The Leverhulme Trust have announced their Research Leadership Awards. These awards are designed for scholars who have successfully launched a university career and who need to build a research team of sufficient scale to tackle a distinctive research problem. The scheme aims to create an opportunity for the development and demonstration of research leadership through the direction of a modest team or group, whose research may significantly change the established landscape in a particular field of inquiry. Leverhulme offers up to £1,000,000 for projects lasting 4-5 years. The funder expects that host departments provide a commitment to an open-ended independent research/innovation position for the applicant by the end of the award, in line with organisational employment policies and practices, including an open and fair recruitment process. Please see the topics section of the funder's guidance for the list of exceptions to the topics that Leverhulme fund. The funder aims to make up to ten awards this round. 

Eligibility

Please read the eligibility rules carefully. At the time of application, applicants must:

• Have had at least two years full-time or equivalent experience in a research or teaching post in a university after the date of their PhD award
• Already hold a permanent academic appointment at a UK university at lecturer level or equivalent, or be nominated for the award by a UK university that undertakes to offer a contract for the duration of the award, with the expectation that a permanent role would be offered by the end of the award. Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK and be resident in the UK during the tenure of the award.
• Be at an early stage of your academic career such that the trajectory of your research contribution has yet to become firmly established. This means that you must not:
  • Have held an equivalent award or fellowship that provided funds to establish an independent research group
  • Have held project grant funding in excess of £100k in a single award (personal funding that exceeds this amount is allowable if the award had no provision for managing staff; see Leverhulme guidance for fuller details and exceptions)
  • Have led a team of research staff, or managed PDRA staff (NB: this criterion is new for the 2025 competition). 

Applicants at Senior Lecturer, Reader/Associate Professor or Professor level or equivalent are therefore not eligible to apply. However, if you hold such a post and meet the criteria above, please address this in your eligibility statement of up to 300 words (see below). Please contact us at researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk if you have any queries about eligibility. 

Further information about the scheme can be found on the scheme page, the Guidance for Applicants, Application Help Notes and Frequently Asked Questions. For the list of previous awards, see here.

University Internal selection: