The fellow’s salary is awarded as a directly incurred cost as all MRC fellowship schemes provide support for 100% of the fellow’s contracted working time. Fellows are able to dedicate six hours a week to other activities (or undertake two clinical sessions a week in the case of clinical fellows) as part of a full time award. The salary requested should be in line with the level the research organisation would provide were the fellow appointed within their own pay structure. Salaries for pre-doctoral fellowship applicants will be paid up to, but not including NHS consultant level and should be appropriate for a training fellowship.
The total salary requested should be calculated to include provision for anticipated salary increments and promotions, such that the salary at the end of the award is in line with the research organisation’s career structure for a researcher with equivalent experience. Salary increments should exclude indexation as this is calculated post-award. Once the grant is awarded no additional requests can be made for supplementary salary costs.
The qualifications and experience section must be completed and should include any relevant qualifications, the type and duration of any fellowships previously or currently held, and any research degrees (for example, MPhil, MD or PhD) obtained or for which the applicant is already registered. Clinical research training fellowship applicants must indicate if they are already registered for a research degree, including the type of degree, registration date and percentage of time dedicated if registered part-time in order to demonstrate they meet the criteria detailed in section 2.4. Applicants already registered for a degree must include a letter from their postgraduate research office confirming the date and terms of registration which should be attached to the application as a letter of support.
In the research experience section you should specify the postdoc research experience you have to date, clearly demonstrating how your research experience matches that of the relevant career stage in the applicant skills and experience table.
Your employment history should not be entered here, but should be entered in a CV attachment instead (see section 3.2.1).