Skip to main content
School of Physical and Chemical Sciences

Breadcrumb

  1. School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
  2. Astronomy Unit
  3. About the AU
  4. Jobs and Opportunities

Jobs and Opportunities

PhD Opportunities

Applications for a funded PhD in Astronomy to start in 2021 are now closed, although students with external funding may apply at any time. The next round of applications will open in October with a deadline for STFC and QMUL funded studentships of 31 January 2022 (TBC). Please take a look at our PhD project page, or get in touch with a member of staff to learn more about the research opportunities that are available.

Research Fellowship Opportunities

The Astronomy Unit has a high level of success in supporting research fellowship applications. We currently host 3 current Royal Society University Research Fellows and 1 Ernest Rutherford Fellow, as well as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and two ERC Starting Grant holders.

If you are interested in applying for a fellowship in the Astronomy Unit at Queen Mary, please get in touch - you can contact Dr. Phil Bull and/or the academic staff member most relevant to your research, all of whom will be happy to discuss your options and the application procedures. There are often restrictions on who can apply for these fellowships and how many we can support, so please contact us well in advance of any deadlines (see below for further details).

Available fellowships include:

STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowships: The next ERF application deadline is likely to be in mid-September 2021 (TBC). The Astronomy Unit is normally able to support 1 application per year (and occasionally 2), and we use a competitive internal application process to select candidates. Our internal application deadline this year is 11pm (UK time) on 12th July 2021; late applications are possible, but may not receive full consideration. If you are interested in applying for an ERF with QMUL as your host institution, please follow the instructions below, or contact Dr. Phil Bull with informal queries.

Prospective candidates should submit a draft case for support, a CV (ideally using the STFC template), and publication list to p.bull@qmul.ac.uk by 11pm (UK time) on 12th July 2021.

The draft case for support should ideally follow the STFC guidelines (i.e. 4 pages maximum, Arial 11pt font), but does not have to be fully polished at this stage. The main things we are looking for are that you have a compelling, timely, and well-scoped research proposal, evidence of leadership ability, and a case for how your research connects to existing research themes at QMUL and in the UK more broadly; see the Assessment Criteria section of the STFC guidelines for more details.

Please contact us (the earlier the better) if you would like to discuss any details of the internal application process.

Royal Society University Research Fellowships: These tend to have a similar deadline to the ERF, but there are no limits on how many applications we can support, and so we are able to give yes/no answers for whether we can support your application much more quickly. This year's application deadline is 7 September 2021. Please get in touch with us as soon as possible if you are interested in applying for a URF with us, ideally by the same deadline as for the ERF (12th July 2021), but no later than 26th July 2021. Preparing and reviewing the application materials (including costings) generally takes several weeks, so candidates should be prepared to have their materials sent for internal review by 6th August 2021.

Other Fellowships: For any other fellowship that you are interested in applying for at QMUL, please contact us well in advance of the deadline to discuss your application.