Fellowship Applications and Renewals
2025/26 Fellowship Applications
Applications for the 2025/26 academic year will open in spring 2025
Deadline: TBC
Those wishing to apply must supply the following:
- Fellowship Application form
- CV (no more than four pages)
- Short (no more than one page) cover letter describing your suitability for the fellowship
- Two letters of reference, which should be sent to ies@sas.ac.uk
Appointments are made by a committee drawn from the Institute’s external Advisory Council, as well as senior IES staff and Fellows. Candidates are notified of the outcome of their application by the end of April. All Fellows will be required to produce a short annual report of their activities as they contribute to research in English and the work of the IES.
There is no restriction as to the period or subject matter, and all topics within the field of English Studies, the history of the book, manuscript studies and palaeography, historical and enumerative bibliography, textual scholarship and scholarly editing will be considered. (Awards are however rarely made in the area of modern or applied linguistics.) Though not essential, it may be an advantage to demonstrate a link to the Institute's core research interests. All applicants should demonstrate a significant record of research achievement and contribution to the discipline as appropriate to career stage, circumstances and the category of Fellowship for which they are applying. Fellowships are non-stipendiary, and we are unable to offer assistance toward relocation costs.
The IES follows AHRC’s formal definition of an Early Career Researcher: an ECR is an individual who is within eight years of the award of their PhD or equivalent professional training, or an individual who is within six years of their first academic appointment. These durations exclude any period of career break, e.g. for family care or health reasons.
Fellowship Renewals
Applications for renewal or extension of an IES Fellowship will only be considered at the same time (and with the same deadline) as the annual Fellowship competition. Applications for renewal should take the form of a summary of the research undertaken during the Fellowship and outline how an extension of the Fellowship would advance this work, and its benefits to the Fellow, the IES, and SAS. It should also specify the term of the extension (which would normally be no more than one year).
Applications for renewal/extension of the Fellowship are not automatic or accepted on an ad hoc basis.
Visa Requirements
We welcome applications from overseas (outside UK/EU) applicants who have permanent posts at their home institutions. Visiting fellows from overseas must be on sabbatical from their home institution. Given current visa and immigration restrictions, we are unable to sponsor non-UK/EU independent scholars. We reserve the right to rescind a fellowship if we are no longer able to offer sponsorship because of changes in visa policy.
SAS Fellowships
The School of Advanced Study each year welcome around 140 visiting research fellows who benefit from its unique research resources and multidisciplinary scholarly community. To apply for School-wide fellowships, including British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowships, and the ST Lee Visiting Professorial Fellowship, see the School's Fellowships page.
IPE and William St Clair Fellowships
Early Career Fellowship: Inclusion, Participation, and Engagement
The School of Advanced Study has been awarded funding to scope a programme of activities embedding inclusion, participation and engagement in research in the Humanities and in Human Rights. As a result, we are able to offer up to five early career fellowships in the following areas: languages, literatures, and cultures, in association with the Institutes of Classical Studies, English Studies, and Languages, Cultures and Societies; and human rights and policy, in association with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
Early Career Fellowship: William St Clair
To honour the life and work of William St Clair, the St Clair family has established an Early Career funded fellowship to help support the research and professional development of early career researchers in languages, literatures and cultures. Fellows are expected to pursue their own research during the five months of the Fellowship and to contribute to the work of the Institutes of Classical Studies, English Studies, and Languages, Cultures and Societies, as appropriate. A distinguished independent scholar, William St Clair was a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of English Studies, whose wide-ranging multi-disciplinary research interests encompassed literary history and biography, Romanticism, archaeology and classical antiquities, and the history of the book and publishing, particularly open-access publishing. We invite applications from early career scholars who have active research interests in any of these areas.