The ESRC have issued their own FAQs document, which is available here.

We have developed further FAQs which are not addressed in that document. Please click on the question headings that you are interested in to see the answers.


ELIGIBILITY QUERIES

What is "active post-doctoral experience"?

The ESRC describes active postdoctoral experience as any research post that is undertaken since passing your viva (not matter when that was). You must have no more than 12 months experience in a research post at the time of the closing date of the competition.


Are there any residential eligibility criteria for this competition?

No. Applications are encouraged from home, EU and international applicants.


Does it matter where I obtained my PhD?

Yes. You must have completed your PhD at a research organisation that is part of a Doctoral Training Partnership. A list of these eligible organisations can be found here.


FUNDING QUERIES

How much funding can I apply for?

There is no maximum limit on the overall amount applied for, but there is a £10,000 limit on costs (excluding the fellow’s salary, as well as associated indirect and estate costs). In addition, 10% of the total amount applied for must be set aside for impact costs. Please bear in mind that the ESRC will only pay 80% of the full economic costing of the fellowship, and the host institution is expected to pay the remaining 20%.


Can I include in my costings funds to employ a laboratory technician to assist with my research?

The ESRC have agreed that, if this support is considered essential and will come within the £10k allowed for "other costs", you can include them in your application. However, the ESRC have made it very clear they would expect this to be on an ad-hoc basis, as the only staff permitted on this grant is the fellow.


Can I include the costs of my visa application?

As per the ESRC's Research Funding Guide (p.26), visa costs for named staff relocating to work 100% on a grant (as would be the case for a PDF) could be claimed, provided that these are not already covered by the institution as part and parcel of any indirect costs as these relate to the PDF's employment. If these are not covered by the institution, visa costs can be claimed for the PDF only and not for any of their family members. Any such claimed costs would need to come within the overall £10K budget for "other costs".


MENTORS

How many mentors must I have, and where should they be based?

The ESRC requires Fellows to have a mentor based at the research organisation where the fellowship, and states that, “a secondary mentor is permitted”. However, please note that SeNSS requires its Fellows to have two mentors during their fellowship: one based at the Fellow’s home institution, and one at another SeNSS institution. SeNSS has taken this position, which is endorsed by the ESRC, because we believe that having a second mentor from a different SeNSS university will strengthen the Fellow’s research, expose the Fellow to different institutional practices and increase the Fellow’s access to professional academic and non-academic networks.

For these reasons, applicants must name two mentors in their applications.

What are the requirements for mentors?

Primary mentor

  • Must be a senior academic staff member at the applicant's proposed home institution and that institution must be a SeNSS university.
  • Must be based in a department that is included in a SeNSS Pathway.
  • The same applies if the applicant’s proposed research programme is interdisciplinary. One of the disciplines must be clearly aligned with a SeNSS Pathway and the primary mentor must be an academic based in a department that is included in that SeNSS Pathway. (At least 50% of the proposal must be within the social sciences, and within one of the SeNSS Pathways.)

Second mentor

  • Must be an academic staff member at a different SeNSS university.
  • Does not have to be linked to a specific SeNSS Pathway but must bring clearly articulated value to the mentoring team.

Third mentor

  • If desired, a third mentor may be included in the mentoring team and may be EITHER an academic staff member at any university with expertise in a relevant discipline, OR a person with relevant non-academic expertise.


Can I claim costs for my mentors?

Yes, you can. Set out these costs under the "other costs" heading (in the justification of costs attachment), and the total funding sought under this heading must come within the £10,000 limit.


ON-LINE APPLICATION FORM QUERIES

All applications must be submitted via our on-line application portal (HEIapply).

How do I create an HEIapply account?

The link to the SeNSS HEIapply portal will be available on the SeNSS PDF Fellowships webpage, and will open for applications each year in early November.

A number of sections in the application form have character limits. Does this include or exclude spaces?

The character limits include spaces. The ESRC has set these limits as they match the limits on the Je-S system (the ESRC's online grant management system) which successful applicants must use to submit their proposals to the ESRC for formal approval.

An easy way to work out how many characters, including spaces, you have used for various sections of your application, is to draft your text using Word. Under the "Review" tab, in the top left of the sreen, you will see a "word count" icon. If you click on that, it will tell you how many characters you have used, including with spaces.


CURRENT SeNSS ESRC-FUNDED POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWS

What are current PDFs doing?

If you would like to know what our current cohort of PDFs are researching, where, and with whom, please click here.


WHAT MAKES AN EXCELLENT PDF APPLICATION?

One of our current PDFs has kindly agreed to allow parts of her application to be shared as an example of excellence. To read it, please click here.