The British Academy will shortly invite applications under their prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme, with a deadline expected to be in October 2014 . These fellowships fund three years of research on a topic of the applicant’s choice, and applications have to be hosted by a UK higher education institution.
If you would like to apply through the University of Cambridge, you need to submit a draft application to the Faculty of Music by 29 August 2014: we shall assess all the draft submissions we receive, and if we are able to host your application we shall work with you to make it as good as possible before the final version is submitted to the British Academy. We aim to tell you whether we can host your application by the second week of September; if so, you will be asked at that point to commit yourself to applying through Cambridge.
The draft application should consist of the following: (i) an academic CV, (ii) a summary of your doctoral or other previous research in about 500 words, and (iii) a research proposal of about 1500 words. We recommend you structure this as below, as these are the key sections of the British Academy application form. Please email these materials to research@mus.cam.ac.uk. Any queries may also be sent to that email address.
To be eligible for this scheme, you must either have completed your doctorate within the last three years, or have your viva by the end of March 2015. There are also nationality/residency conditions, but you are automatically eligible if you have a doctorate from a UK university. Further details may be found on the British Academy's website.
We also host applications to the Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Fellowships, for which the deadline is expected to be spring 2015. Eligibility criteria are slightly different, and—unlike the British Academy postdoctoral fellowships—the Levehulme scheme allows for practice-based research. Rather than issuing a separate call for Leverhulme applications we normally consider those whose applications to the British Academy we have hosted. If you are eligible under the Leverhulme scheme but not the British Academy one, please apply as if for the latter and explain this in a cover note.
Structure for Proposals
Title of proposed research
Abstract of proposed research (about 200 words)
Proposed programme
Please give a detailed description of the research programme, including methodology. Applicants should be aware of the importance that assessors place on the viability, specificity and originality of the research programme and of its achievability within the timescale, which should be specified below under Plan of Action.
Planned research outputs
Please indicate here what the expected output(s) from your research programme might be. As appropriate, please state as follows: monograph, journal article(s), book chapter(s), digital resources, other (please specify). Details of your plans for publication should be stated under Plans for publication/dissemination below.
Plan of action
Please indicate here a clear timetable for your research programme over the three years of the Fellowship. Try to be as realistic as possible, but keep in mind that research programmes will develop over time and this plan of action is not something that is expected to account for every minute of the three years, and is not unchangeable. But your chances of award will be affected by the assessors' perception of how viable and realistic this plan is.
Plans for publication / dissemination
Please state in more detail here what plans you have for publication or other dissemination of your research, including potential publishers, journals, conferences etc. that are appropriate for your research subject.