Written by Claire Garnett
I have applied for three fellowships since finishing my PhD, two immediately afterwards (both of which were unsuccessful) and more recently to the NIHR Advanced Fellowship (now called NIHR Post-doctoral fellowship), which was successful and I started this at the University of Bristol in September 2023. This blog post is about my experiences of applying for fellowships and the tips that I tend to give when asked about writing a fellowship application.
I’m going to start with the caveat that this is just my opinion based on my experiences and the tips I’ve been given that I found most helpful. I am also writing this as someone who was incredibly well supported and encouraged to apply to and work on my fellowship application as part of my day-to-day role, which I know is not a position everyone is afforded.
I also want to acknowledge that there are far more applications worthy of funding than funding available and so there is a lot of luck involved as well (and I feel incredibly fortunate to be one of the lucky ones).
So now that I’ve finished with my caveats, these are the tips I’ve received over the years that I found most helpful:
- Who to apply to
Applying to the right funder and scheme is important for giving your application the best shot. I got a lot of advice from both the funders themselves and other researchers.
In terms of the funders, there’s lots of information on their websites about eligibility criteria for particular schemes and their funding priorities. Funders often host webinars or talks on “how to get a grant” / “what makes a good application” etc. These can be hosted by early career networks or sometimes as part of conferences. Also don’t be afraid to contact funders if you’ve got any questions. Initially, I was worried that any emails might be part of my application and if I wasn’t sure about an idea that it would come across badly. Though a representative from a funder said (in a talk on how to get a grant) that contacting them is never a disadvantage, and can only play to your favour.
In terms of getting advice from colleagues, they can often help you in knowing who best to apply to in terms of particular funders’ priorities from their own experiences. More senior colleagues may have sat on funding committees and have an insight into funders’ priorities that way too. Universities often have research development teams (e.g., https://www.bristol.ac.uk/research-enterprise-innovation/development/) that can help with this as well in terms of identifying relevant schemes.
And then once you’ve chosen who to apply to, make sure you tailor your application to the funder, what they are interested in, and their research priorities.
- Who to work with
Who you work with is so important. I have benefitted so much from the teams I’ve worked with both in terms of the guidance and expertise, and moral support I received!
Fellowships are different to projects in that you don’t typically have co-investigators or collaborators, instead you have mentors who are there to support you in your development and/or provide topic and/or methodological expertise. It can be good if you’ve worked with them before in some capacity as you’ll know from your own experience what they are like as a teammate. Though worth noting that with fellowships it’s important to demonstrate independence and so working with exactly the same team of mentors as you currently do means you’ll probably need to justify how you’ll show independence.
If there’s someone new you want to involve, you could always ask someone informally for their experiences – what they don’t say can be as informative as what they do. In terms of contacting people, it can be useful if you have a mutual colleague who can introduce you, though I’ve had very positive responses (and know others have too) from sending out “cold” emails. In these I shared a brief summary of my research plan, made it clear why I wanted to work/visit them and outlined exactly what the ask of them was. And also I don’t think it’s just about getting a “big name” as your mentor, but more whether they’ve actually got the time to support you and the project.
Also remember to be a good collaborator yourself. For me, reliability is really important as well as good communication. If you want mentors to review your application and give feedback, then let them know when you’ll be sending it to them and when you’ll want their feedback returned by in advance.
- Writing the application
Once you’ve got who you want to work with sorted and know who to apply to, then it comes to writing it. My main piece of advice here is to plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to prepare your application (and way more time than you think if you’re anything like me). My experience (along with others I know) is that from start (coming up with the idea) to finish (submitting the application) takes about a year.
In terms of the document itself, I always start with a rough structure with the required headings and sub-headings, and bullet points for each of those (personally I find a blank document can be daunting). This includes both the research proposal as well as all of the other parts (budget, host organisation support, etc). It can be worth reading through all of the guidance at the start and having a to-do list or some way of ensuring you know exactly what you need to complete as part of you application. And then fill in your application from there, leaving yourself comments with anything you need to remember to do/change/add!
I also found it incredibly helpful to read previous successful applications, particular to that scheme. There’s often a list of successful awards on funder websites or ask around your department or collaborators in case anyone knows of anyone who has been successful. My experience, even with “cold” emailing, is that most people are very happy to share their applications and experiences.
Once you’ve got a draft, get LOTS of feedback from lots of different people – your research group, PPI groups, other colleagues, family, friends, everyone and anyone! It can help to ask very specific questions of certain collaborators or ask them to focus on certain sections.
And then, importantly, follow that advice! Sometimes I’ve found it a bit overwhelming after a meeting or getting comments back with a ton of action points. But the reason for getting feedback is to improve your work. I’ve had cases where suggestions would involve maybe half a day’s work on my part for a sentence or two in the application. Whilst I don’t know whether it would have mattered, I think attention to detail plays a huge role. It is worth noting that you may get conflicting advice, or suggestions about a different direction for the project, and so it may be that you have a very valid reason for not following that advice, though it’s always worth considering the suggestions and making an informed decision about whether to take that feedback on board.
In terms of the budget, first off ask for help from research services or costing specialists in your organisation (Worktribe can be quite daunting at first, at least it was for me). Again, with previous applications, have a look at the budget sections. While value for money is important, remember that if it’s successful, you need to deliver what you promised.
- Fellowships versus project funding
Don’t forget that fellowships are not solely about the project, but also about you as a person and the place. The training and development can often be seen as a last minute add on and from conversations I’ve had with people that are involved in the selection process, it really shows. So, start thinking about this from the outset and what skills you genuinely want to develop. It’s a great opportunity to have the time to spend on yourself.
With the place, again this needs to be justified as to why this is the best place for you to do your fellowship. If you’re staying at the same institute and with the same mentor, then a really strong case needs to be made for how you’re going to become an independent researcher in your own right.
There is also a host organisation support section, and I’ve heard from people on funding panels that these can often seem quite generic to the institute and not specifically about you, which is not what you want! It’s critical for this section to be about why that organisation is best for you as a person and your project, and also how they are going to support you. A concrete example of how they will support you can be useful – fund an additional PhD student, protect your research time, etc. In some cases, it could be worth writing some bullet points about key elements that you want mentioned in this section.
- Submitting the application
With submitting the application, it may seem obvious but do leave plenty of time. Fellowship applications need multiple people to sign this off (e.g. Head of Department or School at the host institute and finance manager) so make sure there is enough time before the deadline. And it’s always worth checking in advance that they’ll be around on those dates and not on annual leave to save yourself any last-minute headaches.
Equally, my experience was that the fellowships did tend to come together quite last minute in the sense that everything impacts everything else (this was described to me by a very wise colleague as being like a cat’s cradle). The project impacts the budget and the training which impacts the career development statement (I found it useful to leave myself notes of things that I needed to change on that basis in other sections so that nothing ended up being inconsistent across sections).
- Assessment process
Limited suggestions on this as I’ve only experienced it once for fellowships but in terms of the assessment process I’ve had for funding applications, pay attention to the feedback and really think critically about it, be ready to change plans, and adjust accordingly.
The interview questions (if invited) are also likely to be reflective of any feedback received. If you can, have practice interviews, multiple ones ideally. And it can be worth not just going with people who you know well and feel very comfortable with, but those who are maybe slightly outside of your direct field (as will be the case with the interview panel). Depending on the format of your interview (in person/online/standing/sitting), I also try and practice in the same format so that I’m used to starting the presentation, where my notes will be, all the little things like that so that I’m as comfortable as I can be when in the real thing.
- Process versus outcome
Unfortunately, all of that said, once we’ve submitted the application, we have zero control over the outcome. The only thing we have control of is the process. Personally, I find focusing on the application and whether I was pleased with it (regardless of outcome) helped me feel ok about the outcome – positive or negative. Not to say that rejection isn’t hard, it is and I think always will be. But celebrating the application and its submission helped me to still feel proud of all the work I’d put into the application.
My take-home messages:
- Surround yourself with good mentors
- Read successful applications
- Get lots of feedback and, crucially, act on it
- Leave yourself plenty of time