Edinburgh Career Development Scheme (ECDS)

Funding is available for postdoctoral researchers

The College have received funding from the additional Research Excellence Grant (REG) funding allocated by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which is specifically targeted at career development support for postdoctoral researchers.   

The next round of funding is in Autumn 2024

The funding is available for 4 years at £380,000 per year

Round 1 (pilot) Spring 2024 - closed

Round 2 Autumn 2024 - closing date for applications is Friday 13th September 2024 at 12noon

Round 3 Autumn 2025 - tbc

Round 4 Spring 2026 - tbc

The funding will support candidates who are applying for external fellowships

The funding will support postdoctoral researchers who require bridging funding in order to apply for external fellowships.  The aim is to support the careers of postdoctoral researchers who are normally on fixed term contracts or an open ended contract which is reliant on funding, to provide additional time to prepare for and apply to external fellowship schemes.  This will allow CMVM to progress research careers and retain researchers who have a high probability of a future fellowship position.  

The fund will only support salaries

The fund will support salary only up to a maximum of 12 months (and up to 18 months in special circumstances) from the end of their current contract or end of current funding.

The funding will not support additional research costs

The funding will not support additional research costs such as consumables.  The research costs will need to be met by the relevant Centre or Institute.  Any other exceptional costs should be highlighted during the application process and it would be at the discretion of the panel whether to fund these.

We expect to support up to 6 or 7 applications per call

This is dependent on applications and duration of support requested.

We will assess applications against the following criteria

• Alignment with available fellowship opportunities
• Use of bridging period
• The quality of the proposed work plan submitted by the applicant
• Research cultures and equality, diversity and inclusion considerations 
• Applicant narrative CV

Anonymous review of applications

We are trialling an anonymous review of the applications. Please read the information document, application guidance and narrative CV template for crucial details on the application process/review format. This may seem like more work for the applicant however this format will give every candidate an equal review without bias or unconscious bias.    If you have any queries about this process please get in touch with Lorraine.Jackson@ed.ac.uk

When is the deadline to submit?

The application deadline is Friday 13th September 2024 at 12pm

What documents should I submit?

Applications and supporting documents should be sent in Word format to Lorraine.Jackson@ed.ac.uk

• Application form
• Narrative CV (3 pages max)
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion monitoring form (encouraged/optional)

Download the application form and guidance documents

Request information in alternative format

If you require information in an alternative format please contact Lorraine.Jackson@ed.ac.uk

When can you expect to hear back

We expect outcomes to be communicated in mid-October 2024.

Clinical academics

There is a separate bridging fund to support clinical academics, please email Joanne.Ness@ed.ac.uk for further details.

You will need to stay at Edinburgh for the fellowship that you applying for

This fund is to retain talent which is why we require you to stay at the University of Edinburgh for your fellowship.

This funding is only available to researchers at the University of Edinburgh

This fund is to retain and nurture researchers who are already working at the University of Edinburgh.