Terms and conditions

Conditions of award​

  • A minimum of half of the URF award (£10k out of £20k) must be used to buy out the University Research Fellow from teaching, assessment, administrative, and/or clinical duties, to allow them to dedicate time on the stated activity.
  • With prior agreement from the sponsor (normally the head of school), a maximum of half of the URF award (£10k out of £20k) can be used to cover expenses related to the URF’s stated project, including, but not limited to, travel, equipment, or other research related expenses.
  • It is expected that on-going research commitments such as research council grants and supervisingPGR students during the award year must be continued.
  • Any changes of circumstance or topic must be reported to DREI as soon as possible.
  • URF resources must redound to the central URF budget and are not be used by schools/departments for other purposes if the stated research cannot be undertaken as envisaged and agreed at time of award.
  • It is possible, but not normal, for a URF award to span two separate academic years if a case can be made that the school/department's teaching block structure is not readily alterable. In such cases, ringfenced funding from the following year's allocation would need to be agreed with the Dean and DREI.
  • A URF Report Form‌ must be submitted by the December following the completion of the URF period. Click here to view the URF Report form. 

Criteria for award 

​The selection process (see process flowchart) is governed by the following criteria. In some cases, Faculties or Schools may have their own additional criteria to guide the process.  

  • quality, coherence, and feasibilityof the proposal
  • significance of the expected outputs of the activity
  • contribution of the proposed activity to the University’s strategic priorities. This might include contributing to the research challenge areas, and/or other relevant aims and objectives set out in the research sub-strategy.
  • importance of the proposed activity for the REF or the University’s World Top 50 ambition.
  • balance of disciplinarity/interdisciplinarity across the range of successful awards
  • importance of the award relative to the applicant's career stage
  • likelihood that the proposed activity will lead to securing external income in the future
  • environmental sustainability of the proposed activity
  • EDI considerations

Given these criteria, unsuccessful nominations should not be interpreted by nominees as a negative judgment on the part of the selection panel. Many excellent proposals are unable to be funded given the competition and the need to fund a range of projects and a diverse and inclusive research community.