Simon Industrial and Professional Fellowships

Regulations and guidance for the Simon Industrial and Professional Fellowship.

Introduction and background

The Simon Industrial and Professional (SIP) Fellowships were established in 1990 to complement the Simon Research Fellowships in the Social Sciences. The Fellowships provide opportunities for people employed in industry, commerce, the public sector, third sector, other professional services, or who are self-employed to undertake a fixed-term placement within the University. The Fellowship may be used for activities such as capacity building, or to scout and develop opportunities for business engagement, research impact, knowledge exchange or other activities of strategic importance identified by the University.

Individuals interested in applying for a Fellowship must secure an academic host who will be responsible for securing Head of School support for the activity and submitting the application. If you are interested in discussing your suitability for a Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowship but do not have a confirmed academic host, please get in touch as below.

Applications are open each spring from February to end-April, for Fellowships to be undertaken in the following academic year (Sep-Jul). If funds are remaining following the spring round a second call for applications will be run September to end-November for Fellowships that will run in the Jan-Jul period within the same academic year, note that this second round is not guaranteed.

View case studies of past projects.

View the full guidance and application form.

Criteria and conditions

  1. The University will offer one or more SIP Fellowship(s), tenable in any School of the University. While this scheme is administered from the Faculty of Humanities, wards are available to any discipline across the three Faculties; the normal expectation is that one Fellowship will be awarded per School before multiple are awarded to an individual school. In the case where there is either no Fellowship application submitted from a School or Faculty or no Fellowship is awarded to a Faculty, funds will be made available to support Fellowship(s) elsewhere.
  2. Fellows will be nominated by a School, and a designated academic host who is responsible for planning the project and working with the fellow during the period of his/her appointment.
  3. Fellowships will be open to candidates employed in the private, public or third sector, including the self-employed. Individuals employed by a higher education institute are not eligible.
  4. The Fellowships will normally be tenable for a period of 4-12 weeks, this may be spread over a longer period for example a Fellow spending one week per month on campus over a full academic year.
  5. The value of each Fellowship will be determined by the awarding committee, having consideration to the experience and qualifications of the persons elected and the activity proposed. In addition, the awarding committee will take into consideration the employment circumstances of each person appointed and where relevant, would expect to receive written assurances that leave of absence would be granted by the candidate's employer. In each case, the committee will agree the level of approved expenses.
  6. Staff salary costs are not eligible for funding as part of the Fellowship. If the Fellow is employed in the private or public sector, their employer must be supportive and committed to the Fellowships and will continue to pay their salary. Where a proposed Fellow is self-employed or working for a voluntary, community or social enterprise organisation, a day rate commensurate with the experience and qualifications of the Fellow and appropriate to the project, is eligible for consideration (may be subject to NI/tax deductions). Other eligible costs include reasonable travel expenses, and limited research expenses (e.g. consumables).
  7. Each application for a Fellowship must provide the following information, prepared by the nominating academic liaising with the prospective fellow:
  • Details of the Fellowship activities:
  1. rationale
  2. the academic partner and School where the Fellowship will take place
  3. activities to be undertaken
  4. benefits to the School/Faculty/University
  5. project plan including timetable for activities
  6. expected outputs/follow on plans
  7. budgetary details (breakdown of costs, justification of included costs)
  • Letter/statement of support from The Head of School (HoS) - confirming acceptance to host the Fellow for the duration of the Fellowship and outlining the value the Fellowship will add to the School
  • Brief CV of proposed Fellow (2 sides of A4 maximum)

8. It is expected that Fellows will spend the duration of their Fellowship working within the University unless the project requires the Fellow to spend periods away from Manchester and those periods have been approved by the awarding committee. It will be acceptable for Fellows to split the period of their visit.

9. As a condition of the acceptance of a Fellowship, each Fellow is required to submit a brief written report on the work undertaken during the Fellowship within six months of its completion, co-signed by the academic HoS, and to deposit in the University Library any publication that arises from the work, any publications related to the Fellowship project should credit the Simon Industrial & Professional Fellowships award.

Contact information

Email: collaborate@manchester.ac.uk