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Postdoc fellowships

The Department is seeking outstanding post-doctoral candidates for the post-doctoral fellowship opportunities, including but not limited to the early-career schemes detailed below. If you are interested in applying for a post-doctoral fellowship with the Department of Sociology as host, please firstly ensure you have read and meet the eligibility criteria for your chosen scheme.

You are then invited to submit the following documents to sociology-research-admin@york.ac.uk, using the email subject heading and your covering letter to indicate which scheme you wish to apply for:

For more information on what the University offers to help you prepare for applying for a Fellowship, see our Fellowships webpages.

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship

This scheme supports a postdoctoral fellowship for up to one year full time (or two years part-time) to give fellows the opportunity to prepare for a successful career in research either within or beyond academia.

There is one call per year for outline proposals, typically in January.

This call is open to applicants who have undertaken their PhD at a research organisation that is part of an ESRC DTP or CDT, and who will have no more than 12 months of active postdoctoral experience by the closing date for full proposals, or who will have submitted their thesis and passed their viva voce with minor corrections by the full proposal deadline, with the expectation that the PhD will be awarded by the start of the Fellowship.

Further details are available at the ESRC WR DTP website.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships

With a focus on mobility, research projects and training, Marie Curie Fellowships are aimed at early career researchers who wish to carry out research activities abroad, acquire new skills and develop their careers.

The next round will open in April 2024, with a deadline for applications in September 2024.

The Department of Sociology welcomes potential fellows wishing to apply for both European and Global Fellowships*:

  • European Fellowships are open to researchers of any nationality who are either moving to Europe (including the UK) from outside the EU, or moving from one European country to another. These fellowships last for 1-2 years.
  • Global Fellowships are only open to European (including UK) researchers (defined as European/UK nationals or long-term residents). They enable researchers to spend 1-2 years at an institution outside the EU, returning to the University of York for the final 12 months of their fellowship.

The Department seeks excellent applicants whose proposed research complements the work of our research clusters (see Research - Sociology, University of York) and where a suitable academic mentor has been identified in advance (see Academic staff - Sociology, University of York).

*Applicants should usually be within 8 years of their PhD and cannot have spent more than 12 of the last 36 months in the country in which they wish to take up their fellowship.

British Academy - Postdoctoral Fellowships

This Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme is for outstanding early career researchers who are within three years of their PhD to undertake a three-year research project.

There is one call per year for outline applications, typically in September/October.

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships

The Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships can be applied for by early career researchers with a research record but who have not yet held a full-time permanent academic post, to undertake a significant piece of publishable work.

Fellowships can be held at UK universities with research degree awarding powers.  The Fellowships are intended to assist those at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, and it is hoped that the appointment would lead to a more permanent position for the individual, either within the same or another university.

There is one call a year, with expressions of interest being made to the Department well in advance of the usual call opening date in January of each year.