Newton International Fellowships 2022 guidance notes

Applicant eligibility

• Applicants must have a PhD or be in the final stage of their PhD provided that it will be completed (including viva) before the start date of the fellowship. Confirmation of award of the PhD will be required before any fellowship award is confirmed.
• Applicants should have no more than seven years active full-time postdoctoral experience at the 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 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 who have lived, worked or undertaken research in the UK in the 12 months prior to the application deadline are not eligible to apply.
• Individuals working outside the UK but employed by a UK organisation are also not eligible to apply.
• 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.
• 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.
• Proposed Fellowships must be carried out in the UK at the UK host organisation for the duration of the Fellowship.
• Applicants must be competent in oral and written English. The applicant must confirm their competency on the application form and the UK Co-applicant needs to include the applicant’s competency in their supporting statement.
• Individuals who have previously been in receipt of a Newton International Fellowship are not permitted to apply again.
• Applicants who have been unsuccessful in a previous round of the competition may make another application in this round.

The Academy appreciates that there are diverse research career paths and understands the challenges of managing a research career alongside other personal commitments. When reviewing applicants’ eligibility and research experience, the Academy consider time spent outside the research environment (e.g. time away due to personal reasons such as maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoptive leave or other caring responsibilities; ill-health, or working in a non-research environment/role such as industry). Furthermore, where applicants have taken formal periods of maternity, paternity, shared parental and 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. Each case will be considered individually as per guidelines below:

• Maternity, paternity, shared parental leave and adoptive leave: Under the terms of a Newton International Fellowship, award-holders are entitled to take the full period of maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoptive leave as defined in the UK host organisation’s standard organisational policy. A fully-funded extension will be added to account for any time lost within the original period of the fellowship. During the period of leave, the Academy will suspend the award and transfer no funds to the Host Organisation. On return, the Academy will make a payment equivalent to the subsistence payments that would have arisen for the duration of the leave at £2500 per month of until the original end date of the Fellowship, whichever is first. Award-holders may choose to stay in the UK during the period of leave, or to return to their home/third country.

Example 1: Award-holder takes leave during first year of the Fellowship for a period of 6 months – Academy will pay subsistence for the 6 months, and the award end date will be extended by 6 months. Example 2: Award-holder takes leave during the second year of the Fellowship for a period of 12 months, of which 4 months extend beyond the original end date of the award – Academy will pay subsistence for the 8 months that fell up to the original end date and nothing for the 4 months that fell beyond the original end date, and the award end date will be extended by 12 months.

• Extended sick leave (defined as more than four weeks off work, as per UK Government’s definition): In addition to the actual time taken off work, an additional amount of time equivalent to 100% of the duration of leave taken will be added on top, for up to 6 months. As with parental leave cases will be considered individually and the host institution may need to confirm that the applicant qualifies for this provision. Supporting documents may be requested at the Academy’s discretion. The Academy reserves the right to consider individual requests outside of the outlined policy in exceptional circumstances.

Support to applicants with disabilities

The British Academy welcomes applications from early career researcher with disabilities and provides adjustments to ensure that they can participate fully in the selection process. If you need an adjustment when accessing the application form or for any other part of the application process, please contact the Research Funding team at [email protected].

Adjustments can include but not limited to:

- Extension of the deadline;

- Additional support to complete the application form;

The Research Funding team will be pleased to answer questions about eligibility and/or points covered in this section.

UK Co-applicant eligibility

• The UK Co-applicant must be an established independent researcher of at least postdoctoral (or equivalent) status and must make all the necessary practical and administrative arrangements for the duration of the Fellowship.
• The UK co-applicant must hold a permanent or fixed term contract in a publicly-funded research organisation. In the case of fixed term contracts, employment must continue for at least the duration of the project.

Host organisation eligibility

Eligible host organisations are a university or not-for-profit research institution. Ineligible organisations include industrial, private and commercial organisations, university spin-out companies, and governmental bodies.

Prior contact with the UK Co-applicant

• Contact between the UK Co-applicant and Applicant prior to the application is essential. This contact should lead to a clearly defined and mutually beneficial research project proposal.
• Please note that the British Academy will not be able to assist in locating a UK Co-applicant.
• Applicants may only submit one application in a round. The application must be with only one Co-applicant at a UK host organisation.

Eligible fieldwork

• Applicants cannot conduct their research outside the UK but short fieldwork trips abroad may be possible where appropriate.
• Short fieldwork trips abroad must not normally total more than one month per annum. Please note that fieldwork is defined as “(practical) gathering of material or data specifically for the Newton International Fellowship project”.

Eligible costs:

Subsistence

The annual subsistence rate is fixed at £30,000. Payments to Newton International Fellowship holders are paid as a stipend and do not constitute a salary. The subsistence can be spent on any living cost at the discretion of the Fellow.

Consumables

Newton International Fellows are entitled to apply for up to £8,000 per annum which can be spent on: equipment, consumables or travel within the UK or internationally (if related to conducting fieldwork or attending conferences). Please be aware that only the amount requested will be allocated, e.g. if you request £5,000 under consumables, this is the amount you will receive. It is not possible to retrospectively increase the award amount. Costs of attending or organising conferences, workshops or seminars for the purposes of disseminating your research must be limited to £3,000 per year; in exceptional circumstances we will consider requests to exceed this limit on a case-by-case basis. In the case of organising conferences, workshops or seminars, only the cost of venue hire, materials and website and printed publications are eligible for support.

Relocation expenses

Newton International Fellows are entitled to apply for up to £3,500 relocation expenses in the first year of their Fellowship. This can be used to cover the costs incurred from moving from the current institution to the UK host organisation and can include transportation costs and visa charges. A health surcharge was introduced by the UK Government under the 2014 Immigration Act for non-exempt persons, which from October 2020 is £624 per year; this also applies to dependents. This expense can be covered under the relocation expenses costs of the Fellowship. Additional funding is available to cover the cost of dependents’ visas. More information is available at the point of being offered an award.

Ineligible costs

The following costs will not be covered by the scheme:

• Consumables may not be used to pay for: publication costs; any personal costs including that of dependents; the cost of travel, subsistence and visas for participants and speakers at conferences and workshops or seminars you organise; and salary costs or other costs of research staff/assistants.

Payments

All payments will be made quarterly in arrears in instalments directly to the UK host organisation. Regardless of your start date, payments will be made to your host organisation at the end of March (Q1), June (Q2), September (Q3) and December (Q4).

Assessment criteria

The primary considerations are listed below. Successful applications should be strong in all respects:

Applicant

The suitability of the individual for the fellowship and their potential to develop an independent research career. Track record commensurate with actual research experience to date including past achievements, research career to date, publication record, awards, datasets held in repositories, software, keynote lectures and current and previous grants; how the candidate intends to use the fellowship to further their research career.

Research proposal

The importance and scientific merit of the proposed research and the clarity, quality and originality of the proposed project and likely contribution to the research field. If the research plan is clearly defined and feasible.

Host organisation / Co-applicant

The suitability and strength of the UK Co-applicant including their track record in the area of proposed research as well as in supervising and mentoring early career researchers.

The suitability and strength of the host department and/or institution for the proposed research i.e. access to appropriate expertise/equipment/facilities/resources and space during the award period as well as the suitability of the host organisation for the applicant's career development e.g. appropriate level of support and training opportunities.

Review Process

All applications to the Newton International Fellowships are reviewed and assessed by two relevant assessors’ who have the most appropriate humanities and social sciences expertise using the criteria detailed above.

The subject tags you select on your application play a vital role in matching your application with appropriate reviewers, so it is extremely important to select only the most relevant subject tags on your application.

Please be assured that the British Academy specifically requests anyone involved in reviewing applications to consider them in confidence. More information on the Review Process can be found in Appendix 1.

All applicants will be notified of outcomes via email.

Please note that due to the very large number of applications we receive for this scheme, we will not be able to provide feedback.

To complete and submit the application form, the lead applicant is required to provide supporting statements or references from 5 individuals. The following individuals must be included:

1. Departmental support

• Head of Department at the UK host institution (The Head of Department is expected to detail your suitability for the department and the intentions for your career development, as well as confirmation that you will be provided with adequate space and access to resources at the Host organisation.

Heads of Departments must confirm that the host organisation will give the fellow 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, including that Newton International Fellows will be appointed on terms that are no less favourable than those of comparable posts in the host organisation).

• UK co-applicant
• Lead Applicant’s current supervisor overseas (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)

2. Two nominated references

• It is requested that one referee be nominated by the Applicant and one by the UK Co-applicant.

The guidelines for choosing 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/co-applicant). You do not need to know them personally, but you should make sure they are able to provide a reference before adding them to your application.
• It is requested that one referee be nominated by the Applicant and one by the UK Co-applicant.
• 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 Co-applicant 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 can be from the same person. If this is the case the application will be made ineligible.

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 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’.

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

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 (see Error! Reference source not found. in the ‘Application Guidance Notes’ Section). It is recommended that referring and supporting participants fulfil their requirements at least 5 working days before the submission deadline (Wednesday, 16 June 2021) to ensure there is sufficient time for organisational approval. The UK Host Organisation approver must approve the completed application by the submission deadline.

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.

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.

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 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.

Research support role

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.

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

Enquires about this scheme can be made using the contact details below. Before contacting us, please check whether your question is answered by these scheme notes.

For British Academy enquiries email: [email protected].

For Royal Society enquiries email: [email protected] or telephone +44 (0)207 451 2666. (please read Royal Society Scheme Notes)

Please quote your application reference number in all correspondence to the British Academy.

Please note that information regarding your application for a Newton International Fellowship may be shared with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and for data monitoring and scheme evaluation purposes. You may also be contacted by selected third parties such as independent evaluators, consultancy groups, and career development organisations. If successful, the British Academy will contact you regarding the administration of your award throughout the course of your funding and after its completion. You may also be contacted by the Royal Society and or an agent acting on their behalf, for reporting and evaluation purposes throughout the course of your funding and after its completion.

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®. 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

Eligibility Criteria

Contact Details

Lead Applicant Career Summary

UK Co-applicant Career Summary

Research Proposal

Financial Details

Applicant Declaration

Nominated Referees Support

Head of Department Support (of the UK Co-applicant)

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 in Section 9.

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

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 (Wednesday, 16 March 2022) to ensure there is sufficient time for organisational approval. The UK Host Organisation approver must approve the completed application by the submission deadline.

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 co-applicant’s Nominated Reference

It is the applicant’s responsibility to liaise with the UK Host Organisation’s Approver, Co-Applicant, 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, Co-Applicant, 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.

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 Newton 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 Newton 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 co-applicant, 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 co-applicant, 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.

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

Note that questions with * are mandatory fields.

In the following table each box represents a page of the application form; the left-hand column contains the questions within each of these pages as set out in the form; the right-hand column contains useful guidance on its completion.

Give the full title of your proposed project. (Maximum 20 words)

Please enter the proposed start date of the project. Fellowships must commence between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023. When indicating a start date please keep in mind potential visa processing times; please note that the outcome will be announced approximately six months after the closure of the round.

This must be two years from the start date. The end date must be exactly two years after the proposed start date.

Please select the UK organisation where the award will be held from the drop down list.

Please select the subject group/area(s) that most closely defines the research area of the research proposal from the drop-down menu and tick box options. This will enable us to allocate the application to the most appropriate assessment panel.

Please provide a scientific summary of your proposed project. This should be a summary of your research proposal, briefly outlining the background and summarising the aims of your project. (Maximum 400 words)

Please provide a lay summary of your proposed project. This should be understood by a layperson. Explain why you have chosen to work in this subject area and what it is about your proposed research that you find particularly exciting, interesting or important. If applicable, please also explain the potential impact or wider benefits to society of your research. (Maximum 250 words)

You can either detail your research proposal within this application form (Maximum 1500 words), or alternatively upload it as a PDF file. PDF files must be no longer than 3 sides of A4, portrait orientation, be titled and the text size cannot be smaller than Arial size 10.

Your research proposal should provide a general description of the proposed research to be carried out. This should include, but is not limited to, the following:

• clear specification of the context, research objectives and expected outputs of the proposed study;
• description of the methodology to be used, including data analysis; • an indication of milestones/timescales

Are there any special ethical issues arising from your proposal that are not covered by the relevant professional Code of Practice? Have you obtained, or will you obtain, ethical approval from your employing institution or other relevant authority?

It is not expected that any special ethical issues will arise that are not already covered by relevant professional Codes of Practice. The normal expectation, therefore, will be that applicants should answer the pair of questions with the answers no and no.

If there are any special issues arising, but they have already been cleared by approval from a relevant authority, please answer yes and yes. If any special issues arise and approval has not yet been obtained, please answer yes and no, and provide more explanation.

Please provide details of any previous contact with the UK-based Co-applicant and indicate whether you have met them previously.

Training and mentorship are an important part of this Fellowship and must be included as part of the application. Please outline how the host institution will support the career development of the applicant through training and mentoring activities. (Maximum 500 words).

Please describe clearly the planned outcomes and any potential benefits that will result from the proposed collaboration for the Applicant and the Co-applicant. (Maximum 200 words)

Describe any potential benefits to the overseas country and/or country of origin that will result from the proposed Fellowship. This may include supporting the development of a well-trained research community and promoting economic development and social welfare of the country through enhanced research and innovation capacity to benefit the wider society. (Maximum 200 words).

Describe any potential benefits to the UK and UK research that will result from the proposed Fellowship (Maximum 200 words).

The British Academy supports research as an open enterprise and are committed to ensuring that data outputs from awards supported by the Academy are made publicly available in a managed and responsible manner, with as few restrictions as possible. Data outputs should be deposited in an appropriate, recognised, publicly available repository, so that others can verify and build upon the data, which is of public interest.  

The British Academy does not dictate a set format for data management and sharing plans. Where they are required, applicants should structure their plan in a manner most appropriate to the proposed research. The information submitted in plans should focus specifically on how the data outputs will be managed and shared, detailing the repositories where data will be deposited. In considering your approach for data management and sharing, applicants should consider the following: 

• What data outputs will be generated by the research that are of value to the public? 
• Where and when will you make the data available? 
• How will others be able to access the data? 
• If the data is of high public interest, how will it be made accessible not only for those in the same or linked field, but also to a wider public audience? 
• Specify whether any limits will be placed on the data to be shared, for example, for the purposes of safeguarding commercial interests, personal information, safety or security of the data. 
• How will datasets be preserved to ensure they are of long-term benefit? 

Please declare that:

You have read the Terms and Conditions of Award under which British Academy grants are awarded and, if a grant offer is made, you agree to abide by them.

• You have access to the necessary facilities to enable you to deliver the research proposed and will continue to have access to the facilities for the duration of the project.
• You have agreed with your Head(s) of Department that you will be afforded sufficient time and resources to deliver the research project as described in this application.

You should invite two referees who can provide confidential references for your application, by following the instructions under the ‘Participants’ tab on the application form summary page. Please check with them that they are happy to provide the references and inform them that they will be contacted by email and asked to provide references via the Flexi-Grant® system by Wednesday, 16 March 2022.

• 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/co-applicant). You do not need to know them personally, but you should make sure they are able to provide a reference before adding them to your application.
• It is requested that one referee be nominated by the Applicant and one by the UK Co-applicant
• 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 UK Co-applicant 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 Scheme or a member of any of the British Academy’s Councils.
• 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.

You should invite the Head of Department from the UK organisation to provide a statement of support by following the instructions under the ‘Participants’ tab on the application form summary page. Please check that they are able to supply their statement by 16 March 2022.

Please Check which email address your Head of Department would like to use, as they may already be registered on Flexi-Grant® and mistakes may lead to a delay in processing your application.

The head of department is expected to detail your suitability for the department and the intentions for your career development, as well as confirmation that you will be provided with adequate space and access to resources at the Host organisation.

If the UK Co-applicant is also the Head of Department at the UK organisation, an alternative referee is required to supply the reference, e.g. Deputy Head or Head of School.

You should invite your current supervisor overseas to provide a statement of support by following the instructions under the ‘Participants’ tab on the application form summary page. Please check that they are able to supply their statement by 16 June 2021.

Please Check which email address they would like to use, as they may already be registered on Flexi-Grant ® and mistakes may lead to a delay in processing your application.

No two references provided can be from the same person. If this is the case then it may make the application ineligible. Therefore, alternative referees must be provided in accordance to the guidelines.