Applying for a fellowship

Here you can find some useful information to help with your fellowship application. This information should be read alongside our information on applying for an award, as well as the associated call and guidance document. These documents have all the information and guidance you need to complete your fellowship application.

Click here for more general guidance on Applying for an Award.

The aim of our fellowships is to support researchers to ultimately attain a permanent or tenured position. For that reason, if you already hold a tenured position, you will be ineligible to apply to our fellowship schemes.

A sponsor is directly responsible for providing support for yourself and the project. They are likely to be involved in the project and should hold an established post at the host institution. They are also responsible for guaranteeing facilities and resources for the tenure of an award. Your head of your department does not need to be a sponsor. You can have multiple sponsors and they can be based in different institutions; however, you should have a main sponsor situated at your host institution. You cannot cost sponsors’ time into your fellowship application.

A mentor is an individual that is typically external to the project and may also be external to the institution. They provide a source of advice and inspiration on aspects related to career development. 

We do not require you to include a mentor in your application, however we do encourage our fellows to have mentors, as we believe they are very beneficial for career development. Mentorship can also be arranged after an award has been made. Information on some available mentorship schemes for researchers in the musculoskeletal field can be found on our career support page. 

Information on your proposed mentors should be uploaded as an attachment to your application in the attachments section of the online form.  

We will allow one resubmission to the same fellowship scheme with the same project. You should have taken on board the feedback provided to you in the previous round. You should include a covering letter with your resubmission detailing how you have improved the application in response to this feedback. The funding panel will have access to the previous application, reviews, and feedback as background information.

We understand that flexibility is very important to our fellows and we're pleased to offer flexible working within our fellowship schemes. 

If you have a question which is not covered by this guidance please get in touch with the research office on awards@versusarthritis.org for further advice.

Part-time working

We allow fellowships to be carried out part-time. If you wish to carry out your fellowship part-time please contact the research office on awards@versusarthritis.org before applying to discuss these options.

• Time allocation for the fellowship should be at least 0.6 FTE (three days per week). 
• Part-time working can be taken from the start of the fellowship or requested partway through. 
• Grant end dates can be extended to accommodate time lost through part-time working. 

Periods of absence

Fellowship holders are entitled to take periods of absence from their grant for maternity, paternity and adoption leave as well as periods of long-term sickness. Versus Arthritis will not pay the cost of these absences – it is the responsibility of the Host Institution to ensure all employer statutory and contractual payments for such leave are honoured. Fellowship holders may suspend their fellowship to cover the period of absence.

• We have no formal restrictions on the length of time that can be taken, but the dates should be agreed with the appropriate programme manager responsible for the award. 
• Whilst the grant is suspended, no invoices can be claimed on the grant. 
• The end date of the award will be extended for the same length of time as the period of suspension, so no fellowship time will be lost. 
• All suspension requests need to be submitted through GrantTracker. 

Career breaks

If you have had a period off work of a year or more and have concerns about how this may impact your suitability for a fellowship, please contact a member of the fellowships team on awards@versusarthritis.org prior to applying. Any career breaks will be taken into consideration by our awarding panels. 

We do not normally support the funding of a major clinical trial as part of a fellowship award. Clinical trials should be funded through the appropriate Versus Arthritis grant scheme which has the right expertise to assess clinical trial application content. 

We do not consider that running a trial from within a fellowship in a trial manager role represents good training. Therefore, trials are supported within fellowships in a junior principal investigator role only, to support learning of methodology and recruitment and assist protocol development. We require there to be sufficient fellowship content that is non-trial. 

We do permit fellowship applications to include methodological development work or supplementary analysis as bolt on activity to an established or proposed trial, as well as a feasibility/pilot clinical studies. Such studies are expected to be recruiting in small numbers. We are supportive of fellowship applications being bolted on to a clinical trial that has been supported by Versus Arthritis, or elsewhere, where the fellowship component is contributing to scientific training. 

We typically do not support fellowships within clinical study grants. If data collection or review can only be done by clinically qualified personnel and such activities are core to the study proposal, then support for such activity as a fellowship post may be considered within a trial.

Some Versus Arthritis fellowships have an interview as the final step in the assessment process. It’s therefore crucial to be as prepared as possible. The interview panel will include people with arthritis as well as technical experts, please ensure your presentation and answers to questions are accessible as possible. Below we provide some guidance on the most commonly asked interview questions.

What is the main research question you are trying to answer? 

While this may sound like an obvious question, it can be surprisingly difficult to answer this question concisely and accurately in an interview setting. We would recommend preparing your response and practising ahead of the interview.

Is the work Feasible?

Can you carry out this work - in the time available, with the resources available at the host institution and within the proposed budget? The panel will be assessing the feasibility of the study you have proposed and that you as the applicant are able to bring the project to fruition by demonstrating that you have considered all aspects above.

What are your career intentions?

As the aim of our fellowships is to attract and retain talented researchers to develop independent research careers and progress towards higher level appointments, it is important for you to have considered how this fellowship will contribute to your future plans and ambitions.

What is your response to the reviewers’ feedback?

It is important to have read your peer reviewer feedback thoroughly and have considered how to address these ahead of the interview.

Statistics: How did you derive your power calculation?

Be prepared to answer questions on any statistics you may have included in the applications and justify how these final numbers were derived. 

We would always recommend arranging to have a mock interview at your institution prior to the fellowship interview, in order to practice answering questions on your project and career plans in an interview setting. 

Fellowship award holders requiring a visa to work in the UK are eligible to apply for a Global Talent visa under the fast-track process of endorsement. Other visa categories are available. 

In line with the highly prestigious nature of your award, the Global Talent visa is designed for people who are recognised as leaders and potential leaders in their field. Should you wish to apply for this visa, you should select the ‘Fast Track consideration’ option on the Home Office endorsement application form and use your award letter as evidence of your fellowship. It is recommended that you arrange your visa in plenty of time before the start date of your award. 

Further details can be found at GOV.UK and The Royal Society.