Nine in 10 recipients of British Academy early career fellowships secured permanent academic posts, with more than a third holding professorships, a new report has found.

Analysing the career outcomes of more than 1,100 former recipients of the academy¡¯s postdoctoral fellowships and its Rising Star Engagement Awards, researchers from the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (Crac) found that 91 per cent of former postdocs now held permanent academic roles, mostly in Russell Group universities.

Thirty-seven per cent of former British Academy fellowship holders surveyed by Crac are professors, with small numbers also identifying as department heads, executive deans or pro vice-chancellors, according to the study on 22 May.

Those not in academia are most likely to be working in education and training (2.8 per cent), government or public administration (2.2 per cent) or libraries, museums and archives (1.8 per cent).

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Former Rising Award Engagement winners have also done well; nearly 90 per cent of those surveyed had risen to positions above lecturer, with almost 40 per cent having reached professorial or equivalent senior roles.

About three-quarters (78 per cent) of former British Academy postdocs said they were supervising doctoral students, while more than 80 per cent said they remained active in UK academic research.

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The pilot career tracking study, which used wider career search results beyond the survey to augment its cohort, is likely to underline the importance of the British Academy postdoctoral fellowship scheme, which contributes up to 80 per cent of a recipient¡¯s salary costs for three years to free them from most teaching and administrative tasks. Funded by the UK government via the academy, about 45 awards are made in the arts, humanities and social sciences?each year, with almost 1,500 awards funded since 1986.

The Rising Star Engagement Awards are one-year awards for early career academics, which provide up to ?15,000 to undertake skills and development activities. About 25 awards were made annually between 2015 and 2019.

Many survey respondents spoke of the importance of the fellowship in helping secure their first lectureship or remain in academia during times of few job opportunities, while others said the funding was crucial for publishing books or developing future research projects.

Alex Lewis, the British Academy¡¯s director of research, said the pilot ¡°highlights the long-term benefits of early career support for individual researchers [but] also shows that investing in researchers early in their careers leads to clear strategic value for the UK¡¯s research base.¡±

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¡°This scalable, evidence-led approach to tracking research careers enables the academy ¨C and the wider sector ¨C to develop funding strategies that are grounded in real-world experience and deliver maximum value and impact for researchers, their institutions, and society at large.¡±?

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com