Our Submission to the National Research Fellowship Consultation
Three recommendations on stipend indexation, mobility between institutions, and counting mentorship as academic service.
The Foundation filed a formal submission to the national consultation on research fellowships this month. It is published here in full, alongside the alumni survey data it draws on.
The submission makes three recommendations. First, index fellowship stipends to inflation on a fixed annual cycle rather than by ad-hoc revision. Second, allow fellows to move between host institutions without restarting their funding clock. Third, formally count documented mentorship as academic service in promotion criteria.
The third point is the one we expect resistance on, and it is the one our data most strongly supports: mentorship currently runs on unrecognised goodwill, which makes it fragile and unevenly distributed.
The consultation closes in September. Members who wish to file individual responses can use our template.
