SEAI ENERGISE Fellowship Autumn 2026: Up to €300,000 for Ireland-Based Energy Policy Research

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SEAI ENERGISE Fellowship Autumn 2026: Up to €300,000 for Ireland-Based Energy Policy Research

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has opened an autumn 2026 call under its ENERGISE Fellowship Programme. This SEAI-Based stream gives an eligible researcher a funded period of up to 24 months working on one of three specified energy-policy topics with an SEAI team. The call opened on 23 September and closes at 13:00 Irish time on 22 October 2026. An application must be complete and approved by the applicant’s Irish host organisation before the cutoff.

The opportunity is aimed at researchers who can connect credible research methods to practical decisions in Ireland’s energy transition. A successful fellow works within SEAI, usually from its Dublin head office, with Cork offered as a base for the supply-chain topic. The award supports salary and associated overheads, with a maximum SEAI contribution of €300,000 for a project of up to two years. This is a project-cost ceiling, not a personal cash prize: the institution employs and pays the fellow under its applicable contract.

This page covers the SEAI-Based autumn call only. SEAI’s separate Academic Fellowship stream had a different call document and closed on 30 June 2026. Applicants should not assume its open-topic format, eligible cost rules, or other details apply to this autumn opportunity.

Key details

What the fellowship supports

The ENERGISE programme is part of SEAI’s national energy research funding activity. Its goals include building capacity in sustainable energy, improving the link between research and policy, strengthening the evidence base for the clean-energy transition, and giving researchers experience relevant to academia, public administration, and the wider energy sector.

The SEAI-Based stream is different from a conventional university grant. The fellow investigates a topic set out by SEAI and is based with the relevant SEAI team. The fellowship is awarded in the individual fellow’s name, while the Irish host institution provides employment and administrative support. An SEAI supervisor also provides guidance and oversight. Fellows are expected to work from the relevant SEAI office, with a hybrid arrangement currently described as at least two office days each week; the authority notes that its working model can change.

The maximum award is €300,000 including overheads across as much as 24 months. The application may request staff salary costs and associated overheads. Existing employees may apply for a proportional salary contribution or, for faculty, teaching buyout where appropriate. The call also permits a mobility allowance of up to €10,000 over two years for eligible existing staff undertaking the fellowship part time. That allowance is limited to justified, vouched travel and accommodation costs; it is not an unrestricted stipend. SEAI says other necessary costs may sometimes be covered directly after the fellowship starts, subject to approval and available resources, rather than being automatically eligible within the application budget.

Successful applicants are expected to begin within six months of notification, unless SEAI and the host approve a justified delay. The fellowship can be full time or part time. A part-time arrangement is expected to be around 50%, and the minimum commitment is 40%.

Choose one of the three defined topics

Each application must address one topic. A focused proposal should show how its research question fits the stated topic and what useful evidence SEAI can take forward.

1. Energy sufficiency: from theory to practice. This topic asks how Ireland can reduce overall energy demand while maintaining a good quality of life. Suitable work might translate international evidence into a practical policy menu, compare acceptability and distributional effects, develop metrics, estimate effects across consumer groups, or assess economic costs and benefits. SEAI describes desirable experience in energy-policy analysis and familiarity with Irish energy policy; modelling and work on efficiency or sufficiency are also relevant.
2. Social impacts of onshore wind and utility-scale solar. Research should help explain how the deployment of renewable generation can be made fair, legitimate, and durable. Examples include examining community-benefit funds, household payments, local rates, participation, public trust, procedural recognition, and differences between communities. The call is open to several disciplines, including economics, geography, planning, political science, psychology, sociology, public policy, and related areas. SEAI describes relevant survey, GIS, and project-level data as possible research resources, subject to governance and access conditions.
3. Renewable-energy supply chains. This topic concerns Ireland’s dependencies, capability gaps, risks, and strategic opportunities as its electricity system decarbonises. A project might map priority technologies and their components, materials, skills, or services; assess concentrated supply and geopolitical exposure; test deployment pathways against disruptions; and develop policy or programme options. Relevant backgrounds include energy or climate policy, supply-chain and industrial policy, critical materials, qualitative or quantitative methods, and stakeholder engagement. Dublin or Cork may be the office base for this topic.

The topics are detailed briefs, not merely broad themes. Before committing to one, read its full call-document section, note its suggested outputs and required expertise, and narrow the project to a tractable question. A proposal that tries to cover all three topics is unlikely to demonstrate a convincing fit with any one of them.

Who can apply

The applicant needs a relevant PhD or the equivalent by 31 December 2026. SEAI defines equivalent experience as four years of full-time research experience after a primary degree. Its FAQ says postdoctoral researchers with a PhD can apply regardless of how long they have worked after the doctorate. The FAQ also clarifies that a candidate nearing the end of a PhD may be able to apply if they explain the expected completion date and satisfy the qualification condition by the stated date. If relying on equivalent experience or a pending award, seek written confirmation from the institution’s research office about what evidence will be required before an offer.

The applicant also needs support from a third-level educational body in the Republic of Ireland. There are two routes in the call: a researcher supported by an eligible body but not currently contracted to the organisation sponsoring the application; or a faculty member or postdoctoral researcher already contracted to an Irish third-level institution. The fellowship application is submitted by the person who would take it up. The academic sponsor is not the applicant and cannot charge their own costs to the fellowship.

The host organisation and academic sponsor perform distinct roles. The organisation sponsor is the Irish educational body that supports the application, employs the successful fellow, and arranges institutional approval. The academic sponsor must be an eligible core-funded or tenure-track academic whose employment covers the fellowship period; the call sets additional sponsor arrangements for faculty applicants. A designated organisational approver must approve the application in SmartSimple before the deadline. These steps take coordination, so candidates should contact their research office and sponsor immediately rather than waiting until the proposal is polished.

The official FAQ lists eligible third-level bodies, including Irish universities and technological universities such as University College Dublin, University of Galway, Trinity College Dublin, University of Limerick, Dublin City University, and Atlantic Technological University. The list is not a proxy for general institutional eligibility: confirm the full current list and the sponsor’s willingness to administer this specific award. The FAQ advises applicants to consult their institution about visa requirements. It states that there is no applicant age limit.

How applications are assessed

The process has three stages. SEAI first checks eligibility, completeness, and fit with programme requirements. Eligible submissions then receive technical evaluation. Highly ranked candidates are invited to an online interview. Award notifications are expected in November or December 2026.

The published technical criteria allocate 50% of marks to fellowship suitability, including qualifications and experience, outputs appropriate to career stage, research excellence, motivation, communication or public engagement, and fit with the project. Excellence and innovation account for 30%; reviewers consider understanding of the challenge, ambition relative to the state of the art, validity and reliability of the approach, and the relevance of the objectives. The remaining 20% covers relevance and impact, including value to Ireland’s energy sector and policy, contribution to national research capacity, and likely enterprise, scientific, policy, or social impact.

This weighting means the proposal needs both a credible researcher and a useful project. A strong publication record alone cannot compensate for a weak connection to Irish energy needs. Likewise, a timely policy problem does not by itself prove that the applicant can deliver rigorous evidence within the proposed period. Make the connection explicit: what SEAI needs to know, what data and methods can answer the question, what the applicant has done that supports the work, and how the outputs could inform a real policy or programme choice.

Application process and required materials

Applications go through the SEAI SmartSimple portal. New users need to register. The official call document advises saving each section as a draft to avoid losing entered information, and it permits applicants to prepare text offline before transferring it into the portal. The submission is not complete until the organisation’s authorised approver has approved it.

Plan for these components, following the current application form and call document:

• Contact details, the academic sponsor, and the organisation’s authorised approver.
• Project title and acronym, chosen topic number, duration, full-time or part-time commitment, requested costs, abstract, plain-language summary, keywords, and any collaborators.
• Education and employment history, a motivation statement, relevant research outputs, and narrative evidence of achievements in knowledge generation, collaboration, research-community service, and wider societal contribution. The form directs applicants to omit journal impact factors and author metrics such as h-index.
• A project description covering background, how the work advances knowledge or practice, methods, and project objectives.
• A specific account of relevance to Ireland’s energy sector and SEAI, plus expected scientific, policy, enterprise, or social impact.
• Work plan, references, and any helpful tables or figures, alongside the budget and required cost justifications.
• A support letter from the academic sponsor. If collaborators are included, their support letters should confirm their role and any data access, technical, demonstrator, or in-kind contribution.
• Required declarations, including correct acknowledgement of sources and disclosure of any generative AI or AI-assisted tools used in the proposal. SEAI asks applicants to identify the tools, versions, and where and how they were used.

The sponsor letter needs to confirm the sponsor’s status and willingness to support the fellow and take on the duties set out in the call. Unsolicited additional support letters are not accepted. Check the latest call document and portal for all fields and any upload constraints; the list above is a preparation guide rather than a substitute for the official form.

Build a persuasive, deliverable proposal

Start with the topic’s decision need. For example, a wind and solar proposal could ask whether one particular benefit-sharing mechanism changes trust or perceived fairness for a defined group of communities. A supply-chain proposal could focus on a bounded group of technologies or dependencies and specify how the analysis would support an Irish policy decision. An energy-sufficiency proposal might compare a defined set of measures by feasibility, household effects, energy impact, and equity. These are examples of ways to narrow the call’s scope, not official project prescriptions.

Make the work plan concrete. State the research questions, data sources, methods, work packages, milestones, and outputs. Match each task to the time available and to the fellow’s requested percentage of effort. If the project depends on access to a dataset, public authority, company, or community, explain what access is already arranged and what approvals remain. For a policy-facing project, identify intended users and a realistic route for exchanging findings without promising that policymakers will adopt a recommendation.

Use the suitability section to connect your record to the proposed work. Select a small number of relevant outputs and explain your contribution and why each matters. The narrative-CV structure gives room for team contributions, mentoring, open data or software, public engagement, and policy work; it is not limited to journal articles. Avoid filling sections with general claims about being passionate. Demonstrate capability with evidence that maps to the selection criteria.

The impact statement should be specific and proportionate. Describe the research capacity or evidence that Ireland would retain, the decisions it might inform, and the groups or organisations that could use the outputs. Distinguish anticipated outcomes from deliverables within the fellowship. Cite the policy sources and prior evidence that justify the problem, and reference all sources accurately. If you use generative AI or AI-assisted tools, follow SEAI’s disclosure instruction.

Budget and timing checks

Treat €300,000 as the maximum contribution, not a target to spend. The budget should correspond to the proposed duration, working percentage, salary basis, and eligible overheads. The call permits salary and associated overheads; for people already employed by the sponsor, salary contributions must be pro rata. Teaching buyout is relevant for faculty taking a secondment, while the mobility allowance is reserved for qualifying existing staff working part time. Explain any mobility request with vouched, necessary travel or temporary accommodation costs. The call says ordinary short-distance commuting is not covered in the circumstances it defines.

Start institutional setup early. Confirm the host’s eligibility, sponsor availability, contract and salary treatment, and who can approve the application in the portal. Ask the research office how much internal review time it needs. Leave a buffer for portal registration, approvals, and document checks: an otherwise strong application can fail the completeness gate if an authorised signatory has not approved it by 13:00 on 22 October.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying to the Academic Fellowship rules or assuming this autumn call is open-topic. This page describes the SEAI-Based stream with three set topics.
• Describing a broad clean-energy ambition without selecting one topic and showing a clear match to its question and expected outputs.
• Treating the €300,000 ceiling as a personal stipend or including costs the stream does not list as eligible application costs.
• Assuming an email from a sponsor replaces their required letter or the formal SmartSimple approval by the organisation’s authorised approver.
• Leaving the sponsor and research office until the final week. The institutional approval is part of submission, not post-award administration.
• Overstating data access, stakeholder commitments, or policy impact. Identify what is confirmed, what requires permission, and what the project can deliver regardless.
• Omitting AI-tool disclosure or references. SEAI explicitly asks applicants to acknowledge sources and state the tools, versions, and uses involved.

Frequently asked questions

Is the call open now?

Yes. SEAI says the autumn SEAI-Based call opened on 23 September 2026 and closes at 13:00 IST on 22 October 2026.

Is this the same as the 2026 Academic Fellowship?

No. The Academic Fellowship had its own call and closed on 30 June 2026. The autumn call is for SEAI-Based fellowships on three designated topics.

Can a researcher based outside Ireland apply?

The applicant needs support from a third-level educational body based in the Republic of Ireland. Ask the prospective host’s research office about employment, residency, and visa implications; SEAI’s FAQ recommends seeking institutional advice on visa requirements.

Can I request a part-time fellowship?

Yes. Part-time is permitted, with an expected commitment of about 50% and a stated minimum of 40%. The application should make the time commitment and work plan consistent.

When would the fellowship start?

The call expects a successful fellow to start within six months after funding notification. A further delay may be approved for maternity, paternity, adoptive leave, or another justified circumstance.

Where can I ask about eligibility or the topics?

Read the call document and FAQ linked from SEAI’s programme page, then contact SEAI or your institution’s research office for questions about the current call. The programme page lists an email contact for queries about the SEAI-Based topics. Do not rely on a third-party summary if it conflicts with the current official documents.

Official links and next steps

Read the SEAI ENERGISE Fellowship Programme page, download the SEAI-Based Autumn 2026 call document, and review the programme FAQ. Then select one topic, contact a qualifying Irish host and academic sponsor, and open the SmartSimple application portal. Work backward from the deadline so the institutional approver can complete approval before 13:00 Irish time on 22 October 2026.