Visiting Fellowship Scheme

In 2024, the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) was awarded £8.3 million from Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) for a 5-year project entitled ‘Sharing Space for Nature’.

This project is designed to increase England’s research capacity to inform work at home and abroad on developing multifunctional landscapes and seascapes. The E3 Sharing Space for Nature programme consists of three components:

• Using a social-ecological framework to understand and inform the biodiversity, social and socio-economic impacts of nature recovery at the landscape level in Kent and Sussex.
• Using decision science to inform the development of local nature recovery networks in South East England, and better understand how spatial conservation policies and practice in England can account for climate change, infrastructure and food security targets.
• Understanding how OECMs (other effective area-based conservation measures) are identified, formally recognised and supported, with a particular focus on how countries can scale-up OECM implementation.

As part of the broader aims of the E3 Sharing Space for Nature project, we are running a Visiting Fellowship scheme. This scheme will enable conservation practitioners and researchers to join us at DICE and collaborate on work to help us achieve our broad project objectives. Fellows could be involved in work that directly relates to the three components described above, or they could have relevant experience and knowledge from different contexts that would enrich our current work.

We anticipate that applicants would have substantial experience in the fields of conservation and/or sustainability, being active in the academic, government, NGO or private sector.

We will award eight six-month fellowships between February 2026 and December 2028. For this call, we are advertising two fellowships.  

We expect the Fellows to contribute through at least three of the following activities:

• Collaborative research projects – working with DICE members to co-develop studies and/or publish research outputs.
• Knowledge exchange – sharing field experience, traditional ecological knowledge, or policy expertise.
• Capacity building & training – providing workshops, seminars, or mentorship for staff, students, or local partners.
• Policy engagement – working together on policy briefs, advisory documents, or stakeholder dialogues.
• Grant writing & fundraising collaboration – helping build joint proposals for future conservation projects.
• Teaching and guest lecturing – contributing to academic programs, seminars or professional training.
• Networking & partnership building – strengthening links with other conservation organisations, universities, and practitioners globally.  

Fellowships have a proposed start date of 28 September 2026, but this is flexible, and they can start later. Each Fellowship will typically last six months. Fellows will be provided with desk space, University of Kent IT and library access, a monthly stipend of £2,500 paid in arrears and, if the Fellowship means that you are moving to Kent, reimbursement of return travel costs from your current location to Canterbury for the start and end of the fellowship.

The Fellowship is in person, we want our Fellows to interact with staff and students on our campus in Canterbury, Kent, UK. The Fellowship can be taken in one block of six months, or if a more flexible option is required, it can be broken into several blocks adding up to six months. If you require a more flexible option and will be incurring travel costs when moving from your current location to Canterbury, we will only be able to reimburse the first outward journey and the last return journey, rather than reimbursing travel costs for each journey.

The stipend is a contribution towards living costs while you are based in the Canterbury area. It is not payment for your time.

Fellows are responsible for applying for visas.

Fellows are responsible for providing their own laptop. 

Fellows are responsible for obtaining their accommodation.