Sgoil Cheumnaichean Saidheans Sòisealta na h-Alba
The competition information and guidance is available from 20 March. The SGSSS Apply portal will open for submissions from 24 March.
The objective of this call is to provide support to those who are in the immediately postdoctoral stage of their career, to support them in consolidating their PhD, and preparing them for the next stage of their research careers.
SGSSS and its partner universities are participating in this call. Detailed information about the call can be found at the links below. Key aspects are set out below: please read the following information carefully, and please note there are significant changes to this call compared with previous years.
Fellowships are for a 9-month duration (full time, part-time equivalent available), starting on 1 October 2026.
The application window is necessarily short due to the Fellowship start date. All applications must be received by 23:59 BST on 1 June 2026. It is possible that universities will have their own internal processes with additional deadlines.
It is essential applicants contact their proposed university before starting an application.
View list of contact details for all eligible institutions here.
Only one full application to one DTP is allowed: duplicate applications will result in the applicant being removed from all competitions.
Fellows’ proposed programme of activities should reflect their prior knowledge and experience and be designed to support their longer term research career aspirations. In their call documents, ESRC set out suggested activities for the Fellowship. Please note: new research cannot be funded through these awards.
Fellowships must take place at the aligned institution and cannot be completed remotely.
All Fellows are required to have a mentor who is part of the institution where the Fellowship is held. The mentor should have experience and a strong interest in the applicant’s field of research but should ideally not be the applicant’s PhD supervisor.
Applicants must be applying to an institution that is part of the SGSSS DTP, and also administratively aligned to an SGSSS approved Unit of Assessment (UoA) within their proposed institution. The mentor does not need to have the same alignment, however, the application needs to be able to justify why it is an appropriate mentorship arrangement. Some HEIs may choose to impose additional local conditions for their nominations regarding the alignment of the mentor.
To be eligible applicants must:
Permanent members of staff in an academic position with a research component are not eligible for this scheme. If a candidate has previously been employed on a part-time basis, that employment can be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Due to the short duration of the Fellowship, and the likely salaries which will be offered by institutions, applicants who will require a visa to work in the UK are strongly advised to seek advice from their proposed university before progressing with an application.
If an applicant experiences delays in securing a visa in order to start the Fellowship on 1 October 2026, the end date of 30 June 2027 cannot be extended. Therefore the grant awarded will be shortened and it is unlikely work of significant value can be achieved or the benefits of the Fellowship maximised. If applicants cannot be certain of obtaining a visa in time for the grant start date, this Fellowship may not be an appropriate opportunity for them.
Please note SGSSS cannot provide any advice or guidance about right to work or visa applications.
Please note: due to anticipated volume of queries, SGSSS will prioritise queries specific to circumstances not described in information on this website/in linked documents and FAQs. Queries where an answer is clearly stated will receive a slower response. Given the tight timelines for applications, it is very important that applicants carefully read the information already available.
Please note, postdoctoral fellowships are bound by the same conditions as ESRC standard grants.
Candidate: Before submitting your Stage 1 application, you must first seek out a Mentor at the institution you are applying to. If you do not have a Mentor in mind, see here for a list of HEI Champions who should be able to point you in the right direction.
Mentor: Please check the eligibility of the Candidate and support them to produce their Stage 1 application. As part of this application we ask Mentors to provide a Mentor Statement of Support for the Candidate to upload alongside their Stage 1 application. This should be a more generalised version of the Mentor Statement required for Stage 2 applications (if a candidate is shortlisted) and should not exceed 500 words (see the ESRC PDF Call Specification for more details). Please note, a Mentor CV is only required at Stage 2.
Institutions will review all Stage 1 applications internally (HEI Review Stage). Candidates will be notified of their application status no later than Monday 17 February 2025. Successful candidates will be invited to submit a Stage 2 application.
All Stage 2 applicants are required to contact their Mentor(s) as soon as possible for support in preparing their submission. For additional support please contact your relevant HEI Champion or SGSSS.
SGSSS will review all applications in a further two-stage review process (Peer Review Stage and Final Selection Review Stage). Candidates will be notified of their application status after the Peer Review Stage (on or around 5 May 2025) and after the Final Selection Review Stage (on or around 9 June 2025). Feedback will be provided for all Stage 2 applicants.
Institutions will appoint Postdoctoral Fellows, working together with SGSSS to ensure that an induction, as well as continued mentoring and support is provided.
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