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Plan for a fellowship
Fellowships require a lot of lead time – don’t leave it too late
Fellowships have a significant track record component and there are often limits on how many times you can apply. Make sure your timing is right.
Key takeaways
- Understand scheme objectives, attend info sessions and talk to mentors.
- Identify and address track record gaps well in advance.
- Assess track record objectively and consider benchmarking yourself.
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Well before you apply, familiarise yourself with the purpose, objectives and assessment criteria of the fellowship scheme you’re considering; they’re all slightly different. If you’re interested in the major fellowship schemes, you should attend one of the University’s information sessions on ARC fellowships (UniKey required) or NHMRC fellowships (UniKey required).
We recommend you do all this not only in the year you intend to apply, but the year before that! It’s important to find out as early as possible what the expectations are, and whether there are gaps or areas of weakness in your track record you should address to be competitive. Make these your short-term career goals.
Collect evidence of impact well in advance
For NHMRC fellowships – called Investigator Grants – 20% of the score is based on a section about your Research Impact. Many applicants struggle with this section, either because their research has not yet achieved substantial impact (which is especially the case, understandably, for ECRs) or because, even if it has, they can’t find publicly available evidence to verify it. This Research Impact section definitely benefits from advance planning.
Even for ARC fellowships, although there is no dedicated Research Impact section you still need to write about your impact in the ‘Research Opportunities and Performance Evidence’ (ROPE) section. Collecting evidence of impact is helpful no matter which fellowship scheme you’re applying for.
What to learn more about impact? Check out our impact pages.
Make sure it is worth applying
Finally, it’s important to be as objective as possible when assessing the competitiveness of your track record. Some people are naturally inclined to be overconfident, others underconfident. Here, benchmarking your research performance would be helpful.
Also, fellowships based overseas are often comparatively unknown quantities. You may meet all the eligibility requirements and appear competitive in terms of the selection criteria, in theory, but the reality might be different. It is not uncommon, for example, to be eligible for an overseas fellowship, but on closer inspection you discover that the fellowship has never been awarded to someone outside the home country.
Seek advice from supervisors, mentors and the Research Portfolio.