In this route, after securing your PhD, you would apply for postdoc positions and then apply for independent fellowships from a funding body. If your fellowship is tenure-tracked, you could then pass your probation period and become a lecturer. If not, after your fellowship you could apply for lectureship positions.

• Applying for postdoc positions: this could either be by responding to job adverts for open positions or by applying directly to a funding body. Some institutions also have 'in-house' fellowships. The exact name of the role can be unclear, so do check if these fellowships are essentially a postdoc position (fixed term and not tenure-tracked) or more independent and tenure-tracked.
• Independent fellowships: These are offered by funding bodies and sometimes host institutions. These fellowships fund your salary as an independent investigator, as well as your research idea. Independent fellowships are typically very competitive thus securing one comes with a high degree of prestige. This is helpful in securing a subsequent permanent tenured academic position.

Process for securing an independent fellowship

This is funder-dependent but typically involves a written application, a shortlisting stage (or stages) and then an interview. At your host institution, there may be a preliminary internal process to help your application and ensure only high quality submissions go forward.

These fellowships usually have specific rounds that may be only once or twice a year. Make sure you know when these deadlines are in advance because preparing an application takes a significant amount of time. Keep in mind that not all parts of the application are completed by you. You might need to get costings and other information inputted by the relevant people. If your grant submission requires costings (for example, full economic costs of the institution employing you, any other additional staff or students and research work costs) you will typically need to liaise with your institutional (or faculty’s) research support office. Talking to them early is a good idea as they are often busy and may not be able to turn around your request at short notice.   

In the UK, an academic norm is to move institution for your fellowship. Some funders specify this, whilst others will expect a justification if you are to stay at the institution you have been at for a while. To secure a permanent academic position after your fellowship, you may need to move again.

Keep in mind that if you don't make it through to the interview stage, you might not receive personalised feedback on why your application was unsuccessful. In addition, some funders may have policies around repeat submissions for unsuccessful applicants. These policies can cap the number of submissions you can make in a fixed time period. Here is an example from the UKRI.

For more information on fellowships, check out these resources from the University of Liverpool, Imperial College London and a step-by-step guide (and month-by-month timeline) to preparing fellowship applications from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Note that these links contain general guidance and tips as well as information specific to those institutions.

As a postdoc, you can apply directly for lectureship positions without securing your own fellowship funding. These jobs are advertised by the host institution as well as on job boards such as jobs.ac.uk. Requirements for these job applications will be institution, discipline and role specific.

In addition to a CV and cover letter, a research vision and teaching statement may also be required. The recruitment process typically includes a sift, and short-list of candidates to be called for interview. The interview stage can be multi-step, sometimes with a first and (if successful) a second interview. Sometimes a presentation to the faculty/department is part of this process, and you could be interviewed by a mixture of specialist researchers, research staff from your broader discipline, teaching only staff, technical staff, and HR staff.

You should be informed of the precise details of the process if you are successfully called for interview. If they don’t specify who will be present at the interview or on the interview panel, then ask. 

This route is more common at teaching-focussed universities rather than research-intensive ones. Time spent as a postdoc is often considered default or mandatory in some fields and has a positive impact on future faculty aspirations (Chakraverty 2020). Thus, this route also varies with discipline, so it may be the norm in your disciplinary area but not in another.

Lecturers at teaching-focussed universities (if employed on a teaching and research contract) typically spend a much higher proportion of their time on teaching and the associated admin whilst doing their research, in comparison to those at research-intensive universities. Some lectureships are teaching-only and these exist at both research-intensive and teaching-focussed institutions.

This path into a lectureship directly after graduating with a PhD is more common in disciplines such as in arts, humanities and social science subjects where postdoc positions are relatively new. 

This route is sometimes thought of, or referred to, as the via industry route. It is not as common as other routes but may become more typical in future. There is not a rigid pathway but could include completing your PhD, working somewhere other than an academic institution then coming back into academia (via a postdoc or fellowship) to eventually become a lecturer.

Depending on the role and sector, the experience gained beyond academia can be viewed as equivalent to that gained by being a postdoc or a lecturer even. Edwards et al. (2021) reported that, in their study, a third of tenure-track academics did not follow the traditional academic pipeline. UKRI specifically mention this in their 2022 to 2027 five-year strategy, stating that they will ‘incentivise diverse, flexible careers, so that people can pursue great ideas without barriers, moving easily between disciplines, sectors, business and academia’ (p.15).