University of Manchester Open Research Fellowship 2027: 0.2 FTE Salary Buyout and Development Support

University of Manchester Open Research Fellowship 2027: 0.2 FTE Salary Buyout and Development Support

The University of Manchester Open Research Fellowship Programme is a staff-development opportunity for colleagues who can improve how research is shared, understood, reused, or supported across the university. The 2026-27 call opened on 7 September 2026 and closes on 23 October 2026. Up to six Fellows will receive a 0.2 FTE salary buyout for ten months, from January through October 2027, plus access to a development fund and advice from the Office for Open Research and relevant Library colleagues.

This is not a general postgraduate scholarship and it is not a grant for an independent research project. The fellowship buys protected working time for an eligible University of Manchester employee to develop an activity that responds to an Open Research skills, practice, or community need. Possible outputs include training resources, guidance, toolkits, accessible online materials, workshops, live activities, and community or infrastructure work that supports skills development.

The programme is a particularly good fit for someone who has seen a recurring barrier in their discipline or service area and can turn that observation into a practical, reusable response. The applicant might be an academic, an early-career researcher, a professional-services colleague, or a technical-services colleague. The proposal needs to make a clear connection between the applicant’s experience, the need, the intended audience, the activity, and the outputs. The official programme page does not publish a fixed cash value for the development fund, so applicants should treat that part of the support as subject to approval rather than as guaranteed income.

Key details

The official Open Research Fellowship Programme page is the best place to confirm the current form link, programme guidance, and any instructions added after this page was published. The University also announced the call in its 7 September 2026 news release.

What the fellowship offers

The most substantial benefit is protected time. A 0.2 FTE salary buyout for ten months means that the Fellow’s employing unit funds a fifth of their time for the fellowship period. The support is designed to make it possible to plan, build, test, and share a useful Open Research activity alongside the Fellow’s existing role. It is not described as a separate cash award paid directly to the applicant, and the public guidance does not give a fixed salary figure because the value depends on the employee’s salary and institutional arrangements.

The fellowship also includes access to a development fund. The official guidance says this fund can support the quality, delivery, accessibility, reach, or reuse of Fellowship outputs. Potential uses may include dissemination, events or workshops, facilitation, public-contributor costs, or specialist support for training or online content. The fund is subject to approval, and listing a cost in the Expression of Interest does not mean that the expense will be approved. A careful proposal should therefore explain why each requested cost is necessary and should show what can still be delivered if a cost is not funded.

Support from the Office for Open Research and relevant Library colleagues is another important part of the package. Depending on the activity and available support, this may include learning design, accessibility, digital or e-learning approaches, evaluation, community engagement, and communications. The programme is not promising that every Fellow receives the same named specialist or a bespoke production team. It is offering advice and guidance that can help an applicant turn subject knowledge into a resource other people can use.

Fellows join a supportive Open Research community and develop experience in resource development, advocacy, community engagement, communication, and project delivery. The University says fellowship activity may provide useful evidence for professional-development portfolios, promotion discussions, or relevant recognition applications such as Advance HE Fellowship. That is a possible professional use of the work, not a promise of promotion or recognition.

Who this opportunity is for

The call is limited to people who work for the University of Manchester. It welcomes applications from academic staff, professional-services staff, technical-services staff, and early-career researchers. The programme particularly welcomes diverse disciplinary and professional perspectives, which matters because Open Research barriers often look different in a laboratory, a humanities department, a clinical environment, a research office, a library, and a technical service.

The strongest fit is someone who is close to a real need and has enough influence or access to build a response that people will actually use. For example, an applicant may notice that researchers in a department struggle to write data-management guidance, prepare accessible repositories, understand open licensing, share reproducible workflows, or find practical training. The final topic must come from the applicant’s own research, teaching, professional practice, or disciplinary experience. The programme is not asking for a generic statement that open research is valuable.

You should also have a plausible audience. That audience might be researchers at a particular career stage, a department, a professional community, technicians, students, research-support colleagues, or a wider group across the University. A proposal becomes stronger when it names the people who experience the problem, explains how the problem affects their work, and shows how the proposed output will fit into their existing routines.

Eligibility and internal approval

Applicants must hold a University of Manchester employment contract that continues until at least 31 October 2027. This condition is connected to the ten-month salary buyout and the full fellowship period. Check the exact end date and terms of your contract before investing heavily in the proposal. If you are on a fixed-term contract, do not assume that a possible extension will satisfy the rule unless the University confirms it.

The post must be at a grade up to and including Grade 7. The published guidance does not say that every job title at those grades is automatically eligible. It describes a programme for University colleagues and asks applicants to connect the activity to Open Research needs, so the role, contract, grade, and proposed work should be treated as a combined fit question.

Head of School, Service, or equivalent approval is required before submission. This is a substantive part of the application, not a courtesy email to arrange after the deadline. The approval helps the University check that the Fellowship can be integrated with the applicant’s existing responsibilities and that the salary buyout can be accommodated. Start this conversation early and share a short summary of the need, the planned outputs, the ten-month work plan, and the time you need released.

The proposal should also be realistic about institutional access. If the activity needs data, a repository, a learning platform, communications support, participant recruitment, or cooperation from another team, identify those dependencies before submitting. The Fellowship can provide advice and approved development spending, but it does not remove the need for permissions, data protection review, accessibility checks, or agreement from the people who own the relevant service.

Designing a strong Fellowship activity

Start with a specific Open Research need. A useful need statement answers four questions: who is affected, what are they trying to do, where do they get stuck, and what evidence shows that the problem is worth addressing? Evidence can be modest. A short survey, repeated questions in training sessions, support-ticket themes, workshop feedback, or conversations with research groups can be enough to show that the need is not hypothetical. Keep records of how you learned about the problem so the proposal can distinguish observed demand from personal preference.

Then define an activity that is small enough to complete within January to October 2027. The official guidance says outputs may include resources, toolkits, guidance, online materials, live activities, and community or infrastructure work. It does not require a large e-learning package. A focused toolkit with an accompanying workshop may be more useful than a broad course that cannot be maintained. A practical output should have a named owner, a clear audience, an accessible format, and a plan for future reuse.

Connect the activity to your domain expertise. Your background might give you knowledge of a disciplinary workflow, a technical method, a teaching practice, a research-support process, or a community need. Explain what you know already and what you need to learn or build during the Fellowship. The programme is supporting development, so you do not need to claim that you already possess every design, evaluation, or communication skill required.

Describe how people will use the output. If you propose guidance, say when a researcher would consult it and what decision it would help them make. If you propose a workshop, say what participants should be able to do afterward and how you will gather feedback. If you propose an online resource, explain how it will remain findable, accessible, and maintainable. If you propose infrastructure or community activity, define the participating groups and the practical change the activity is intended to support.

Application process and required preparation

Applications are submitted through the University’s Expression of Interest Form. Before completing it, the official guidance asks applicants to read the programme information, consider the Open Research need, prepare a clear summary of the activity and its intended beneficiaries, and discuss the application with their Head of School, Service, or equivalent.

Prepare a concise project brief before opening the form. Include the problem, audience, activity, outputs, ten-month schedule, collaborators, likely risks, and any indicative development-fund costs. This brief will make it easier to answer the form consistently and will give your approver something concrete to review. It can also reveal when the proposed activity is too broad for 0.2 FTE of protected time.

The proposal should cover the need that emerged from your research, teaching, professional practice, or disciplinary experience. It should explain the nature and scope of the activity, the connection between your expertise and the intended audience, the outputs you will develop, and how the work will support Open Research skills or the wider programme. It should also explain how you will advocate for Open Research and build awareness in your discipline or department.

If you request development-fund support, list indicative costs and a short rationale. Separate essential costs from optional enhancements. For every cost, explain the output it enables, who benefits, and what happens if the cost is not approved. This is more credible than presenting a wish list without a delivery plan.

The University is holding an online information session on 7 October 2026 at 2pm. The session will explain the programme, application process, and selection criteria and will include time for questions about proposals. A recording will be made available for people who cannot attend. Use the session to test whether your idea sounds like a Fellowship activity rather than a routine task that should already be covered by your role.

Timeline and selection criteria

The application window runs from 7 September to 23 October 2026. The Fellowship period is January to October 2027. The University says all applicants will be informed of the outcome in December 2026. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview with a panel drawn from the Open Research Strategy Group.

The published selection criteria give a useful outline of reviewer expectations. First is the clarity of the Open Research need. Reviewers need to understand the problem without having to infer it from a long description of the proposed solution. Second is fit and feasibility, including the connection between the applicant’s experience, the activity, the audience, the timetable, and any indicative development-fund costs. Third is the quality, relevance, accessibility, and reusability of the proposed outputs. Fourth is the potential contribution to Open Research adoption, advocacy, collaboration, and shared learning within the department, discipline, professional community, or wider University.

Read those criteria as a chain. A polished output is not enough if nobody needs it. A real need is not enough if the activity cannot be completed. A feasible project is not enough if its output will be inaccessible or useful only once. A strong application connects all four points and shows how the work can continue to help people after the Fellowship period.

Preparation strategy and common mistakes

The first common mistake is confusing protected time with unrestricted project money. The principal award is a 0.2 FTE salary buyout, and the development fund is subject to approval. Explain how the released time will be used, and do not describe the programme as a fixed cash grant unless the University gives you a confirmed value.

The second mistake is proposing a topic that is too broad. “Improve open research across the University” is a mission statement, not a ten-month activity. Narrow it to a defined audience, one or two related barriers, a small set of outputs, and a way to test whether those outputs help.

The third mistake is making the output dependent on an audience you have not contacted. Speak with likely users before submission. Ask what they currently do, what they find difficult, what format they would use, and what would make them trust the resource. This evidence can improve the proposal and prevent the Fellowship from producing a document that sits unused.

The fourth mistake is treating accessibility and reuse as final-stage polish. The programme names accessibility and reusability as selection considerations. Build them into the design from the beginning. Decide how the output will be structured, captioned, described, maintained, and located. If you need specialist help, explain that need and connect it to a specific deliverable.

The fifth mistake is leaving approval until the final week. The Head of School, Service, or equivalent must approve before submission, and the approval conversation may raise workload or contract questions. Start that conversation early enough to adjust the project if the proposed release time is not workable.

Frequently asked questions

Is this fellowship open to people outside the University of Manchester?

No. The published eligibility rules require a University of Manchester employment contract continuing until at least 31 October 2027. The programme welcomes colleagues across academic, professional, and technical services, but it is not an external scholarship.

Does the Fellowship pay a fixed stipend?

The official page describes a 0.2 FTE salary buyout for ten months. It does not publish a fixed stipend or a universal cash award. The development fund is available subject to approval and programme guidance, with indicative costs requested in the Expression of Interest Form.

Can an early-career researcher apply?

Yes. Early-career researchers are explicitly included among the groups invited to apply, provided they meet the contract, grade, approval, and proposal requirements.

What kinds of outputs are allowed?

The University lists training or learning resources, toolkits, guidance, accessible online materials, live activities, and community or infrastructure activity that supports skills development and the wider Open Research offer. The output should be clearly connected to the need identified in the proposal.

Is attendance at the information session mandatory?

The programme recommends attending if possible, but the public page does not state that attendance is mandatory. A recording will be available for people who cannot attend. You should still read the full programme page and complete the form instructions before applying.

Does selection guarantee promotion or a professional-recognition award?

No. The University says Fellowship activity may provide useful evidence for professional-development portfolios, promotion discussions, or relevant recognition applications. It does not guarantee promotion or recognition.

Official links and next steps

Begin with the Open Research Fellowship Programme page. Read the eligibility, support, expected outputs, and selection sections in full, then open the linked Expression of Interest Form. Register for the 7 October 2026 information session if it is useful for your proposal.

Before submitting, confirm your contract end date and grade, obtain Head of School, Service, or equivalent approval, speak with likely users, and reduce the project to a deliverable ten-month plan. Keep the need evidence, audience, output, accessibility approach, evaluation method, and indicative costs aligned. Questions can be sent to the Office for Open Research at [email protected].