Evaluation of Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships

The Royal Society commissioned Research Consulting to conduct an independent evaluation of the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (DHF) scheme, examining its continued effectiveness, relevance, and positioning within the UK research funding landscape – building on a previous evaluation conducted in 2014.

We took a mixed-methods approach, engaging 97 unique stakeholders through an online survey of current and former DHF research fellows (79 responses) and semi-structured interviews with award holders, panel members, institutional representatives, and Royal Society staff (37 interviews in total). This was complemented by desk research drawing on applicant and award holder data and annual monitoring reports covering 129 awards, with the scope of the evaluation encompassing all 173 Dorothy Hodgkin Fellows whose award was live or awarded since the 2014 evaluation.

We delivered our findings and recommendations in a final report in March 2026, which included four embedded case studies profiling DHF award holders.