Lord Kelvin / Adam Smith (LKAS) Fellowships

Researchers currently employed at another institution 

Researchers can apply for Leadership Fellowship funding in conjunction with an application for an external award. If they have already secured an externally funded research fellowship and wish to bring this to Glasgow, they can also apply for LKAS Leadership Fellowship funding prior to commencing employment at the University of Glasgow and starting their external fellowship.

Researchers based at the University of Glasgow 

Applications for Leadership Fellowship funding must be submitted in conjunction with an application for an external award. Leadership Fellowship applications will not be accepted after the external fellowship is awarded. Once approved by the relevant College, LKAS Leadership Fellowship applications must be submitted to the LKAS team (ris-lkas@glasgow.ac.uk) for institutional approval at least three weeks in advance of the external funding deadline. Please note: Colleges will have different processes in place for approving applications; please contact your College Office for more information. All LKAS Leadership Fellowship applications must be submitted through the relevant College Office. The LKAS team will not accept applications directly from the fellowship applicant. Please ensure you contact your College Office before submitting a Leadership Fellowship application.

Leadership Fellows Terms & Conditions

The LKAS Leadership Fellows Terms & Conditions are available for:

• MVLS/COSE: LKAS Leadership T&Cs_STEM
• ARTS/COSS: LKAS Leadership T&Cs_SHAPE

• Leadership funding is available to high quality researchers who are in the early stages of their careers and are not already holding established positions within a relevant institution.
• Applicants must meet the eligibility criteria for the relevant externally-funded fellowship. Additionally, applicants will be expected to demonstrate an outstanding capacity for innovative research and have a strong publications record.
• The University of Glasgow welcomes those returning to work after a period of absence or those who require a flexible working pattern, and supports schemes such as The Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships and The Daphne Jackson Trust Fellowships.
• All applicants will be judged against equivalent quality thresholds.
• Funding is available to potential Fellows in the process of applying to an external scheme who intend to undertake their research at the University. Alternatively, Leadership funds may be committed to support an external candidate already holding an external fellowship at another institution who wishes to transfer their fellowship to the University. 

LKAS LF awards offer support for those applying for externally funded fellowships, as well as external applicants already holding funded fellowships who would like to join UofG. There are broad eligibility criteria, all of which need to be fulfilled for internal (currently at UofG) and external applicants.

Applicant eligibility

The applicant should not be in an open-ended, permanent position at UofG at the time of applying for an LKAS LF. However, note the following points:

• Where the applicant is in an open-ended post with a funding end date, they are considered eligible as they are not in a permanent role.
• In the case of a proleptic post, this is not considered eligible as the applicant will be able to move into a post without the support offered by LKAS LF in its continuation options (see below).

Scheme eligibility

Broadly, for a fellowship scheme to be eligible for LKAS LF support, it must have a duration of at least 3 years. Schemes that are less than 3 years are not eligible to be supported by LKAS LF.

The LKAS team can only advise on the broad eligibility of a scheme in terms of the career stage it supports. All LKAS LF applications must be signed off by Head of School/Dean of Research/Head of College to deem a scheme eligible. 

Eligible Costs

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of costs that LKAS supports: salary and research costs.

Salary costs

This includes match-funded components of salary for the Principal Investigator (PI) who is awarded the LKAS LF award, recruitment of a post-doctoral research associate (PDRA) or technician for a set duration or studentship costs* where feasible.

*Where there is a shortfall incurred due to the increased UKRI stipend fees, the shortfall must be covered by the Colleges, and this must be agreed with the Colleges ahead of time as the £110k cap on LKAS LF funds is not flexible.

Research costs

This includes consumables, equipment, travel costs for conferences, publication costs to support open access (OA) commitments.

Ineligible costs

While LKAS LF funds should be utilised to fund items that the external funder will not cover, the LKAS LF funds cannot be used to cover removal (visa) expenses for the PI, dependents and/or PDRA. The University already has provision to cover this where eligible through its HR service and anything out with this cannot be claimed under research costs. Visa costs when applying for conferences are considered flexible.

Additional ineligible costs include severance and parental leave of any kind. If there is any uncertainty around whether a specific cost is eligible, PCs should contact the LKAS team.

Completed applications and a short CV must be submitted by the applicant’s College Research Support Office (CRSO). All applications must have a continuation option selected and have signed approval from the Dean of Research. These must be submitted as two separate files in either .docx or .pdf format. CRSOs should ensure that they are using the most recent version of the application form, as changes may have been made since the last submission.

Application documents must be submitted to the LKAS team 3 weeks prior to the external deadline. This ensures enough time for review by the Vice Principal of Research and Knowledge Exchange (VP R&KE). If the VP R&KE is unavailable to review LKAS applications for an extended period of time, an appropriate alternate will assess the application(s). 

If CRSO are aware of any application delay, they should contact the LKAS team as soon as possible in advance of submitting the application.

LKAS LF applications will only be accepted prior to the submission of the external fellowship application, with the exception of fellows wishing to transfer their successful fellowship to UofG from another institution.

Internal applicants

If an application is submitted on behalf of an internal candidate, the application should reach the LKAS team via the mailbox address ris-lkas@glasgow.ac.uk at least three weeks prior to the external fellowship deadline.

External applicants

For external candidates who have already decided to apply with UofG as their host institution, please treat this as an internal application for all practical purposes. If an external candidate is applying to bring their successful external fellowship to UofG and meets the eligibility criteria, then they can apply at any point before they start in post at UofG.

Additional application guidance

In the section on contributions and outputs, please remind applicants about the DORA principles to which the University is a signatory. This is mentioned in the application form itself, but please ask them to avoid references to H-indices and impact factors.

Approval Process

When applications are received, the LKAS team will send off the documents to the VP R&KE (or an appointed deputy) for approval.  Once an application has been approved, the LKAS team will notify the applicant’s PC of the approval. The PC should then proceed with the application process.

When waiting for approval, PC’s should continue with the external fellowship application process.

To note: this continuation clause is applicable only to those who have applied for a Leadership Fellowship (LF) after 1 January 2022 and had their LF application approved.

The LKAS Leadership award has two options relating to continuation of posts, depending on which College the Fellow is in. The continuation policy will be agreed for each candidate at the application stage. 

Colleges of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences and Science & Engineering

For Fellowships of at least 5 years, the options are as follows:

• Option 1: Fellows will be awarded an open-ended post, conditional on meeting certain College-defined criteria (e.g. applying for/securing a certain level of funding over the course of their fellowship, completing ECDP/PgCAP, meeting challenging objectives appropriate to Grade).
• Option 2: No later than 12 months from the end of the fellowship, fellows will be guaranteed the opportunity to apply for an open-ended position to start immediately following the fellowship.

Colleges of Arts and Social Sciences

For Fellowships of 3 years or longer, the options are as follows:

• Option 1: Fellows will be awarded an open-ended post, conditional on meeting certain College-defined criteria (e.g. applying for/securing a certain level of funding over the course of their fellowship, completing ECDP/PgCAP, meeting challenging objectives appropriate to Grade).
• Option 2: No later than 12 months from the end of the fellowship, fellows will be guaranteed the opportunity to apply for an open-ended position to start immediately following the fellowship.

If you are interested in submitting a Leadership Fellowship application, please contact the relevant College Research Office using the emails below.

Previously eligible external fellowship schemes

• Action Research Training Fellowship

• AXA Fellowship

• BA Postdoctoral Fellowship

• BBSRC Fellowship

• BCUK Fellowship

• BHF Intermediate Basic Science Fellowship

• BHF Intermediate Clinical Fellowship

• Branco Weiss Fellowship

• CRUK Career Development Fellowship

• CSO Early Postdoctoral Fellowship

• EPSRC Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship

• EPSRC Open Fellowship

• EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship

• EPSRC Quantum Technologies Career Acceleration Fellowship

• EPSRC Stephen Hawking Fellowship

• ERC Starting Grant

• Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship

• MRC Career Development Award

• MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship

• MRC Daphne Jackson Fellowship

• MRC New Investigator Research Grant

• NERC Research Fellowship

• NIHR Population Health Career Scientist Award

• Norman Lockyer Fellowship 

• RAEng Research Fellowship

• RC Exhibition 1851 Fellowship

• RS Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship

• RS University Research Fellowship

• STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship

• UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship

• VA Career Development Award

• Wellcome Trust Early Career Award

• Wellcome Trust Career Development Award