To enhance our support for both internal and external applicants to prestigious personal awards, the College of Medicine and Health has established a dedicated College Fellowship Academy.
The Fellowship Academy aims to attract the next generation of talent seeking personal awards. The Academy will focus on postdoctoral talent development to secure external research fellowships and equivalent awards, such as MRC Career Development/Clinician Scientist Awards, NIHR Advanced Fellowships, UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, equivalent Wellcome schemes, and ERC Starter Grants. This also includes the pump-priming programmes such as the Birmingham Springboard fellowship.
The Fellowship Academy will:
- Provide applicants with advice and guidance (e.g. grant clinics, signposting, bid building, interview preparation and post-award mentoring)
- Liaise with programme managers of the relevant funding bodies (e.g. planning and hosting multi-funder events)
- Provide overarching career guidance and care of a growing cadre of externally funded fellows across the College
Key People
While fellowship success entails many transferable skills, there are considerable nuances specific to the different career paths, disciplines and funding bodies which need individualised attention. The leadership team of the Fellowship Academy has a broad range of experience with different funding bodies and fellowship schemes.
Director of Fellowship Academy - Professor Aga Gambus
I have been fortunate to have held a number of fellowships throughout my career; successfully competing for a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship after my PhD, which I followed with an MRC Career Development Award, a Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine Prize and a Wellcome Investigator Award. Equally, I have also had my share of failures, e.g. having been interviewed for MRC Senior Investigator Fellowship in 2019 and ERC Consolidator Grant 2019 and 2020.
I now have significant experience on the other side of the table, too, having acted both as reviewer and on grants and fellowship panels funders across the UK and in Europe, specifically:
1. BBSRC Committee C/D, Pioneer Awards Panel - 2022 - ongoing
2. Wellcome Trust DSV1 - Molecular Mechanisms 2022 and October 2023 - ongoing
3. UKRI Future Leaders Fellow panel member and interviewer - 2023 - ongoing
4. BBSRC Committee C/D, Pioneer Awards Panel. 2022 - ongoing
5. Genetics, genomics and RNAs” of the French National Research Agency (ANR) - 2019-2021
6. French ATIP-Avenir LS1 panel - 2022-23
Meet Professor Gambus
Deputy Director of Fellowship Academy - Professor Helen McGettrick
I a
m a passionate advocate for mentoring and facilitating career development across a researcher’s life-course, and as previous Versus Arthritis Career Development Fellowship awardee I have personal experience of the challenges involved in transitioning to become an independent PI. I have also had my own experience of failure, having been interviewed for a Kennedy Trust Senior Fellowship in 2018.
During my tenure as England Representative on the British Society of Immunology (BSI) Members Forum (2018-2022), we shaped the society’s five-year national strategy for supporting immunology research, creating a roadmap for career development across immunology-based sectors and introducing the BSI Career Enhancement Awards to enable capacity building within the UK Immunology Community. Moreover, I act as a external Career Development/Fellowship mentor for ECR members of BSI and British Society for Rheumatology.
I also have gained significant experience has a grant/fellowship reviewer and am a member of a number of funding panels with the UK and Europe:
1. UKAN - MyAGE – Management Committee - 2024 - present
2. Royal Free London– Research Panel Member - 2023 - present
3. European Commission Expert Panel Member and Rapporteur (H2020-DIAMOND) - 2023 - present
4. Versus Arthritis – Priorities 2023, 2024, 2025 – Accelerating Diagnosis and Treatment Funding Recommendation Panel - 2022-present
5. Arthritis Research UK - Career Development Fellowship Committee - 2022 - present
6. Arthritis Research UK - Foundation Fellowship Committee - 2022 - 2023
7. Arthritis Research UK - PhD Studentship Committee - 2017 - 2022
8. European Commission Expert Evaluator, Panel Member and Rapporteur (H2020-MSCA-IF) - 2016 - present
9. Arthritis Research UK - College of Experts - 2016 - present
Meet Professor McGettrick
Discovery Science Lead - Professor Dylan Owen
I 
was originally a physicist and am now jointly appointed between the College of Medicine and Health and the School of Mathematics having originally started by lab at King’s College London with an ERC Starter Grant. My lab was later funded from a number of BBSRC grants focussed around data-driven biology, technology development and interdisciplinary science.
I hold a number of roles internally including chairing the Research Development Fund (RDF), CMH’s internal funding stream which prioritises pump-prime funding for future grant and fellowship applications. Externally, I sit on the interview panel for the Wellcome Career Development Awards (CDAs) in Arm 1 which mainly handles technology development applications and those related to molecular mechanisms.
I am also a member of the Talent Panel College (TPC) for the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships and the expert review panel for Cancer Research UK multidisciplinary fellowships/grants was well as the pool of experts for BBSRC grant applications in committees C and D.
Meet Professor Owen
The Birmingham Springboard Fellowship
The Birmingham Springboard Fellowship is a new competitive scheme which aims to support high-calibre post-doctoral researchers to develop proposals for submission to prestigious fellowships schemes.
The postholder will work in a high-quality research environment and will be sponsored by a senior mentor for development of their independent research within the strategic areas of research in the College of Medicine and Health. The postholder is expected to submit their independent fellowship application within the first 12 months of appointment and if/as successful, move into the fellowship role on a new contract within the two years.
Recent Fellowship Successes
Upcoming Events
We will regularly update upcoming events and how we can support you. Please check regularly to see what might be most appropriate for you to attend.
CMH Fellowship Academy - November and December 2024
We're delighted to kick off some of the new activities the Fellowship Academy has planned. We invite you to join us as we:
- Have a deeper dive into the different fellowship schemes available
- Hear from those who currently hold fellowships
- Look at how to best prepare yourself for a fellowship application
- Perform CV checks with FA leads
- Focus on narrative CV writing
- Show you how to access RSSD support and use worktribe
- Pitch-to-Peers
Register for the event
Contact and Further Information
For any queries regarding the new Fellowship Academy, please e-mail cmhfellowshipacademy@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
To give the Fellowship Academy feedback or to suggest workshops, support or resources that you feel would be beneficial please fill out our anonymous form.
CMH Fellowship Academy Suggestions Form
For further information on researcher training and development, please visit our Early Career Researcher (ECR) Hub.
Interested in joining the College of Medicine and Health? Please register your interest using our online form and see how the Fellowship Academy can help you with a fellowship application to join the college.
Register your interest