Career Break (Grant Eligibility)

Career break

A documented absence from active research work of at least three months' duration arising from parental leave, caring responsibilities, illness, disability, military service, or other personal circumstances, recognised by funders as extending early-career-researcher eligibility windows pro-rata.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 22 Aug 2026

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A career break is a documented absence from active research work, generally understood to be at least three months in duration, arising from parental leave, caring responsibilities, illness, disability, military service, or comparable personal circumstances. Funders recognise career breaks by extending early-career-researcher (ECR) eligibility windows pro-rata — that is, adding back the length of the break to whatever date-based cutoff would otherwise apply.

How this differs from career interruption

“Career break” and career interruption are near-synonyms used somewhat interchangeably across funders, but with real differences in exact scope: some funders (notably the Royal Society and the European Research Council) use “career interruption” specifically, and define it to potentially include reduced-fraction working (working less than full-time) rather than only complete absence from work — a broader scope than a strict “break.” Which term a given funder uses, and exactly what qualifies, differs by scheme, so the applicable funder’s own eligibility guidance is the definitive source, not either term’s general usage.

Example

A researcher who takes eight months of parental leave and later applies for an early-career funding scheme with a “PhD awarded within the last five years” eligibility rule has that window extended by the documented length of the leave, per the funder’s career-break policy.

Practical note

Funders’ rules on what counts, and how it must be documented, differ meaningfully: UKRI permits any documented break to extend the ECR eligibility window, while the ERC explicitly enumerates which categories of break qualify — always check the specific scheme’s guidance rather than assuming a universal definition.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Career break"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/career-break" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/career-break",
  "name": "Career break",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/career-break",
  "description": "A documented absence from active research work of at least three months' duration arising from parental leave, caring responsibilities, illness, disability, military service, or other personal circumstances, recognised by funders as extending early-career-researcher eligibility windows pro-rata.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/mentorship-career-stages#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/career-break",
  "sameAs": [
    "Career interruption",
    "Time away from research"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-08-22T15:29:50",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}