We invite proposals from postgraduates who wish to pursue rigorous, innovative research in urban studies that aligns with our current research activities. We have a well established track record of successful applications for candidates to join our warm and welcoming community.
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships: Aimed at researchers with a proven track record who have a PhD completed in the UK but do not yet hold a full-time permanent academic post. The fellowship includes £6,000 per year in research expenses for three years. The expected submission deadline for the scheme is Feb 2027.
(More information: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/early-career-fellowships)
About the Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is an international research centre which examines how cities are responding to the challenges and opportunities of intensified urbanisation, technological innovation and resource constraint. With critical social science expertise, we are recognised for the imaginative, generative, and propositional nature of our research agenda focused on the socio-technical, political, cultural and ecological dynamics of contemporary urban life. We are committed to interdisciplinary comparative research across diverse geographies, working with urban labs around the world in equitable partnerships.
What We Are Looking For
We welcome proposals that align with or expand upon the Urban Institute’s core research agendas. We are particularly interested in projects that seek to critically explore:
- Infrastructure corridors
Drawing on the ongoing European Research Corridor-funded GlobalCORRIDOR project, Professor Jonathan Silver invites research proposals that look at how these large-scale networks change geopolitics, urban transformations, local communities, and the environment through critical social science investigations. These could stem from comparative investigations of port cities through to the urban politics of new highways and railways through to the urban geopolitics of corridors being implemented across contested territories.
- Urban Epistemics
Professor Beth Perry invites applicants to join an emerging cluster of scholars interested in the politics and practices of urban knowledge production and the geopolitics of urban intelligence. We welcome applications around: the epistemic politics and praxis of knowing and making cities; the relationships between knowledge, space and power in urban governance and everyday practices; how knowledge is produced, circulated and contested within and about cities; and how cities, as complex social, cultural and political spaces, shape the ways knowledge is generated and understood.
- Climate urbanism
Professor Vanesa Castán Broto invites applications that connect urbanisation dynamics to spatial transformations arising from climate change. The group is exploring three emerging topics: 1) understanding how the energy transition drives processes of extended urbanisation (e.g., the extraction of minerals such as lithium and cobalt for renewables; the localisation of battery parks or data centres); 2) developing an intersectional perspective on the differentiated nature of climate change risks in urban areas from multi-perspectival approaches; and 3) analysing the contradictions between risk-based planning and the aspirations of democratic planning, as expressed in the Sheffield Declaration (A New Beginning for Democratic Planning, available at tcpa.org.uk).
- Environmental justice and just transitions
Building on the EPSRC-funded project PLURALIZE, Dr. Linda Westman welcomes research proposals that engage with multiple aspects of environmental justice and just transitions, including its intersection with urban politics. The PLURALIZE project brings together philosophical principles, historical analysis, contemporary policy, and foreign investment flows to explore just transitions in and beyond urban China. While this research emphasises justice dynamics in China-connected spaces, Dr Westman invites proposal that cuts across adjacent topics, including: 1) socio-environmental politics and inequalities in contemporary urban China; 2) impacts of Chinese investment elsewhere, including local environmental justice issues or analyses of global supply chains; 3) engagement with environmental justice beyond the Anglophone paradigm, including studies based in feminist scholarship.
Submission Process and Timeline
To ensure the submission of the highest quality of applications to the Leverhulme Trust, the Urban Institute runs an internal selection process. Selected candidates will receive support from the UI staff to complete and submit their application.
Interested applicants must submit an initial expression of interest package containing:
- A Draft Research Proposal: Maximum 2 pages outlining the research questions, methodology, innovation, and fit with the Urban Institute.
- An Academic CV: Maximum 2 pages including a list of publications and presentations.
- Cover Letter: Up to one page explaining how your research aligns with the UI and naming your preferred mentor within the institute and suitability for the Leverhulme ECR Fellowship.
Please bundle these documents into a single PDF file and email it to v.l.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk with the subject line "Expression of Interest: [Scheme Name] - [Your Name]".
- Internal Deadline for Expressions of Interest: September 30
- Notification of UI Support: Early October
- Application to the School of Geography and Planning for Approval: October 8th
- Confirmation of School Support: Late October, early November
- Funder Deadlines: Expected February/March 2027
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
The Urban Institute and the University of Sheffield are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We explicitly encourage applications from minoritized groups, women, researchers with disabilities, and scholars from the Global South. For informal inquiries regarding potential mentors or project alignment, please contact v.l.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk.