Call for expressions of interest - Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester

The British main research funder for the social sciences, the ESRC, has recently issued a call for outline applications to the Future Leaders programme with a deadline of 15 September.  The call is aimed at supporting the research development of outstanding early career researchers (up to 4 years of postdoctoral experience, but including also those who will obtain their PhD by 1^st October 2012), and contributing to their transition to permanent academic posts in British research institutions and universities. Proposals should be for projects with a maximum duration of 3 years and the maximum budget is £215,000 at 100% full economic costing (FEC).

As the ESRC will support a maximum of 60% of the salary costs of the Future Research Leader grant holders’ time, universities putting forward candidates will have to fund the remaining 40% of the salary costs. For this reason, the University of Leicester will select prospective candidates through a two-stage process, first at the disciplinary departments level and, later on, at the university level.

Consequently, the Department of Politics and International Relations (http://www.le.ac.uk/po/) is willing to support up to two outstanding early career scholars who express an interest in putting forward an application to this ESRC scheme and who are working in any of the areas of Politics and International Relations that we prioritise:

- International Politics (especially, Foreign and Security Policies, Human Rights and Global Politics)

- Comparative and British Politics (especially, political behaviour, party politics and the politics of immigration)

- Political Theory (especially in relation to challenges to liberal political thought)

Interested candidates should read carefully the ESRC outline with the call aims and requirements (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/Future-Research-Leaders-Outline-Call-Specification-2011_tcm8-15943.pdf) as well as the Guidance Notes for Applicants (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/Future-Research-Leaders-Outline-call-2011-Je-S-Guidance-Notes_tcm8-15944.pdf), as these specify the eligibility requirements.

Particularly, it is important that prospective candidates meet the following requirements:

- Applicants should have a maximum of four years’ academic research experience following the completion of their PhD, or be of equivalent professional standing. The four-year period is measured from the submission date of the PhD thesis. Career breaks will be excluded from the four-year period.

- Applicants may not be current or former principal investigators on ESRC or other Research Council grants, except ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships and Research Councils UK Fellows.

The Department of Politics and International Relations will consider all expressions of interest that are sent for our consideration by Tuesday 26^th July. The following documents should be sent to laura.morales@le.ac.uk:

- 2-pages CV, including details on qualifications, research output and experience, and (if applicable) teaching experience, and highlighting in particular the Social Sciences Citation Index positioning (quartiles) of publications in journals.

- 3-pages outlining the proposed research project and the career development plans (a draft version of what should then become the Case for Support section of the application form).

Prospective applicants should bear in mind that for this year’s call the ESRC particularly encourage research proposals involving secondary analysis of existing datasets (especially of those collected with ESRC funding) and the application of innovative research methods. Information about existing datasets that might be of interest to candidates can be found here: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/tools-and-resources/research-resources/index.aspx

Also, given that this will be a highly competitive call at all stages of the selection process, we will only consider supporting candidates with publications in first and second quartile international journals and/or with a monograph (published or in contract).

The Department will inform all candidates of their decision to support or not their application by the end of July. A further selection panel of the University will draw-up a short-list in mid-August and will be invited to work on their applications for internal submission to the Vice-Chancellor office the first week of September so that the application can be submitted to the ESRC by 15^th September. The candidates supported by the Department will be informed of the exact dates of deadlines they will need to meet by the end of July.

The full details of the call can be found at http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/15938/future-research-leaders.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ESRCCurrentFundingOpportunities+%28ESRC+Current+Funding+Opportunities%29

Informal enquiries can be sent to sent to laura.morales@le.ac.uk

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