team to review and amend the application prior to submission. The primary purpose is to ensure that the requested finances have been recorded correctly for this specific grant programme. As this is an optional role, it will not affect your ability to submit your application for approval.

71. Additional system guidance can be found in the ‘Systems Guidance Notes’ Section.

Please read these guidance notes carefully as you complete the form.

Using Flexi-Grant ®

Applications can only be submitted online using the British Academy’s Grants and Awards management system (Flexi-Grant®) via https://britishacademy.flexigrant.com/. Further information about the Grants and Awards Management system can be found via https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/flexi-grant. If you have not previously used Flexi-Grant®, please follow the registration process from the Flexi-Grant®, homepage. Paper-based applications will not be accepted.

Before completing the online form, all applicants should check that they comply with the eligibility requirements and ensure all necessary information is presented in the application. These requirements are strictly adhered to and applications without all the necessary information, or evidence to show the assessment criteria are met, will be rejected.

All applications must be approved by the UK Host Organisation and the applicant’s departmental support must be completed before you can submit via Flexi-Grant®. Late applications will not be accepted.

Completing the application form

The application can be completed by using the navigation tabs on the application summary page, with each page categorised as follows:

Summary Research Proposal

Eligibility Criteria

Contact Details

Lead Applicant Career Summary

UK Sponsor Career Summary

Financial Details

Applicant Declaration Nominated Referees Support

Head of Department Support (of the UK Sponsor)

Lead Applicant’s Supervisor Support

A full list of question fields to be completed as part of the application can be found in the Question Guidance below.

Participants

To complete and submit the application form, the lead applicant is required to provide supporting statements from five different individuals (including the UK Sponsor’s Head of Department, two nominated referees, the Lead applicant’s supervisor, and the UK Sponsor).

These individuals can be invited through the ‘participants’ tab displayed on the application form summary page, where you will find each of the required participants as described above.

Please select ‘invite’ and enter the e-mail address of the person you wish to invite to provide the relevant statements and send the invitation.

The recipient will need to accept your invitation before they can participate in the application.

You can monitor the progress of your participant’s activity through this section of the application form, and issue reminders as required. Once the recipient has accepted your invitation, their status will be displayed as ‘active.’ Upon completion of their section of the application form, their status will be displayed as ‘complete.’

You will not be able to submit your application form until the status of all participants’ shows ‘complete.’

Once participants have completed all their sections of the application form, please remind them to select ‘Save & Submit’ on the application form page or select ‘Submit your contribution’ on the summary page.

It is recommended that Participants fulfil their requirements at least 5 working days before the submission deadline (Tuesday, 28 March 2023) to ensure there is sufficient time for organisational approval. The UK Host Organisation approver must approve the completed application by the submission deadline.

Participant Types

Departmental Support

The UK Host Organisation approver must approve the completed application by the submission deadline.
The following individuals must be listed under the Participants tab:
- Head of Department at the UK host institution
- Lead Applicant’s current supervisor overseas (if the applicant is an independent researcher or in industry, please use your direct manager or most recent academic supervisor; if the applicant is currently unemployed, please use your most recent academic supervisor)

Nominated References

Under the participants tab displayed on the application form summary page, please enter the e-mail address of the Nominated Referees who you wish to invite to provide the relevant statements.
The following individuals must be listed under the Participants tab:
- The applicant’s Nominated Reference
- The Sponsor’s Nominated Reference

It is the applicant’s responsibility to liaise with the UK Host Organisation’s Approver, Sponsor, Departmental Supports, and the nominated referees to ensure that the required tasks are completed by the deadline. Please contact the British Academy before the deadline if there is any issue. Alternatively, the UK Host Organisation’s Approver, Sponsor, Departmental Supports, and the nominated referees can contact us directly. The British Academy will not be held responsible for emails that are not received due to address errors or spam filters and no provision is made for non-receipt of emails sent by the British Academy.

Re-opening the Application form to Participants

On the occasion that an invited participant accidentally submits their section of the application form prematurely, the lead applicant has the ability to re-open the application form for the participant. To do this, the lead applicant should return to the ‘Participants’ tab on the application form summary page. You will find a ‘re-open’ button alongside the name of any participant who has completed their section of the form. Once you click this button, the form is reactivated and available for participants to amend.

Application Approvals

It is the Applicant’s responsibility to ensure that approval of the application by the UK Host Organisation is completed before the closing date.

The person responsible for approving your application will be the delegated authority at the UK Host Organisation where you are applying to hold your Fellowship. This may be someone within the research office, Faculty administration, Vice-Chancellor, or other administrative or management role. The approver will be someone with the authority to approve the potential International Fellowship to be hosted within their organisation. They will have the capacity to approve that the proposed research and assure the proposed budget is appropriate and eligible for the International Fellowship.

You will only be able to submit your application for approval by the UK Institutional Approver once all sections of the application form have been marked as complete, and the Sponsor, Head of Department, Nominated Referees and Supervisor have marked their work as complete AND have submitted their section (the applicant must check the status of the Sponsor, Head of Department, Nominated Referees and Supervisor under the ‘Participants’ tab on the summary page of the application form). Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.