Having been approached for comments on the Independent Social Research Foundation¡¯s latest early career fellowship competition, I was surprised to find that the resulting article, ¡°Early career fellowship offered to ¡®salaried¡¯ academic¡± (News, 2 February), placed an unexpected emphasis on the fact that this particular competition is aimed primarily at academics in permanent posts working within academia. I would like to clarify some of the details of our scheme.

Our current early career fellowship competition, which closes on 3 March, is ¨C contrary to the report ¨C open to independent scholars, and applications will also be considered from those on part-time or temporary contracts.

The ISRF, although still a relative newcomer to the social science research funding scene, has already established itself as one of the few supporters of truly interdisciplinary social science research, and through a range of competitive funding mechanisms the foundation has been able to support early and mid-career researchers, as well as independent scholars working outside academia.

While recognising that a considerable proportion of applications for fellowship buyouts will likely come from those working within academia, the foundation has taken care not to exclude those who find themselves working part-time or on temporary/ fixed-term contracts, or indeed outside the academy altogether.

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To date, the foundation has run three fellowship competitions aimed solely at independent scholars; furthermore, two independent scholars have successfully won awards competing against fields of, for the most part, ¡°salaried¡± academics.

Stuart Wilson
Administrator
Independent Social Research Foundation, London

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