Find out more about these exciting opportunities and how they can support your development below:
Research Futures
Research Futures is a flexible development programme offering an innovative career development approach that seeks to unlock your potential to thrive across multiple career pathways – both within and beyond academia.
It is open to early and mid-career researchers and research professional/research-enabling staff, with a focus on transferable skills applicable to all job families.
The deadline for expressions of interest is 8 July.
Applications are now open for the summer 2026 programme, which will run in July and August with exact dates to be confirmed.
Career Mobility Funding
This fund is designed to support all staff in the research ecosystem and at a range of career stages to visit collaborators and spend time in different sectors. Visits should be short-term, covering a maximum of 10 days. Funds can cover travel, subsistence, and accommodation up to £3,000 per award.
All research and research professional staff are eligible to apply, including:
- doctoral researchers
- academics at all career stages
- technicians
- research professional/research-enabling staff.
Applications close 31 July.
Visit the Career Mobility Fund SharePoint page to find the application form and to sign up for an applicant information session.
Fellowship Foundations
Fellowship Foundations is a cohort programme aimed at helping Loughborough’s fellows and fellowship applicants to find their feet and thrive by creating opportunities to build networks, develop key skills, and plan their next steps.
This programme is primarily for Loughborough fellowship/prospective fellowship holders, particularly those in the early stages of their career. There are a limited number of places for staff applying for fellowships soon, or who hold a similar award, such as a Young Academy or independent research post.
Applications close 30 August.
Find out more about eligibility, programme content, and the wider support LURA is bringing into place around fellowships and applications on the LURA SharePoint Fellowship pages.
For more information on any of the above programmes, or to find out more about what LURA has been up to, check out the LURA SharePoint site. This includes a wide range of resources, including:
- curated development pathways for a range of different skills and audiences;
- an enhanced central of training workshops, resources and training materials for researchers and research enabling staff;
- and a new Research Development Framework Navigator Tool to help you to start thinking about what skills to develop next.
All of the LURA programmes will run as pilots initially, and the team will be evaluating and consulting further as LURA progresses. There are also further programmes currently in development, which will also be shaped with and for the Loughborough research community.
In the meantime, email the LURA team if you have a question or suggestion.