FCDO Senior Research Fellowships — Fellowship

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is recruiting eleven Senior Research Fellows to work inside its policy teams for two years, two days a week. The call is run for the FCDO by the Global Research and Technology Development Research Commissioning Centre, which is co-led by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and the University of Birmingham and commissions research on the department’s behalf. Each fellowship sits in one thematic area, and the eleven are Gender and Equity, Conflict, AI for Development, Food and Agriculture, Economic Development, Systemic Resilience of Combined Human, Social, Economic, Political and Ecological Systems, Hybrid and Transnational Threats, Polar Regions, Critical Minerals, Technology, Geopolitics and Information Manipulation, and Global Health.

A Fellow stays on their university’s payroll and is released for the placement rather than hired by the FCDO, so the role is a secondment into government rather than a career move out of academia. The point is to put specialist evidence next to the officials making foreign and development policy, and to shape where the department’s research money goes.

Benefits & funding

Two years at 0.4 FTE, roughly two days a week, hosted by FCDO policy teams.
The Fellow stays an employee of their academic institution, which under the published fellowship agreement keeps paying their normal salary, benefits and pension throughout the placement.
The FCDO makes no payment to reimburse or compensate the institution for the Fellow’s time. The Award to the institution funds reasonable UK travel and subsistence for the commute to and from FCDO offices.
Overseas travel requested by the host team is agreed and paid for by the FCDO.
Direct access to policy teams, and a hand in steering FCDO research investments in the thematic area.
No stipend or fee is published or paid for the Fellow personally. Their income across the two years remains their existing university salary.

Eligibility

Applicants must be at least at Associate Professor level of seniority and employed by a UK academic institution, and stay employed there for the whole placement.
Applicants must be able to obtain UK security clearance. Where Developed Vetting applies, that means having lived in the UK for at least 5 of the last 10 years; where Security Check applies, at least 2 of the last 5 years.
Residency here means physical presence in the UK. A UK bank account or postal address on its own does not count, because the vetting checks are carried out in the UK.
Successful applicants must pass Security Check level clearance before joining, and that process takes about two to three months.
The thematic job descriptions look for professorial-level specialist expertise, and each theme sets its own bar. Global Health asks for a PhD or equivalent in public health or a related field plus at least ten years of research experience. AI for Development asks for at least ten years of experience working on AI, partly in academia, and states no qualification requirement. The bar for the chosen theme should be read in its own job description.
Applicants should be willing to travel to an FCDO office at least once a month.
No nationality requirement and no age limit are stated; the binding constraints are the UK employer and the UK residency needed for clearance.

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Residence required
UK

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Application process

1
Read the job description for the chosen thematic area, since the person specification differs by theme.
2
Register on the RCC Grant Management System at rcc.smartsimpleuk.com, choosing the grant-seeking organisation route and completing the organisation details.
3
Open Funding Opportunities from the system home page, select the Senior Research Fellowships call and start an application.
4
Work through the numbered sections, saving a draft before moving between them; part-finished applications reappear under Action Items.
5
Upload the required documents, check the application summary, and submit. A confirmation email follows.
6
Submit by 5pm GMT on 30 August 2026. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so an early submission is read earlier.
7
Attend an interview in early October 2026 if shortlisted, then complete security clearance before the 1 April 2027 start.
8
Send any questions to rcc@3ieimpact.org with “Senior Research Fellow Request for Clarification” in the subject line.

Program timeline

Call opens
20 May 2026
Application deadline, with rolling review before then
30 August 2026, 5pm GMT
Interviews
Early October 2026
Two to three months after selection
Security clearance processing
Fellowships begin, running two years at 0.4 FTE
1 April 2027