As part of its vision to promote further its research culture and environment, the Parties, Participation and Public Opinion (PPPO) research cluster of the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Leicester is seeking expressions of interest from soon-to-be PhDs (or recent PhDs) working in topics related to the above areas of research in order to be sponsored by our Department in an application for a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (for applicants resident in a EU or associate member state) or the Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowships (for applicants resident in other 3rd countries, such as the US, Canada, Australia, Latin American countries, etc.).

We are open to applications focusing on any areas relevant to the research cluster, but we are especially interested in applicants proposing projects that can link with existing projects in the research cluster:

- The ERC Starting Grant "Democratic Responsiveness in Comparative Perspective: How Do Democratic Governments Respond to Different Expressions of Public Opinion (RESPONSIVEGOV)", led by Dr Laura Morales.

See: http://www.responsivegov.eu

- The Leverhulme Trust project " Competing on the centre right: An examination of party strategy in Britain", led by Dr Philip Lynch and Dr Richard Whitaker.

See: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/politics/research/centre-right

- The projects "Voting in the UK: Voting Advice Application for Polish and Lithuanian Immigrants" and " Governance, Corruption and Anti-Corruption Policies: The EU and members states, candidate and third countries", led by Dr Simona Guerra.

The fellowships are for a period of research of 12-24 months and cover: monthly salary, mobility allowance, and research expenses. Salary conditions are determined by the number of years of research experience of the candidate but are typically generous and very competitive.

Detailed information about the Marie Curie Fellowships programme is available on:

As the deadline for the fellowships is August 16, we invite expressions of interest by July 11 in order to give enough time to communicate candidates the decision about our institutional support and process the documents related to the application with the university research office.

Interested candidates should send by end of July 11 the following documents to Simon Sheldrake (sns11@leicester.ac.uk):

- An early draft of Part B of the research proposal in the format required by the Marie Curie fellowships call

- A short cover letter stating how they would contribute to the research culture of the PPPO cluster at Leicester.

Informal enquiries can be sent to laura.morales@leicester.ac.uk