I have seen a few fellowship opportunities that I'd like to submit a proposal to. They all have one thing in common that they don't want the proposals to suggest continuation to the PhD research. Do you think, proposing a new approach or changing the audience while keeping the topic same would count as continuation? Surely, it would be more useful to use some elements from your PhD, or am I wrong?

Introducing a new approach on the same subject sounds like continuation but depends on what angle you want to view the subject in and what new elements you are introducing. In any case, it would depend on whoever is reviewing your proposal.

I suppose you could suggest a few tangents from your research that you'd like to explore. It seems a bit silly to me to do a PhD, then research something in your field but not related at all.

I have a growing list of avenues I'd like to explore with a fellowship after I've finished (just don't have a fellowship to explore them with!)...

when are you finishing your PhD coastman?

Ann, did your postdoctorial position have a similar requirement at the time of application?

12 months ish officially (yeah right, like that's gonna happen!). So just starting to have a look around at what's out there...

my funding runs out at the end of August. When I looked for fellowships before, I couldn't find anything. Now there seems to be more fellowship positions advertised for September 2007.

Maybe you can try again this time next year? Apart from fellowships like Leverhulme's or British Academy's of course. Their deadlines are sooner, therefore they would require you to have a place before applying to them.

I'm so confused. I can't think outside my research at the moment. Writing a proposal in a different topic will be very difficult. And one of the deadlines is end of this month.

Hi 404

My first 'post-doc' was with the same team as my PhD, we applied for money (project grant) as I was finishing the PhD and were fortunate enough to get the funding. That was for 2 yrs and we did similar clinical studies to those which formed my PhD (but with a different drug). I've not been lucky enough to get fellowship funding either (recently been turned down for one ), they are few and far between and I never seem to be at the right stage of my career - at the min I'm too new for the 'independent researcher' type fellowships and too old for the new PhD ones, doh! Good luck with your funding search.

Thank you Ann. Very useful information, as usual. I think you are right about the fellowships. It sounds like such a tough competition and there are so few of them advertised.