On 27th February 2025, SPERI hosted 16 early-career researchers considering applying for postdoctoral fellowship.
Participants came from within the University of Sheffield, and other institutions such as the University of Nottingham and the University of Warwick.
The day was split into two halves. The first session explored the key postdoctoral fellowship schemes suitable for political economists in UK higher education. This included informative talks by Professor Simon Rushton and Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford, who share information about schemes and writing successful grant applications.
The second session grouped the participants into themes, and each group was joined by a senior colleague from within the University of Sheffield to discuss and give feedback on their proposals. We were joined by Professor Jason Heyes from the Sheffield University Management School, Professor Rosaleen Duffy from the Department of Politics & International Relations, Professor Tom Goodfellow from the School of Geography & Planning and Professor Andy Hindmoor, SPERI's co-director. They offered brilliant insights into how to develop a postdoctoral research proposal based on one-page summaries and 5 minutes presentations given by the participants.
We are very grateful to all the participants and senior colleagues who joined us for honest and energetic conversations about the postdoctoral landscape, and future research being doing by political economists in UK academia.