Call for 2014/15 Beltane Fellows

Deadline 17th November 2014, 11am

Today, we’ve issued a call for four new Beltane Fellowships for 2014/15. As with previous Beltane Fellowship calls, this one provides funding to enable academic or research staff to spend the equivalent of one day a week for up to six months working on public engagement activity. This Fellowship call is a development from the original format that ran until the end of the 2013/14 academic year. We are now offering fellowships which are sponsored by specific institutions. This year we are inviting applications for funded fellows from each of the following institutions:

To be eligible to apply, you must be a member of academic or research staff (grade 6 or above; contract outliving the proposed Fellowship end-date by at least 6 months). Previous public engagement experience is not essential.

If you work at Edinburgh Napier University, we are interested in proposals which will develop Edinburgh Napier’s institutional support for public engagement activities through links to the new Public Engagement Strategy.

If you work at the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh you are strongly encouraged to submit a proposal which will meet the College’s 2014-15 and 2015-16 Public Engagement Strategic Priorities:

  • Energy and Sustainability
  • Human Health
  • International Year of Light 2015
  • Big Data and the Digital Organism

For other applicants it is not essential, but it is desirable that you are able to show that your engagement activity is relevant to one of the six European Commission’s Horizon 2020 themes in a Scottish context. The themes are:

  • Health, demographic change and wellbeing
  • Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research, and the bio-economy
  • Secure, clean and efficient energy
  • Smart, green and integrated transport
  • Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials
  • Inclusive, innovative and secure societies

In addition the Beltane has a close partnership with Scotland’s Futures Forum (SFF) based at the Scottish Parliament and there is an opportunity for the Fellowship to be hosted by SFF if the topic chosen is relevant to Scottish Parliament future business.

Full details of eligibility and the application process are available in the guidelines and other documents below.

For more information contact Heather on h.j.rea@ed.ac.uk or join us at the Beltane Fellows Twilight event on 4 November (register here: bftnov14.eventbrite.co.uk)