UK IC Postdoctoral Research Fellowships

Scheme overview

The Government Office for Science offers UK Intelligence Community (IC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships to outstanding early career science or engineering researchers. These Fellowships are designed to promote unclassified basic research in areas of interest to the intelligence, security and defence communities. The National Protective Security Authority, Department for Transport, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Home Office, the National Cyber Security Centre, and UK National Authority for Counter-Eavesdropping are among the organisations represented in the UK Intelligence Community for this scheme.

One round of applications is held annually. Each year members of the IC identify research topics and the Research Fellows work locally with their University Research Advisor to develop and submit research proposals that align with the topics.

The research is conducted by the Research Fellows while working in partnership with the University Research Advisor and collaborating with an advisor from the Intelligence Community (IC Advisor).

The Research Fellowships are aimed at early-career researchers from all branches of science and engineering who have up to five years postdoctoral experience. Only citizens of Australia, Canada, the EEA, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK or the US can apply. 

Each application for the UK IC Postdoctoral Research Fellowships is capped at a maximum contribution of £250,000 over the 2-year period, at 80% of the full economic costs (fEC).   

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In addition to the direct financial support, the scheme benefits include:

• Mentoring support from an Academy Fellow to offer advice on research and career development
• Expert advice and support from the IC Advisor
• Reduction of teaching and administrative duties to dedicate time to research
• Training, events and additional funding opportunities
• Networking opportunities with other Research Fellows, Academy Fellows and the IC Community
• Access to the Awardee Excellence Community, that brings together awardees from all career stages and disciplines to share their expertise, to collaborate and to contribute new perspectives to the Academy’s work. The community will give you the opportunity to meet, learn from and support other awardees beyond your immediate cohort, as well as a broader cross section of Academy Fellows through a programme of events, and opportunities to connect in person and online. 

Awardees of this fellowship are eligible to apply for a Global Talent Visa under the fast-track process of endorsement.

The Royal Academy of Engineering and the Government Office for Science are committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from all under-represented groups across engineering. It is the Academy's policy to ensure that no applicant is disadvantaged or receives less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

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Research topics 2024

1. Exploration to determine the positioning accuracy of mobile devices using the 5G cellular networks
2. Detection of deep fake videos with audio
3. Distributed High Frequency Over-The-Horizon radar
4. Detection of obscured forensic or biometric markers at crime scenes or from objects
5. Countering deception in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) networks
6. Flexible solid-state batteries
7. Detection of genetic engineering and/or synthetic biology
8. Anticipating complexity in a modern world
9. Light weight metamaterial ultrawideband frequency absorber
10. Machine learning trained fingerprinting of the near field measurement
11. Analysis of non-western emerging technology
12. Detection of low volatile materials
13. Understanding AI enhanced biotechnology risks
14. Development of techniques to assess data aggregation
15. Utilizing a modern mobile to provide a level of TSCM capability
16. Simulation of emerging sensor technologies
17. The influence of air quality on cognitive performance and behaviour in secure environment
18. Using homomorphic encryption for machine learning on sensor data and privacy
19. Developing techniques to enable analytic teams to make accurate judgments
20. Quantum engineering for quantum sensors
21. Materials informatics for rapid and efficient design of new systems
22. Synthetic aperture RADAR automated exploitation
23. Integrated multimodal facial recognition technologies