British Academy International Fellowships
Notify Faculty of intention to apply & submit case for support materials: 26 October 2026
Social Science Division Internal Selection Submission by: 25 November 2026
Funder Deadline: early March 2027 (expected)
The British Academy International Fellowships scheme provides funding for two years for an early career researcher to visit a UK university. This scheme replaced the older Newton International Fellowships in 2023.
Eligibility
Applicants should be working outside the UK and should not hold UK citizenship at the time of application, nor have lived, worked, or undertaken research in the UK in the 12 months immediately prior to the application (excepting short-term visits of less than three months in total, and with the exception of applicants who are refugees in the UK according to the Geneva Convention).
Individuals already working in the UK, or working outside the UK but employed by a UK organisation are not eligible to apply.
Applicants should hold a PhD, or will have a PhD by the time the funding starts, and since the 2026 round this must be from a non-UK institution and the applicant must have no more than 5 years of active full time postdoctoral experience at the time of application (discounting career breaks, but including teaching experience and/or time spent in industry).
Applicants who hold a UK undergraduate or Masters level postgraduate degree will still be eligible providing they meet the other criteria.
Duration and Value
Awards offer support for two years (80% FEC). Award-holders will be classified as salaried employees (not, as with the previous Newton Fellowships, as visiting researchers on a stipend) and receive a reasonable salary set by their host institution. Applicants may apply for research expenses of up to £12,000 and relocation costs of up to £8,000.
How to Apply
The 2027 scheme is expected to open in mid-January 2027. However, as of the 2027 round this scheme has had institutional demand management caps put in place, with each UK eligible institution only able to submit a maximum of eight applications. This necessitates a round of internal selection. For the 2027 round, this will be managed by the Social Science Division, who have set their deadline for submissions as 12 noon Wednesday 25th November 2026.
Applications will be submitted by the Research Support team via the University of Oxford's Internal Research Application Management System (IRAMS).
The Faculty of Law will also hold an internal review of applications prior to the Social Science Division's internal selection deadline for quality checking and to determine which applications it can support. For these purposes, we are requesting that candidates submit the following details to research@law.ox.ac.uk by end of day Monday 26th October 2026:
(a) A completed Case for Support form.
(b) A CV detailing academic qualifications and experience (2 pages maximum).
(c) A mentor's letter of support (1-2 pages)
If selected by the Social Science Division, the applicant will need to submit their formal applicaiton online using the British Academy's Flexi-Grant® Grant Management System (GMS). The deadline for submissions and UK host organisation approval is expected to be early March 2027. Results are expected in the Summer of 2027.