Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge
Salary:
£46,735 to £59,139
Starting Date:
1st October 2026
Tenure:
Up to five years
The Institute of Astronomy will offer to support up to two applications (our quota) for the STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship scheme. Potential applicants should first contact a member of the Institute's Academic Staff to discuss the possibility of submitting a pre-application to the Institute's selection committee which will review requests.
The Rutherford Fellowships are highly competitive and suitable candidates will normally: (i) be employed on their second or third postdoctoral position following completion of their Ph.D.; (ii) be able to demonstrate the ability to undertake research of the highest quality, (iii) have shown evidence of leadership within their research field and/or major research collaborations/projects. STFC also encourage applications from those seeking to resume their research career after career breaks of normally at least one year.
Once applicants have engaged with a member of the Institute's Academic staff, a pre-application may be made by submitting:
- CV (note that this does not need to be in narrative R4RI form at this stage)
- Publication list
- Draft research proposal. Applicants should produce this in STFC's two-part format, covering Vision (500 words max.) and Approach (1500 words max.) Please see the guidelines linked at the bottom of this advert for details of what to include in each part.
- Name of the IoA Staff member who has agreed to support the application
- A completed EDI diversity questionnaire (linked from the bottom of this job advert)
Materials should be sent to fellowships@ast.cam.ac.uk with attachments as a single .pdf format file. STFC specify that documents must be submitted as pdf attachments in 11 point Arial (or equivalent regular sans serif) font and have a minimum 2 cm margin.
Applicants should also request that their endorsing IoA academic staff member send a statement in support of their application to the same e-mail address by the same deadline.
Pre-applications must be received no later than 9am BST 7 July 2025. All applicants will be informed of the outcome no later than 15th July.
Successful pre-application candidates will be provided with support and advice to develop their application before submission to STFC. If selected for interview, the Institute of Astronomy will arrange mock interviews to further support our candidates and maximise their chances of success.
As per STFC guidelines, candidates will not be put under any pressure to accept an offer to be hosted before the 18th July. This is to ensure candidates who submit pre-applications to multiple host organisations are given time to make an informed decision regarding which one to accept.
The STFC closing date for submission of applications is 4pm BST 1st October. All materials will need to be submitted via the TFS system by 5pm BST 23rd September to give time for checking, approval and ultimate submission by Cambridge University Research Services Division.
The University of Cambridge thrives on the diversity of its staff and students. The Institute particularly welcomes applications from women and/or candidates from a BME background for this vacancy as they are currently under-represented. We have an active Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee which continually works to further the aims of the Athena SWAN charter. The University has a number of family-friendly policies and initiatives, including a Career Support Fund, formally returning-carer scheme, childcare costs support, university workplace nurseries, university holiday play- schemes, and a shared parental-leave policy. As part of its commitment to providing a family-friendly environment for researchers, the IoA ensures that should parental leave be needed during the course of employment, there is provision for extension to contract to compensate for the parental leave taken.
Application Deadline Date
9am BST 7 July 2025
