ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships Funding Opportunity

UKRI Funding Opportunities (All Councils)

Published March 24th, 2026

Detected March 25th, 2026

Summary

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has opened applications for its postdoctoral fellowships, with a closing date of June 1, 2026. This opportunity aims to support early-career researchers in developing publications, networks, and professional skills following their PhD.

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What changed

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has announced the opening of its postdoctoral fellowship funding opportunity, with applications due by June 1, 2026. This program is designed to support researchers who have recently completed their PhDs (with less than 15 months of postdoctoral experience) in the UK, enabling them to develop publications, networks, research skills, and professional skills.

Eligible applicants must have completed their PhD at an ESRC doctoral training network institution and have less than 15 months of active postdoctoral experience. The fellowships must be held at an ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership institution. While new research is not funded, the program supports activities such as producing publications, engaging with audiences, building networks, undertaking internships, further training, developing funding proposals, and limited teaching. Researchers are encouraged to apply, with a focus on social sciences comprising at least 50% of fellowship activities.

What to do next

Review eligibility criteria for ESRC postdoctoral fellowships.
Prepare and submit fellowship application by the June 1, 2026 deadline.
Ensure proposed fellowship activities align with career aspirations and ESRC requirements.

Source document (simplified)

Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: ESRC postdoctoral fellowships

Opportunity status: Open Funders: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Funding type: Fellowship Publication date: 24 March 2026 Opening date:

24 March 2026 9:00am UK time

Closing date:

1 June 2026 11:59pm UK time

Apply for a postdoctoral fellowship to develop:

publications
networks
research skills
professional skills
You must have:
completed your PhD in the UK at a research organisation that is part of ESRC’s doctoral training network
less than 15 months active postdoctoral experience (at full-time rate) measured from passing your viva voce to the funding opportunity closing date
Fellowships must be held at a research organisation that is part of a Doctoral Training Partnership and aligned to an accredited subject area.

Who can apply

The funding opportunity is open to applicants who have:

completed their PhD in the UK at a research organisation that is part of ESRC’s doctoral training network
less than 15 months of active postdoctoral experience (at full-time equivalent rate) from passing their viva voce to the competition closing date
At the submission deadline, you must either have:
been awarded a PhD
have submitted your thesis and passed your viva voce with minor corrections, with the expectation that the PhD will be awarded by the fellowship start date
If major corrections are required to your thesis you will not be eligible for this year’s funding opportunity, unless you can show that your corrections have been submitted and approved by the competition closing date.

Your proposal can be from a single discipline or a combination of disciplines, but social sciences must make up at least 50% of your fellowship activities.

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

career breaks
support for people with caring responsibilities
flexible working
alternative working patterns Find out more about EDI at UKRI.

What we're looking for

Scope

Your actual programme or proposed programme of activities should reflect your prior knowledge and experience and be designed to support your longer-term research career aspirations.

Your application must demonstrate a realistic and practicable programme of work. Some suggested activities which could be included are as follows, but it is important to note that you are not expected to complete all activities on this list:

producing publications in order to help establish track record
engaging with a range of different audiences to communicate research findings
building networks to develop impact opportunities and inform and support further development
collaborating with users through an internship or placement to help develop professional and transferrable skills and understanding of users’ organisations, provided they are an integral part of the fellowship
further training to improve research and related skills
developing funding proposals
teaching, if this is aligned with the wider purposes of the fellowship (up to a maximum of six hours per week)
research visits to internationally leading research organisations, either in the UK or abroad, for the purposes of research collaboration, training, and access to data or other resources not available at your host organisation. New research cannot be funded through these fellowships.

Fellowships must be held at a research organisation that is part of a Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) and aligned to an accredited subject area.

We welcome proposals from both single disciplines and combinations of disciplines, but the fellowship activities must be based at least 50% within the social sciences.

Duration

The duration of this award is up to nine months full-time, or up to 18 months part-time. The duration of part-time awards should be pro-rated based on the fellow’s time commitment.

Fellowships must start on 1 October 2026. We will consider requests for later start dates in exceptional circumstances. Speak to your DTP to discuss this.

How to apply

Applications must be made directly to the DTP and they will administer the assessment process. Only one application to a single DTP is permitted.

DTPs will have their own procedures in place to assess proposals through expert review and make funding decisions on behalf of ESRC. Where this includes an expression of interest stage, you must abide by the deadlines specified by the DTP to which you intend applying.

Full details, including the opportunity specification, a frequently asked questions document and an application form will be available on the DTP websites.

Deadline

You must submit a full proposal along with the required attachments by 1 June 2026 at 11.59pm UK time to the DTP you are applying to.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

The DTPs participating in this round of the opportunity are:

CAM DTP
Grand Union DTP
London Interdisciplinary Social Science DTP
London School of Economics DTP
Midlands Graduate School DTP
Northern Ireland and North East DTP
North West Social Science DTP
Scottish Graduate School of Social Science DTP
South Coast DTP
South and East Network for Social Sciences (SENSS) DTP
South East Doctoral Training Arc (SEDarc) DTP
South West DTP
UCL, Bloomsbury and East London DTP
Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences DTP
White Rose Social Sciences DTP DTPs are currently updating their web pages with the opportunity details, which will be completed by 1 April 2026 at the latest.

Personal data

Processing personal data

ESRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your UKRI Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.