Applying for a Daphne Jackson Fellowship will involve commitment over a period of time, and candidates receive individual guidance and support throughout. If you are eligible, a Fellowship Advisor will be allocated to you and they will guide you through the whole application process, your Fellowship and beyond. We believe that it is this unique mentoring relationship that makes our Fellowships so successful. Having a dedicated Fellowship Advisor who is able to guide you during your application by enabling you to think strategically about your retraining and your Fellowship project really does maximise your chances of a long-term future research career.
A typical application takes roughly a year from the date when the forms are submitted to being awarded. Undertaking a Daphne Jackson Fellowship will help you update your existing skills and experience, and may offer you the opportunity to transition into a new area of research with greater opportunities for future progression.
Please click below to learn more about what’s involved in a Daphne Jackson Fellowship application or contact us.
You can apply for a Daphne Jackson Fellowship in two ways:
- Submit an application for an advertised sponsored Fellowship where the field of research and/or the host institution may already be specified by the sponsor. The sponsor will then select their preferred candidate. You can view the opportunities currently available here. Sponsored Fellowships are also advertised on university websites and on jobs.ac.uk
- If you know the area of research you would like to return to and/or have identified a potential host institution and/or supervisors, you can apply for a Daphne Jackson Fellowship at any time. If your application is successful, the Trust will endeavour to find suitable sponsorship. Please contact us to obtain further advice.
Please click below for a guide to each step of the application process.
Download, read and complete our forms
Please read ‘Are you eligible to apply for a Fellowship’ before applying, and if you have any questions or enquiries, please contact us.
For the forseeable future we are not accepting applications within AHRC remit due to limited funding.
The first step of the application process is to download, read and complete the forms below and send them back to us via email djmft@surrey.ac.uk
Eligibility and suitability check
Your eligibility and suitability are initially assessed using the information submitted to us in the CV and personal statement forms.
If you do fit our eligibility criteria, one of our Fellowship Advisors will arrange an informal telephone interview with you to talk through your CV, your career break, your desire to retrain, your field of interest and assess your future employment prospects. This step allows us to confirm whether or not you are eligible and suitable for a Fellowship.
Preliminary application phase (writing a draft proposal)
If you are found eligible and suitable for a Fellowship, you will be asked to write a draft proposal comprising a research project and retraining programme. You will receive guidelines on how to write and present your proposal, indicating the order of the sections required for the proposal and the required content in each.
In most cases, your proposal will be developed in an iterative process between you, your supervisor and your Fellowship Advisor, and your Advisor will provide feedback and suggestions about your proposal.
A first draft proposal should be submitted to your Fellowship Advisor three months after your eligibility has been confirmed.
Your research project must be novel and challenging, but achievable within the timescales of the Fellowship, usually 2 or 3 years. The project is your opportunity to acquire professional skills and knowledge that will put you back on a par with colleagues who have not taken a break from research.
Please note, for individuals who are not applying for an advertised sponsored Fellowship but know the area of research they would like to return to, your full application and research proposal will be reviewed by potential sponsors once a good first draft has been received. Funding must be in place before your Fellowship application can proceed to interview stage, and it may be necessary for the application to be put on hold at this stage. If funding is not found within a specified timeframe the application will be withdrawn. Please contact us for more information.
Formal application phase (interview)
We hold Fellowship candidate interviews four times a year. Your interview is an opportunity for you and the Daphne Jackson Trust to discuss in detail your background, the proposal and your future employment prospects and to help you make improvements to your proposal. The interview will be conducted by two or more members of our team and may include a representative from the sponsoring organisation.
The interview is in place to help you and you will be given guidance on the questions likely to be asked during the interview.
Further guidance around the interviews process can be found in Guidelines for Fellowship interviews.
After the interview, you will have four weeks to revise and finalise your proposal based on the discussions during your interview. You should submit your final proposal to your Fellowship Advisor by the date you are given at interview.
Peer Review
Your proposal will be reviewed by at least two technical referees who are experts in a field closely related to your research area and who are qualified to comment on the technical elements of the proposal. Applicants will be required to, with input from their supervisor, respond to the technical referees’ comments, clarifying or justifying certain aspects of the proposal.
Awards Assessment Panel
Once the technical references have been obtained, your application is sent to our Awards Assessment Panel. Each Fellowship is assessed by six members of the panel, chosen on the basis of their subject expertise.
Sometimes the Awards Assessment Panel decide a second interview is necessary before a decision can be made. You will be informed if a second interview is required. If you are awarded a Fellowship, you will be expected to start within the following three-month period.
The Awards Assessment Panel’s decision is final and we have no appeals process.
If you still have questions, please contact us.