About
The Royal Society is the independent scientific academy of the United Kingdom, dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity. Founded in 1660, it is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. The Society is a self-governing Fellowship made up of many of the world's most eminent scientists, engineers, and technologists. It provides grant schemes to support the UK scientific community and foster international collaboration, publishes scientific journals, recognizes excellence through medals and awards, advises policy makers, and engages with the public and schools on science.
Funding Opportunities
The Royal Society Yusuf Hamied Visiting Fellowships
The Yusuf Hamied Visiting Fellowships support the Royal Society's mission to promote excellence in science and the application of science for the benefit of humanity. The programme is generously supported by the Yusuf and Farida Hamied Foundation as part of the Royal Society Yusuf Hamied Programme for India. The scheme supports visits to India of between 3 to 12 weeks, facilitating the exchange of expertise between scientific communities in the UK and India. The Royal Society will help visiting Fellows make arrangements for their return flights (up to a maximum of £5,000) and provides a weekly travel grant of £1,000, calculated pro rata, to cover accommodation, in-country travel, insurance, visa and subsistence costs as well as any project, activity or research costs. Up to five applicants will be selected for the Visiting Fellowships for each round.
The Lisa Jardine Grant Scheme
The Lisa Jardine Grant Scheme is named in memory of the eminent British historian Professor Lisa Jardine CBE FRS. The scheme encourages early career researchers to expand their interests in history of science and related interdisciplinary studies by travelling in order to use archival resources, to build relationships with the Royal Society and other institutions and to access training and networking opportunities for career development. Grants are intended to encourage the free movement of researchers across disciplines and countries, to stimulate academics studying intellectual history to consider science in their research and encourage scientists to look back at the origins and historical data related to their discipline. The scheme provides funding for research subsistence (up to £2,000 per month for a maximum of 3 months) for living expenses and domestic travel while attending the Royal Society collections and other nearby scholarly collections, and/or international travel (up to £2,000) for short exploratory research trips or event attendance. Special consideration is given to topics that were of interest to Professor Jardine, notably in 17th century studies.
Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship
The five-year Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships enable UK universities and not-for-profit research institutions to attract and recruit outstanding emerging or established international research leaders wishing to relocate to the UK to their organisation. The objectives are to enable UK universities to strategically recruit and attract outstanding international research leaders from overseas by offering long-term support and flexible funding to conduct high-quality research, and to strengthen research and help build a critical mass of excellence in the UK's best university departments in fields considered strategically important. The scheme is jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Royal Society. Following recent updates, the scheme now offers increased flexibility on start dates, extends eligibility to emerging leaders as well as established leaders, and runs two rounds per year. Applicants must be mid- or senior career researchers with a proven track record for high-quality scientific research, currently based overseas, who will receive a firm offer of employment from a UK host organisation. Those who have recently arrived in the UK (within six months of the deadline) are also eligible to apply.
Royal Society Research Professorship
The Royal Society Research Professorships are the Society's premier research awards, which provide long term support to world-class researchers of outstanding achievement. The freedom provided by the Research Professorship enables the best internationally leading researchers to focus on ambitious and original research of the highest quality, in a UK academic institution. Royal Society Research Professorships provide long term support to world-class researchers of outstanding achievement who are currently prevented from achieving full research capability by competing duties (i.e. already based in the UK) or who wish to relocate to the UK to undertake their research. Research Professors are appointed for up to ten years and funding can be requested up to £3 million to cover this period. From the next round opening early 2026, applicants will be asked to submit a research proposal and costs for a ten-year fellowship, with costs for years six to ten subject to satisfactory progress and completion of a mid-fellowship checkpoint review in year four.
Research grants
The Research Grants scheme provides 'seed corn' funding for up to 12 months for independent researchers in the UK who are at an early stage in their career or returning from a career break. The objectives are to enable newly independent researchers to gather preliminary data, develop their research ideas and strengthen applications for further funding; support independent researchers returning to academia after a career break to enable them to develop new ideas and research questions; and increase the availability of equipment and consumables for researchers at the beginning of their career and those returning from career breaks. The scheme provides up to £30,000 of funding for up to 12 months and can cover equipment, consumables, and travel costs and subsistence for essential field research. The Royal Society recognises that diversity is essential for delivering excellence in STEM and encourages applications from the widest range of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.
Public Engagement Fund
The Public Engagement Fund provides between £500 and £10,000 for Royal Society-funded researchers to design and deliver public engagement projects based on their research. The scheme aims to support innovative projects that engage non-scientific public audiences with exciting scientific research through interactive, two-way communication. The minimum amount of funding available is £500 and the maximum is £10,000 over two years, with up to £5,000 available for one-year projects. The fund is specifically designed for Royal Society Research Fellows to create and lead public engagement initiatives that reach beyond their academic institutions. Projects should be designed for specific non-scientific audiences and provide opportunities for open dialogue between researchers and the public. The scheme particularly welcomes projects that reach underrepresented audiences, facilitate collaboration between science and the arts, involve community organisations, and include elements of co-creation. Successful projects should be based on Royal Society-funded research and aim to produce benefits for the public, the researcher, and any partners or collaborators. The fund encourages applicants to involve their institution's public engagement teams and to contact the Royal Society's Public Engagement team for consultation at any point during the application process.
Newton International Fellowships
The Newton International Fellowship (NIF) programme provides support for outstanding early career researchers to make a first step towards developing an independent research career through gaining experience across international borders. The fellowships enable researchers to access expertise, gain new perspectives and build long-lasting collaborative relationships. This scheme is jointly run by the British Academy and the Royal Society. The overarching aim of the Newton International Fellowship programme is to attract and retain emerging talent in the UK and build a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce. The objectives are to attract talented international early career researchers to establish and conduct their research in the UK, support early career researchers to pursue high-quality and innovative lines of research, provide opportunities to acquire new skills and knowledge through training and career development, and foster long-term relationships through networking opportunities and the Newton International Fellowships alumni programme. The fellowship is for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK.
Kan Tong Po Fellowship
The Kan Tong Po Fellowship is designed to contribute at the highest level of scientific research and education by awarding Visiting Fellowships each year to scientists. The purpose of this scheme is to stimulate collaborations with leading scientists through one-off visits between the UK or USA and Hong Kong institutions. Applicants can apply for up to £3,000 for a visit of up to three months to facilitate collaboration between researchers based in the UK or USA with academics at five major Hong Kong universities: University of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The fellowship supports travel and subsistence costs for these collaborative research visits. The scheme is open to scientists who have a PhD or equivalent research experience and hold a fixed or permanent contract at an eligible organisation in natural sciences fields including biological research, biomedical sciences, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and physics.
JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship
The JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme provides the opportunity for excellent postdoctoral researchers to conduct cooperative research in Japan, with leading research groups in Japanese universities and other Japanese institutions, under the guidance of a host. The programme aims to help early career researchers advance their own research while contributing to the progress of research in Japan and counterpart countries. The Royal Society is an overseas nominating authority for this scheme, which is funded entirely by JSPS. In this capacity, the Royal Society nominates a designated number of candidates to JSPS each year. Fellowships can be held for between 12 and 24 months and provide comprehensive support including round-trip airfare, monthly maintenance allowance of 362,000 yen (approximately £1,900), settling-in allowance, overseas travel insurance, and access to Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research to cover cooperative research-related expenses.
Industry Fellowships
The Industry Fellowship scheme enables the movement of talented scientists and engineers between Academia and Industry. These secondments support researchers' development, foster knowledge exchange, stimulate longer-term collaborations, and establish personal, scientific and corporate links between researchers in different sectors. The scheme is part of the Royal Society's wider Science and Industry Programme, which strives to promote the value and importance of science by connecting academia, industry and government. Awards can be for any period up to two years full-time or a maximum of four years pro rata, enabling Industry Fellows to maintain links with their employing institution more easily. The fellowship supports the mobility of excellent academic or industrial researchers between the two sectors in the UK, across the natural sciences, enabling the Industry Fellow to develop and establish collaborative links between the academic and industrial organisations. The scheme supports the career development of the Industry Fellow and their team through the cross-sector collaborative research experience afforded by the fellowship, while enhancing knowledge exchange in science and technology between industry and academia.
Faraday Discovery Fellowships
The Faraday Discovery Fellowships are prestigious long-term awards that support the most talented mid-career research leaders to undertake high-quality, original research. The programme is aimed at outstanding mid-career Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) researchers and provides grants of up to £8m over a ten-year period to support the development of world-leading research groups in the UK. The fellowships are supported through a £250m fund from the Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT). They are large, investigator-led grants awarded to a single Principal Investigator (PI) to enable them to establish an outstanding team of researchers to address challenging research questions. The programme provides the most talented mid-career researchers with the time and freedom to focus on their research, providing long-term, stable funding to allow them to tackle difficult and intractable problems. The scheme does not operate thematic priorities and will consider applications from all areas of science (STEM) covered by the Royal Society remit, including Frontiers of Science and Science for Resilience and Prosperity.
Partnership Grants
The Partnership Grants scheme funds UK schools and colleges up to £3,000 to work in partnership with STEM professionals from academia or industry to run an investigative STEM project. The scheme is open to all levels of education supporting students aged between 5-18. Schools and colleges that are outside of the UK (except the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) are not eligible to apply. The scheme provides an opportunity for students to develop key skills, including research, problem solving and data-handling skills, which will be invaluable for their future careers. It demonstrates the range of STEM careers available to students, fosters long-term working relationships between schools and colleges and STEM professionals, and fulfils the requirement of Benchmark 8 of the Gatsby Practical Science Benchmarks. Tomorrow's Climate Scientists is an extension to the Partnership Grants scheme and funds schools and colleges specifically researching into climate change and biodiversity, giving students not just a voice but an opportunity to take action themselves to address local climate and biodiversity issues.
At a Glance
- Total Funding Opportunities
- 25
- Active Now
- 12
- Source Domain
- royalsociety.org
Catalog Data
This funder profile was automatically extracted from grant listings. Information may be incomplete.
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