Fellowship Scheme

About the Fellowship

The Birmingham Fellowship Scheme is a unique hiring initiative that creates an immediate peer network providing mutual support for academic pursuits. It offers a secure career trajectory with a promise of a permanent position post-probation, setting it apart from other institutions. Rebecca commented: “Much of my success is down to being on the Birmingham Fellowship Scheme - partly because of having that sort of peer support. It meant that even when you did get setbacks, such as grants being rejected, there were other people going through the same thing and could all learn from each other. That made a big difference.”

Key Features and Benefits

• Peer Support Network: Invaluable for mutual support in various stages of academic pursuits.
• Secure Career Trajectory: Promise of a permanent position post-probation.
• Startup Package: Fair startup package with flexible initial funding for experiments.
• Research Resources: Good research resources available.
• Access to Students: Opportunity to have access to PhD and Masters students for research assistance.
• Professional Development: Opportunity to attend leadership courses, workshops, networking lunches, and other events to develop soft skills.
• Collaborative Ethos: Welcoming and diverse environment with a collaborative spirit extending across disciplines and departments.

Responsibilities and Aspirations

The scheme aims to support researchers with international aspirations who want to deliver impactful research and secure academic success. Rebecca's aspiration is to establish an international research program focused on regions affected by infections, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. Birmingham offers the conducive environment and necessary resources to help make this vision a reality, with existing networks like BactiVac, the Bacterial Vaccines Network.

Location and Environment

The [Employer hidden] offers a beautiful, leafy campus and is located in Birmingham, a friendly, diverse, and multicultural city. The university environment is described as welcoming and supportive, with accessible academic communities and a collaborative spirit.