Developing a fellowship application

About the project

If you’re looking to take the next step in your career and become a leader in your discipline, a fellowship is an excellent opportunity.

It may feel difficult to know where to start with a fellowship application. In the videos below, we cover what you need to know before applying for a fellowship, as well as our top tips for applying.

Support from York

At York, we provide wide-ranging support for fellowship applicants. From departmental support to the University’s dedicated Researcher Developer, Fellows, we’re here to help you develop your application.

You may already be in contact with a prospective mentor, but if not, this is a good place to start. We also recommend contacting a host department, as they are typically the ones to support and assist you with your application.

Find out more

Preparing for an interview

Many schemes include an interview as part of the application process. The structure and focus of interviews may differ from funder to funder, so it’s important to carefully read through any documentation that they share with you.

Presentations are a common part of fellowship interviews. You may be asked to prepare a short presentation (often only a few minutes long) about your proposed research and career trajectory, followed by questions from the interview panel.

Ideally, you will be told who will be sitting on your interview panel in the invitation (or at least what the mix of specialisms is). This is important so that you can target presentations and answers appropriately. If the information isn’t given to you in the invitation, consider asking the organiser.

When preparing for an interview, it’s a good idea to reacquaint yourself with the following, which indicate what the funders are looking for:

In preparation for an interview, you should work with colleagues to arrange at least one mock interview, get advice from colleagues who have previously been successful with the scheme, or who have sat on interview panels, and read carefully through both the assessment criteria and your own application.

• The scheme’s overview/aim (i.e. what is important to the funder, and what they aim to support)
• The assessment criteria for the particular scheme
• Any additional criteria that might be available from the funder (e.g. person specifications if they are present for the scheme).

Additional resources

• Fellowships - how to write a good summary (PDF , 115kb)
• Preparing for a fellowship interview (PDF , 106kb)

Contact us

Sarah Penny

Researcher Developer, Fellows

• fellowships @york.ac.uk

Research areas