Applicants should complete and submit an online application form via the College’s careers website. The next deadline for submission is Monday 23 August 2021 (23:59 BST).

For further information about the eligibility requirements, please see the 'How to Apply' section on the Information for Applicants webpage.

Note that Departments may set their own internal deadlines that precede the official College deadline: please check internal deadlines with the relevant Department. Contact details can be found here.

For further information about the eligibility requirements, please see the 'Who can apply' section on the Information for applicants webpage.

We have shortened the application process and brought the deadline for applications earlier in order to provide decsions to candidates earlier in the year.  The timeline for the 2021 ICRF competition (for fellowships starting in 2022) is:

As part of the application process, it is your responsibility to find a sponsor. Applications that are not fully supported by an identified Sponsor will not be considered.

Sponsors must be senior, permanent members of staff within the Academic and Research Family at Imperial College, most likely Principal Investigators, and must be in a position to provide equipment and space to Imperial College Research Fellows. Sponsors must be permanent members of staff at Imperial College; Honorary members of staff are not eligible to be Sponsors.

From 2014, Imperial College Research Fellows have the option of having an additonal co-Sponsor through Imperial's engagement with the Francis Crick Institute. For more information on sponsors, please see Finding a Sponsor paragraph on the Information for applicants webpage.

It is each applicant's responsibility to find a suitable sponsor to support their application. The Imperial College website provides a good resource to help you identify the right person. Please view the finding a sponsor webpage for more information.

Sponsors are required to promote your growth and independence by acting as a mentor and contributing to your career development. It is also the responsibility of Imperial College London Sponsors to ensure that you have met all regulatory and legal requirements in order to conduct the research, and that all necessary licenses and approvals have been obtained before the research commences.

Your sponsor (and co-sponsor where appropriate) is also responsible for providing relevant equipment and space for your research proposal and to ensure that there are no additional costs for the College

Where it is justified in the application, you may spend up to 12 months in total visiting other research institutions and/ or in industry including overseas; the maximum time spent at any one institution being 6 months. Where this is requested, evidence must be provided to reflect the partner’s willingness to host the fellow. No further funds are available for travel or subsistence above the research expenses awarded as part of the Fellowship so if these visits were not planned, you may need to secure funding from another source. This does not apply to AZ ICRFs, as an industrial placement forms part of the fellowship.

As a sponsor you can only support one fellowship application and sponsor one fellow at any one time. If you are approached by more than one applicant, you will need to make a decision based on the quality of the applicants and the scientific quality of their proposed research.

You are not obliged to accept a request to be a sponsor. If you chose not to sponsor an applicant, it is at your discretion whether you provide feedback about your decision.

It is the responsibility of the applicant to find sponsorship. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor and can identify potential applicants, you could encourage them to apply for the scheme. If you have you any questions or would like to discuss how you can best support the Imperial College Research Fellowship scheme, email researchfellowships@imperial.ac.uk.