Global Faculty Fellowship for AI in Sciences

We have partnered with Imperial College London for the second year on the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Global Faculty Fellowship for AI in Science, supported by Schmidt Sciences. This opportunity is for early/mid-career faculty members from any Science/Engineering department who seek to disrupt science and engineering using AI. Expertise in AI is not a prerequisite, nor is a background in Computing. Faculty members will spend 1 year at Imperial College London as part of the AI in Science Fellowship programme and will be brought out from teaching for the year of their return. The fellowships are flexible and independent, allowing recipients to freely explore how AI can change the way they do Science and Engineering.

Award Details:

The two-year fellowship will include the following

• One year, fully funded at Imperial, including resources to help with visa and relocation costs, and supported by a dedicated onboarding assistant.
• Generous tax-free stipend of £48,000 allocated for the year in London.
• Extra support for family: If you wish to bring your partner or dependent children, we will pay for their flights, dependent visa, and IHS medical surcharge for healthcare in the UK. If you have dependent children, we can offer additional financial assistance.
• Working space in I-X (Imperial’s interdisciplinary AI initiative) co-located with I-X AI faculty and the  ~25 AI in Science Fellows with access to GPU-compute.
• Dedicated support staff to help with AI training and career development. A training needs assessment prior to the beginning of the Fellowship will be conducted to understand the areas you need to develop knowledge and create a bespoke training plan together.
• Peer-to-peer support through in-house courses, workshops, technical talks, and tutorials to share skills development and best practices.
• Cohort events, seminars, and socials with the other AI in Science Fellows at Imperial and connections to the Women in AI network run from I-X.
• Funding given directly to the partner home institution for the second year of the fellowship to fund a partial buyout of the Fellow's time. By hiring a teaching fellow or equivalent, you can continue to focus on your research project in the second year.
• £30k 'flexi-fund' allowance per fellow for travel, conferences, and consumables. This will be managed by Imperial in the first year and by the home institution in the second year of the fellowship.
• Bidirectional visits to Imperial and other partners.
• Continuing support for career development, grants, and Fellow-led conferences and workshops.
• Annual fellow-led conference and prize for the best AI in Science from Global researchers.
• Dedicated support with relocation administration, including visas, travel, and finding accommodation.
• Post-acceleration career support following the fellowship ends, including routes to seed-funding and international grants.
• Membership of the international Schmidt Sciences AI in Science Fellow network, with its associated event series and alumni network, including links to partner programmes in Oxford and Cambridge
• Links to events in Imperial’s Global hubs in  Accra, Bangalore, and Singapore.

Eligibility:

• This call is for candidates from any science/engineering department that seeks to change their science/engineering using AI (it is not only a fellowship for those from Computing – the large majority of fellows are NOT from computing departments and do not have degrees in computer science).
• To be eligible to apply, applicants must be early/mid-career and be within the AI in Science remit.
• Under the AI in Science Remit, ‘AI’ is interpreted very broadly, that is, including topics in Bayesian Inference and Robotics, with ‘Science’ covering any typical topic in Natural Science and Engineering.
• These fellowships are not suitable for research into generic AI with general application - candidates must be aiming to substantially advance a very particular area of science. Applicants could view themselves as AI researchers tackling a particular piece of Science or Science researchers using AI to transform their area.
• A deep knowledge of AI is not a precondition for this fellowship: only an appreciation of the need for AI and a willingness for skill acquisition in AI. Candidates do not need to come from Computing departments.
• ‘Science’ covers any typical topic in Natural Science and Engineering. Epidemiology, Biology, and basic science in biomedicine are included but aside from Epidemiology, clinical medical themes, including conventional medical imaging, are not covered.
• Social sciences and humanities are not covered.
• AI must be an essential/catalytic component of the proposal and not an add-on which, upon removal, would leave the science unchanged. In a successful proposal, removing the AI (note our broad definition of AI) would severely compromise the whole project because it is through the use of AI that the scientific goal is being achieved.
• Full details of remit can be found here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/ix-ai-in-science/apply/ under the ‘Remit’ drop-down. There is no flexibility about remit.

Application Requirements:

• CV including publications 
• Publication Elaboration: a 1-page or less note outlining the research contribution of up to three papers by the applicant. This should be suitable for a general scientific reader.
• Research Proposal Summary: a 1-page or less summary of the proposed research suitable for a general scientific audience, including the title of the research project. Particular attention will be paid to this summary. It should answer the question of why/how this application of AI will be transformative for the target area of science. The proposal should start by mentioning the applicant’s proposed department and at least one faculty member at Imperial who would support the visit and act as a host. Hosts must be contacted in advance of the application and will need to supply a letter of support form. It is not essential that the host be a very close fit to the proposed research; entirely independent research efforts are welcomed, but a collaborative relationship is likely to make the science more credible and help with integration.
• Research Proposal: 3 pages or less proposal that explains why and how the proposed research could be transformative for a particular area of science. It can be structured around background, a small number of hypotheses/aims, and work packages. It can be assumed that the reader will first read the Summary, and so the content need not be repeated.
• Training Plan: a ½ page or less plan, identifying any particular skills that need to be acquired for the proposed research to succeed. Training is a key part of the proposed fellowship, whether helping an AI expert master a scientific topic or a scientific topic expert advance their AI skills. Deep expertise in AI (or the particular Science area) is not a pre-requisite: the minimum level of AI/Science experience is that needed to credibly articulate a plan for how AI will advance Science.
• Fit to AI in Science Remit: a ¼ page or less outline of how your proposal fits within the AI in Science remit.
• Kindness Statement: a ¼ page or less outline of your view on the need for kindness among scientists.
• A Letter of Support form from the proposed academic mentor at Imperial (template attached)
• A letter of support form the Head of Department (template attached)

Key Dates:

From now: Liaise with your Heads of Department and seek letters of support from them and from potential Imperial College Hosts.

Information webinars: December 16, 2025. Register in advance. 

• 08:00-09:00 GMT - Registration link
• 14:00-15:00 GMT – Registration link

Internal deadline: February 21, 2026

Internal review by cross-university panel: March 1, 2026

Fellows Announced: April 2026

Indicative start date at Imperial College London: September 2026

Enquiries at Imperial: GFF@imperial.ac.uk

Interested applicants should write to rid-grantsmgt@ug.edu.gh  with jobappiah@ug.edu.gh in copy to indicate their intention to apply ahead of the deadline. Applicants are to submit their complete application pack as a single PDF document and direct all enquiries to the same email addresses by February 21, 2026.