Faraday Discovery Fellowships 2027: Up to £8 Million Over 10 Years for UK STEM Research Leaders, Deadline 22 September 2026
The Royal Society’s Faraday Discovery Fellowships offer mid-career STEM research leaders up to £8 million over 10 years to build a UK-based research team and pursue ambitious investigator-led work, with Stage 1 applications due 22 September 2026.
Faraday Discovery Fellowships 2027: Up to £8 Million Over 10 Years for UK STEM Research Leaders, Deadline 22 September 2026
The Royal Society’s Faraday Discovery Fellowships are designed for researchers who have moved beyond proving that they can run a project and are ready to build a major research programme. The 2027 round is open now. Stage 1 applications opened on 5 August 2026 and must be submitted by 22 September 2026. The Royal Society expects to decide the Stage 1 round by 30 November 2026; invited applicants then submit a full application in a second stage that opens on 2 December 2026 and closes on 3 February 2027.
This is an unusually large and long award. A successful Principal Investigator can request up to £8 million over 10 years, made up of up to £6 million in core funding and up to £2 million more where the applicant gives a specific justification. The programme is not restricted to a short list of themes. It welcomes research across the Royal Society’s natural-science remit, including areas such as engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biological research, biomedical sciences, quantum research, materials, AI, batteries, environmental science and net zero.
The scale also makes the fit demanding. This is not a first-grant scheme, a standard early-career fellowship or a small equipment award. The Society is looking for an established mid-career research leader with a strong record, experience managing significant funding, and a credible plan to establish or grow a world-leading UK team around difficult questions. The opportunity is worth considering if your next research chapter needs stable support for people, infrastructure and a coherent long-term vision rather than another narrowly bounded project.
Key Details at a Glance
| Item | Confirmed detail |
|---|---|
| Opportunity | Faraday Discovery Fellowships, 2027 round (Round 3) |
| Funder and administrator | Royal Society |
| Current status | Open |
| Stage 1 opened | 5 August 2026 |
| Stage 1 deadline | 22 September 2026 |
| Stage 1 decision | By 30 November 2026 |
| Stage 2 | Invitation-only; opens 2 December 2026 and closes 3 February 2027 |
| Stage 2 decision | By 31 July 2027 |
| Expected award start | October 2027, according to the Royal Society’s indicative round timetable |
| Maximum value | Up to £8 million over 10 years |
| Core funding | Up to £6 million over 10 years |
| Additional funding | Up to £2 million with further, specific justification |
| Research scope | STEM subjects within the Royal Society remit; no fixed thematic priority list |
| Applicant profile | Mid-career research leaders, normally with 10–20 years of post-PhD or equivalent experience |
| Host setting | A UK-based research group or team |
| Nationality | Any nationality may apply; visa applicants may be eligible for the Global Talent Visa fast-track route |
| Stage 1 submission | CV and summary of proposed research through Flexi-Grant |
| Later assessment | Full application, committee review, independent peer review and a written response to reviewers; no interviews |
| Contact | [email protected] or +44 20 7451 2666 |
| Official page | Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellowships |
What the Fellowship Offers
The central benefit is long-term research capacity. The award is made to a single Principal Investigator and is intended to let that person establish an outstanding team to address challenging questions. A ten-year horizon can support a programme with several linked phases: foundational work, method development, larger-scale validation, and translation or commercialisation where those outcomes are part of the research vision. It can also make it possible to recruit and retain people whose work would be difficult to sustain through a series of short grants.
The maximum request is not an automatic award. The Royal Society describes up to £6 million as core funding, with up to £2 million available when the applicant shows why the extra resources are necessary for the scientific aims. The right budget is therefore the smallest one that makes the programme credible at full scale. A large request without a clear connection between costs, team structure, facilities and research milestones could weaken an otherwise strong case.
The scheme also has a people-development purpose. The Society says that the fellowship will provide mentoring, training and networking for the next generation of research leaders. A career-development package will be available to postdoctoral researchers funded on the grant, and the Society intends to monitor the career impact on other members of the group, including early-career researchers, PhD students and technicians. Applicants should treat that as part of the programme design, not as a paragraph added at the end.
The award can accommodate personal circumstances, including part-time working, sabbaticals and secondments. The Society also points to provisions for maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoptive and extended sick leave, as well as financial support for childcare costs connected to conferences and research visits. Read the current scheme notes and grant funding guidance for the conditions and eligible-cost rules that apply to a particular request.
Who Is a Good Fit
The target applicant is a research leader in the middle of their career, not simply someone with a strong publication list. The Royal Society says it would normally expect about 10–20 years of research experience after a PhD or equivalent. That is a guide rather than a mechanical cutoff: exceptional candidates with fewer years may be considered, and career breaks, changes of discipline, non-linear careers and time in industrial research will be taken into account.
You should be able to show that you have already led substantial work. Relevant evidence can include managing significant research grants as PI, supervising PhD students and junior staff, directing a research group, building collaborations, or leading an equivalent programme in another setting. The question is not whether you have held a particular job title. It is whether the evidence shows that you can set direction, make sound decisions, develop people and deliver a research programme over time.
Your research must sit within the Society’s natural-science remit. The published examples are broad, but they are examples rather than a hidden list of preferred topics. The Society specifically says applications outside the illustrative headings of “Frontiers of Science” and “Science for Resilience and Prosperity” are welcome. A proposal should therefore lead with the scientific importance and the applicant’s vision, rather than trying to force the work into a fashionable label.
International experience is relevant, but the programme is intended to support researchers who will be based in the UK and develop UK research groups or teams. Applicants may be from any nationality. Researchers who need immigration permission can explore the Global Talent Visa route linked from the official page, but visa eligibility and grant eligibility are separate questions and should be checked independently.
How the Two-Stage Application Works
Stage 1 is a focused expression of the case. The Royal Society says the first submission consists of the applicant’s CV and a summary of the proposed research. That makes the initial round less about writing a complete ten-year budget and more about establishing three things quickly: the candidate’s record, the importance of the question, and why this particular programme requires the freedom and duration of a Faraday award.
Applicants selected at Stage 1 are invited to submit a full application. The Stage 2 timetable for this round runs from 2 December 2026 to 3 February 2027. Full applications are reviewed by the relevant Faraday Committee and shortlisted proposals go to independent peer review. Shortlisted applicants can respond to reviewers’ comments before final assessment. There are no interviews for the Faraday Discovery Fellowships, so the written proposal and the response to peer review carry the burden of explaining the science, the programme logic and the leadership case.
All submissions use the Royal Society’s Flexi-Grant system. Create or check your account early, review the current form when it becomes available, and confirm which institutional approvals are required. The public page does not list every Stage 2 field or attachment, so do not rely on a previous round’s checklist. The scheme notes and the live Flexi-Grant form are the controlling sources for format, limits and declarations.
Timeline and Immediate Actions
The 2027 timetable has a short Stage 1 window. From 11 August, an applicant has roughly six weeks until 22 September. A practical sequence is:
- Confirm that your career stage, research remit, employment situation and intended UK base satisfy the current scheme notes.
- Ask your institution’s research office or equivalent support team about internal approvals, costing and any local deadline.
- Choose the central research question and write a one-sentence explanation of why it is difficult, important and ready for your leadership now.
- Build the CV around the evidence that demonstrates research leadership, originality, team development, impact and international standing.
- Draft the research summary for a scientifically expert but broad committee. Define the long-term vision without hiding the first tractable steps.
- Enter the material into Flexi-Grant early enough to identify character limits, mandatory fields and technical issues.
- Submit before the closing day if possible and save a copy of the final application and confirmation.
If you progress, the second-stage preparation will be more substantial. The indicative award start is October 2027, and the Stage 2 decision is expected by 31 July 2027. Use that period to develop a team plan, facilities case, budget, training approach, risks, milestones and route to impact that all point back to the same research vision.
What to Prepare for a Strong Stage 1
The CV should make your trajectory legible. Do not assume that reviewers will infer leadership from a long publication list. Identify the contributions where you originated a direction, managed people or funding, solved an important technical problem, built a durable collaboration, or changed how a field approaches a question. Explain your role in multi-author work and distinguish independent contributions from work completed under a supervisor.
The research summary needs a clear spine. Start with the problem and the knowledge or capability gap. State the central idea in plain language, then show why your group is positioned to pursue it. A ten-year vision can be ambitious, but it should not be a catalogue of disconnected projects. Link the work packages or stages by dependency: what must be learned first, what that enables next, and what evidence would change the direction.
Include enough technical substance to establish credibility without turning the summary into a compressed grant proposal. Reviewers need to see that the question is scientifically serious, that the approach is plausible, and that the candidate understands the important failure modes. If translation, commercialisation, public engagement or policy impact is part of the long-term vision, describe the route as a consequence of the research rather than as a substitute for scientific quality.
At Stage 1, the strongest evidence is usually specific. Name the result, your role, the method or insight that mattered, and what changed because of it. “I have led an interdisciplinary team” is weaker than a concise account of how you assembled the team, handled a difficult decision and produced a result that would not have been possible otherwise. The same standard applies to mentoring and research culture: show what you did and what the outcome was.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most serious mistake is treating the award as a very large ordinary project grant. The Society is assessing a research leader and a long-term programme. If the narrative is dominated by a single experiment, a single instrument or a fixed three-year deliverable, it may not show why a ten-year fellowship is needed.
Another mistake is overstating the thematic fit. The scheme has no fixed priority list, and the Royal Society explicitly welcomes work beyond its illustrative examples. Use the real scientific case. A proposal about batteries, AI or net zero still needs a distinctive question and a convincing route to knowledge; a proposal in a less fashionable area does not need to borrow another field’s vocabulary to be eligible.
Do not submit a generic leadership statement. Faraday is concerned with the ability to establish and develop a world-leading research group. Show how the proposed team would be different from your current group, which expertise is missing, how junior researchers will be trained, and how the structure supports the work. Keep those claims tied to evidence from your existing leadership record.
Finally, do not wait for a complete Stage 2 plan before submitting Stage 1. The first deadline is 22 September 2026. Prepare a sharp, accurate initial case now, then use the invitation period to expand the budget and operational detail. Conversely, do not assume the dates are flexible: the page gives a specific close date, and any adjustment request should be raised confidentially with the Faraday team rather than assumed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this an early-career fellowship?
No. It is aimed at mid-career research leaders, normally with 10–20 years of post-PhD or equivalent research experience. Exceptional candidates with fewer years can be considered, but the evidence of leadership and an original record remains essential.
Must the applicant be a UK citizen?
No. The Royal Society states that applicants can be of any nationality. The programme is intended for researchers to be based in the UK, and applicants who need a visa can investigate the linked Global Talent Visa fast-track route.
Is there a restricted list of research topics?
No fixed thematic priority list applies. The research must fit the Royal Society’s natural-science remit, and the Society says that the examples it gives are not exhaustive.
Do I submit a full ten-year proposal by 22 September?
No. Stage 1 asks for a CV and a summary of proposed research. Only applicants invited to Stage 2 submit the full application. Read the live Flexi-Grant form and scheme notes for the exact requirements.
Are interviews part of the selection process?
The Royal Society says there are no interviews for the Faraday Discovery Fellowships. Full applications go through committee review, independent peer review and an applicant response to reviewers’ comments before final assessment.
Can the grant include team development?
Yes. Building a world-leading group and training the next generation are explicit aims of the scheme. The Society describes mentoring, training and networking for emerging research leaders and career-development support for postdoctoral researchers funded on the grant.
Where can I ask a question about the current round?
Email the Faraday Fellowships team at [email protected]. The Society also lists +44 20 7451 2666 for support and adjustments.
Official Links and Next Steps
Begin with the official Faraday Discovery Fellowships page. It contains the live status, dates, eligibility language, scheme notes, funding guidance, Flexi-Grant route and contact information. The Royal Society’s page is the source to revisit before submission because the public application form and downloadable notes control details that are not all reproduced in this guide.
The immediate decision is one of fit. If you can connect an exceptional research record to a credible ten-year programme, a team-building plan and a UK base, prepare the Stage 1 case before 22 September 2026. If your work is still at the stage of establishing independence or you need a short project budget, another scheme may be more appropriate. For a researcher ready to make a sustained institutional and scientific contribution, Faraday offers rare continuity: time to pursue difficult questions, resources to build the people and capability around them, and a structure that treats research leadership as part of the award itself.