Pre-announcement – Restricted Call: Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships 2025, Round 3 (indicative internal deadline: June 2025)

We anticipate that the Royal Society will likely open Round 3 of their 2025 Wolfson Fellowships scheme in June 2025. The programme is to enable UK Universities to strategically recruit and attract outstanding international researchers to the UK’s scientific community. This can be achieved through one of the following routes:

This strand focuses entirely on recruitment, enabling UK institutions to enhance their offering with a £300,000 fellowship award to international research leaders wishing to relocate to the UK. The funding can be used flexibly to conduct high-quality research as part of their start-up package. The funding can cover salary enhancement of up to 20%, research expenses at 100% fEC, research assistants at 80% fEC, 4-year PhD studentships, and other justified research costs.Please note, for the five-year fellowship the start date of appointment and the start date of the Fellowship must correlate and fall within the six-month period beginning nine months from the funder deadline. Based on the dates of previous rounds, we anticipate this period to be May-November 2026.

This strand allows excellent international researchers a flexible 12-month sabbatical period at a UK university with an award of up to £125,000 to build and develop international collaborations and networks with the host UK university. The fellowship can be held full time for 1 year or flexibly over 2 years – but the total period of the sabbatical must always amount to 12 months. The funding can cover bursary for visiting fellows up to £80k, research expenses including small equipment up to £10k, and other justified costs.

Eligibility for both strands:

  • Applicants can be of any nationality.
  • Research must be within the eligible subjects.
  • The applicant must be currently based overseas.
  • Candidates should be talented researchers with a proven track record for high quality scientific research. This may include, as appropriate: a strong publication record, being invited to conferences as keynote speaker and evidence of scientific leadership and/or supervising or mentoring junior researchers.
  • The Royal Society recognises that diversity is essential for delivering excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Society wants to encourage applications from the widest range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to maximise innovation and creativity in science for the benefit of humanity.

Note on funding:

Please note that this funding (both strands) cannot be used to cover salary on-costs (employer’s NI and pension contributions) or Estate and Indirect costs directly associated with the Fellow. Any shortfall in salary on-costs for the Fellow must be covered by the hosting department. 

University Internal selection:

Institutions nominating more than one candidate across both strands will be expected to: (1) make a strong case against the organisation’s strategic priorities, (2) outline internal selection process to the funder, (3) providing a ranking of proposals where more than one is submitted to the same strand of the call, and (4) detail what other support (direct or in-kind) will be provided to the applicants. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure.

We anticipate asking interested departments to complete an online selection form by late June 2025. The full requirements for the internal process as well as the link to the online submission form will be provided once the call opens. For now, for your information and convenience, the attached document outlines the qu­­estions we anticipate requesting for the internal selection process. Please note that due to the funder’s request for ranking of proposals, the internal deadline will be enforced, and any late applications will need to be held back to the next round of funding.

Assessment criteria:

Internal applications will be assessed using the Royal Society criteria:

  • Candidate’s track record.
  • The strength of the strategic case for the nomination and fit to the University’s research strategy.
  • The high quality and originality of the candidate’s proposed research vision – including the potential impact of the research and benefit to the UK science base.
  • Visiting Fellowships only: The mutual benefit to the University and the researcher, including potential to develop ongoing international collaborative links, supervise or mentor junior researchers, share ideas and practice.

Funder timeline:

Anticipated opening date: June 2025

Anticipated funder deadline: August 2025

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.