2024 BES Natural England Policy Fellowship

This Fellowship follows on from successful placements at Defra, DAERA, NatureScot and NRW over the past few years and is an amazing opportunity for a PhD student or a postdoc with an interest in how ecological evidence is translated into policy. 

The Fellowship provides a prestigious opportunity for the fellow to gain first-hand experience of working at the science-policy interface, improve their policy knowledge and awareness, develop their science – communication skills, and build their professional networks at an exciting and crucial time for environmental policy. The Fellowship will also help to foster wider links between the ecological and policy communities, and support policy development informed by outstanding science. 

Topic 

The fellowship will be explore ways to maximise the effectiveness of the national Nature Recovery Network in England.

Procedure 

The Fellowship will ideally start in January 2025, but there is some flexibility in terms of the start date, which will be agreed between Natural England, the Fellow, and the Fellow’s home institution. The placement can be full-time or part-time. 

Funding 

A maximum of £20,000 is available from the BES to support the Fellowship, including salary, accommodation and other costs. Applicants are asked to specify and justify the amount of funding requested and how it would be spent. This budget needs to include some funding to attend meetings, including subsistence costs. 

The Fellow will remain employed by their home institution for the duration of the placement. 

Eligibility 

Applications to the BES Policy Fellowship will be open to BES members, who are a PhD student or postdoc affiliated with a UK institution (university, research organisation or otherwise). The applicant does not have to be affiliated with the institution when they submit their application, but if they are not then the letter they submit from a Head of Department/School must explicitly state that the institution agrees to host the applicant as an employee for the duration of the Fellowship. Further details are in the role description. The Fellowship is only open to those who have UK Citizenship or an existing visa to work in the UK for the duration of the Fellowship. 

Applications

Full description of the role and potential topics are in the Role Description here.

Applications should be made via the online Flexigrant portal on the BES website.

Flexigrant – Apply here

Register/log into our online Flexigrant system, complete your contact details, and navigate to ‘Your Applications’.

Alongside the application form in the portal, candidates will be asked to provide:

• A CV
• A letter of support from the Head of Department/School at the applicant’s home institution, or an institution that agrees to host the applicant during the fellowship. This should indicate that they agree to the applicant taking time away from their normal duties to complete the Fellowship and/or that they agree to host the applicant as an employee for the duration of the Fellowship. Further details can be found in the role description
• Contact information for Finance at the Fellows’ employing institution 
• An equality and diversity monitoring form

Applications will close 23:59 on 21 October 2024.

Interviews will take place in the week commencing the 4th of November 2024.