Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships

Each year, Nuffield College offers up to four Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships to outstanding young scholars in the Social Sciences who have recently completed or are close to completing their PhDs. The fellowships are for up to three years. They are open to candidates of any nationality.

This fellowship programme is probably the most prestigious of its kind in the UK. It provides young scholars with excellent research facilities such as spacious offices, good computing equipment and support, and a very generous research allowance. Most importantly, Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellows (PPRFs) have no specific teaching or administrative duties. The fellowships thus enable their holders to concentrate fully on their research agenda. Nevertheless, a number of PPRFs in the past have chosen to undertake some teaching, run a seminar series, give a short lecture course, or organise a conference on a topic of their choice. The College provides generous financial and logistic support for such activities.

The PPRFs are advertised in early October each year (closing date early November) in both the national press and on the College Web site under 'Vacant Positions'.

A Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowship is an ideal step in the career development of young academics before taking up a more permanent (teaching) position. In particular, it allows young scholars to complete significant pieces of research before entering the academic 'Job Market' in the US, Europe, or elsewhere. Many distinguished academics have held these fellowships in the past, e.g. Ariel Rubinstein (Princeton & Tel-Aviv), Martin Feldstein (Harvard & NBER), Canice Prendergast (Chicago Business School), Joel Watson (UC San Diego), Avner Shaked (Bonn), Kai-Uwe Kühn (Michigan), Chris Harris (Cambridge), and Oliver Linton (London School of Economics). Recent placements of PPRFs include tenure-track positions at Harvard Business School, Finance Group; London School of Economics, Department of Government; Tel-Aviv University, Department of Economics; and University of Pennsylvania, Department of Economics.

For current Postdoctoral Research Fellows in post see the lists under academics on the Nuffield homepage.