The Early Career Research and Innovation Fellowship Scheme is part of the SHU Researcher and Innovator Development Academy (RIDA) and provides targeted support for staff at a relatively early stage of their research careers to establish their research and innovation portfolio and/or develop a new research area or collaboration.
The ECRIF scheme has generated support, enthusiasm, and engagement across the institution, with 101 fellowships awarded since its launch in 2021. The 2026-27 scheme will follow the same broad principles of approach, including an initial call for Statements of Intent to Apply (details below) to ensure more direct support for prospective applicants.
We are inviting applications from early career research staff on a Teaching and Research or Research Contracts. For the purposes of this scheme, a strong candidate would be a member of staff who can demonstrate they are at an early stage of their research career with a proven record of research and/or innovation activity and can demonstrate the potential to be a future independent researcher or future research leader. ECRs will typically be academic staff who have recently completed their doctorate, or have equivalent research experience, and may also include more experienced academic staff who are restarting their research careers.
Applicants should not already be in receipt of a significant amount of external research funding as a PI and their contract with SHU should last for the duration of the fellowship (until the end of Semester 2 2026-27 at the earliest).
We strongly encourage ECR applications from under-represented groups, including female colleagues and members of minority groups.
Details of previous and current Fellowships are available here:
Spotlight on the ECRI Fellows 2025/26
Spotlight on the ECRI Fellows 2024/25
Each successful ECRI Fellow will be expected to lead a programme of Research Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (RIKE) activity which may include, for example, a significant piece of publishable work, the establishment of a new research and innovation area, a new external collaboration, or the development of a major funding application. Each Fellowship will also include a bespoke support programme with an assigned mentor, and tailored development events across the cohort of Fellows. ECRI Fellows will be on a trajectory to be future independent researchers/research leaders and will be expected to proactively engage with their peers and college RIKE activities to contribute to the overall RIKE environment at SHU.
We anticipate being able to award up to 15 new ECRI Fellowships this year, to support early career researchers across a range of disciplines. In this call, we are also interested in applications from researchers focussing on the key research areas of the Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness | Sheffield Hallam University and https://c4.ac.uk/. In addition, given the stronger directive from government for RIKE activity to contribute to economic growth priorities, ensuring your fellowship application clearly articulates any links your research might have to these would also be advantageous.
Fellowship support will be in the form of research time allocation of 0.4FTE within a 12-month period commencing in Semester 2 of the 2026/27 academic year. This timing builds on feedback from previous ECRIF cohorts in terms of ensuring that the timing allows adequate planning for success following confirmation of the award. Each fellowship will also have a budget of up to £5k to cover costs associated with the delivery of the activity proposed.
Where feasible, the 0.4FTE ECRIF time allocation may be allocated as a block during Semester 2 or may be allocated across Semester 2 (26/27) and Semester 1 (27/28). There is also the option of blocking the time in Semester 1 (27/28).
During the Fellowship period, the 0.4FTE allocation is inclusive of the appropriate proportion of the 0.1FTE associated with having Significant Responsibility for Research (SRR). For part-time staff, individual circumstances will be taken into consideration when determining the time allocation.
HOW TO APPLY
Stage 1
Potential applicants are requested to submit a Statement of Intent to Apply, linked here: Statement of Intent Application Form by the deadline of Wednesday 25th February 2026 at 17:00.
Prior to submitting this you must have had a discussion with your Research Innovation & Knowledge Exchange (RIKE) Lead and Deputy Head of School/Institute/Centre or equivalent about your intention to apply. Details of all RIKE leads can be found here.
(Please note that to ensure support for a wider group of staff, previous Fellowship award holders are not eligible to apply for 2026-27 award)
To help with any queries on the Scheme, Researcher and Innovator Development Academy (RIDA) will run a Q&A Drop-In Session on Wednesday 11th February, 13:30-14:30 – please book here. This session will be recorded and made available here from 12th February.
Stage 2
Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria will then be invited to submit a Stage 2 Application to ! RIDA by the deadline of Friday 24th April 2026 at 17:00.
For the full application submission, applicants will be required to demonstrate alignment of the proposed fellowship with College and Institute/School/Centre strategic plans.
The current University Plan can be found here: Planning and Performance Monitoring SharePoint Page.
An example of the Stage 2 form used for the last recruitment round can be viewed here (do not use this form to submit your application – it is for information only):
Fellowship awards will be confirmed week commencing 13th July 2026 to inform work planning from Semester 2 of the 2026/27 academic year.
If you have any queries about the scheme please email ! RIDA
A list of FAQs around the scheme will be added to this page shortly.