The Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship provides long-term flexible funding for senior career researchers recruited or retained to a UK university or research institution in fields identified as a strategic priority for the host department or organization. Moreover, the aims of the programme are to:

• Consider strengthening research in the UK’s best University departments and Research Institutions in fields to be strategically important by the institution.
• Likewise, enable UK Universities and Research Institutions to attract to the UK outstanding researchers from overseas in strategic areas.
• Similarly, help maintain the strength of the best research departments in UK Universities and Research Institutions by ensuring that they can retain their most talented scientists in strategic areas.
• Also, provide flexible funding to excellent research leaders including scientists whose career is on a steep upward trajectory, to conduct high-quality research.

Benefits

• This scheme provides up to five years of funding.
• Also, the institution may include a salary enhancement for the researcher. This will limit to a maximum of 20% of the total salary.
• Flexible research expenses including consumables, travel, small pieces of equipment of up to £10K, access costs, undergraduate students and a contribution to technical support.
• Also, the cost of PhD studentship may only be included if the host organization will commit to underwriting the remaining cost of the studentship and appropriate alternative supervision for the student in the event that the RS Wolfson Research Fellow leaves the institution.
• The funding intends to be flexible so other appropriate and justified research costs are also eligible.

Eligibility

1. The Candidate: These grants are aimed at exceptional researchers at the peak of their career as well as those established researchers whose career is on a steep upward trajectory. Vice Chancellor or Institute Director (or their representative) from the proposed host institution should nominate the candidates. Nominated researchers must either currently hold a permanent post or have received a firm offer to take effect from the start of the appointment. Nominated individuals must not have previously held a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award.
2. Place of tenure: Appointments must be held (fully) at a UK university or not-for-profit research institution.  As such if the RS Wolfson Fellow leaves the host organization during the tenure of their fellowship award, the grant will be withdrawn with no further funding provided.
3. Subjects covered: Research must be within the Royal Society’s remit of natural sciences, which includes but is not limited to biological research, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics. The Royal Society does not cover clinical medicine (such as patient orientated research and clinical trials), social sciences or humanities, other than when working in partnership with organizations. Clinical and patient orientated research is considered to be an interventional study on human participants at the individual or group level, including surgical or drug intervention. Eligible use of human participants in research can include investigation, for example, the use of human tissue or other biological samples, chemistry techniques, mathematical modeling or engineering, translational research and collaborative research with clinicians.