Junior Research Fellowships

Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) are postdoctoral fellowships that support early career scholars and recent PhD/DPhil graduates at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. They are among the most highly competitive, prestigious research fellowships in the United Kingdom.[1][2][3] The fellowship is also seen as direct pathway to a tenure-track positions.[4][5]

JRFs offer full funding, usually with free or subsidized housing and dining rights in college.[6] Additional benefits include access to campus facilities, private gardens, and access to common rooms.[7] They do not have any teaching or administrative requirements, although some JRFs allow students to sit on their College's Governing Body and teach undergraduate tutorials. In contrast to other postdoctoral positions in the UK, JRFs are not tied to a specific project or department.[8]

JRF selection committees prioritize scholars with high research potential and often lead to tenure-track positions. In the past, the term research fellow referred to a junior researcher, who worked on a specific project on a temporary basis. They tended to be paid either from central university funds or by an outside organisation such as a charity or company, or through an external grant-awarding body such as a research council or a royal society, for example in the Royal Society University Research Fellowship.[9] Particularly in older Oxbridge style colleges, research fellows appointed as fellows of a college tended to, or still do, partially receive remuneration in form of college housing and subsistence. Colleges may award junior research fellowships as the equivalent of post-doctoral research posts, lasting for three or four years.

The application process requires preparing a package that may include a covering letter, a writing sample, recommendation letters and a curriculum vitae. Positions may be advertise as general or field-specific.[10] Applicants who are long-listed are invited to submit other materials, such as additional writing samples, while those that are short-listed are invited to interview. JRF interviews are known for being notoriously difficult and intense.[11][12] Each JRF receives several hundred applicants for each position.[13][14]

In recent years other universities, including the University of Warwick and the University of Vienna, have created similar JRF positions.[15][16]

JRFs have been criticized for being exclusionary and discriminating against students who did not attend an Oxbridge college.[17] They are also described as being predominantly male, but have in recent years reported having a majority of female JRFs.[18]