Disclaimer: For accurate and up-to-date information, consult the official sources. This summary may contain errors or omissions.

Nationwide opportunities

Canada

  1. CITA National Fellows
    • specific to theoretical astrophysics
    • Duration: up to 3 yrs

Chile

  1. Fondecyt Postdoctoral Competition
    • Duration: mostly 2-3 yrs

European and associated countries

  1. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship
    • Duration:
      • Global Postdoctoral Fellowships: 2-3 yrs (only for applicants with EU citizenship or a long-term resident in EU).
      • European Postdoctoral Fellowships: 1-2 yrs

Germany

  1. Humboldt Research Fellowship

    • Duration: 6-24 months
    • Official successful rate: 20-25%
    • For applicants who do not hold Germany citizenship and do not live longer than 6 months in the last 18 months before submitting the application.
    • Applicants with Germany citizenship if the applicant have lived and worked abroad for 10+yrs and intend to continue doing so.

  2. DFG Walter Benjamin Programme

    • Duration: up to 2 years
    • Only postdoctoral researchers at an early career phase are eligible to apply to this programme. The project may not be based at an entity that is for-profit or that does not permit the publication of findings in a generally accessible form.

Ireland

  1. Goverment of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme
    • Duration: one or two years

Japan

  1. JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships
    • Duration: 12-24 months

Netherlands

  1. NWO Talent Programme Veni
    • Duration: 3 yrs maximum

United Kindgom

  1. Royal Society Newton International Fellowships/ British Academy International Fellowships
    • Duration: 2 yrs
    • For applicants who do not hold UK citizenship and are based outside the UK
    • British Academy - social sciences and humanities
    • Royal Society - nature sciences
      • Success rate: 4%-10%
  2. Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellwships
    • Duration: 3 yrs
  3. Career development fellowship
    • Applicants can apply for up to £690,000 over four years.
    • Success rate: 3%
    • Eligibility:
      • You self-identify as being from a Black heritage, including mixed Black background;
      • You are a UK national or you have completed a part of your education in the UK through your Undergraduate, Master’s or PhD degree studies or you hold/have held a postdoctoral researcher position in the UK;
      • You have a PhD, or will have one by the time the funding starts, but have less than 24 months post-doctoral experience and
      • Your research is within the Royal Society’s remit of natural sciences.
  4. Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship
    • Applicants can apply for up to a maximum of £1.87 million over eight years.
    • Success rate: 5-6%
    • Eligibility:
      • You currently have, or will have by the start of the fellowship, a need for flexible support due to personal circumstances. This can include parental responsibilities, caring responsibilities, and/or clinically diagnosed health conditions that create a need for a flexible working pattern
      • You are in the early stages of your research career having up to six years of research experience since your PhD by the closing date of the round; please refer to the scheme notes for further detail about the review of career breaks
      • You do not hold a permanent post (including proleptic appointment) in a university or not-for-profit organisation
      • You do not hold, or have not previously held, an equivalent fellowship that provides an opportunity to establish an independent research group and therefore independent research status
      • Your research is within the Royal Society’s remit of natural sciences.

United State

  1. Lindemann Fellowships
    • Eligibility (copied from their website, date: 10/11/2025): Applicants have to fulfill all the criteria below.
      • Hold British, Irish or Commonwealth citizenship, or have UK settled status
      • Be normally resident in the UK
      • Either be in the final stages of your doctoral studies at a UK university, or have completed your doctorate at a UK university and have no more than a total of three years’ research experience since completion
    • Subject: pure and applied physical sciences
    • Duration: 2 yrs

Institutional opportunities

University of Cambridge

  1. Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
    • Fellowships for researchers in biological and physical sciences
    • Eligible institutions related to astronomy include the Institute of Astronomy (IoA), the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) and the Department of Physics. Note not all of them are open to applicaions every year.

IN PROGRESS…