Sponsorship for Independent Fellows

The School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex wishes to sponsor early-career researchers to apply for independent fellowships that would allow them to establish their own research programmes and progress on a route to tenure. We are particularly interested in the following subject areas:

• Cancer Biology
• Genome Damage and Stability
• Structural Biology
• Infectious Disease
• RNA Biology
• Neuroscience
• Animal Behaviour and Cognition
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolution
• Chemistry
• Drug Discovery (particularly structure-led)

Our School is a vibrant and highly research-active community, committed to supporting its members develop their careers and reach their full potential. Recent fellowships held in the School have included schemes from Wellcome (Sir Henry Dale), UKRI (Future Leaders Fellowships), the MRC (Career Development Awards) or the Royal Society (University Research Fellowships).

We are supported by state-of-the-art facilities for optical and electron microscopy (including confocal and multiphoton imaging and high-resolution cryogenic electron microscopy), RNA/DNA genomics and Next Generation sequencing, X-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry and NMR, which have been upgraded/expanded recently through significant external funding.

Benefits for candidate fellows include a start-up package including a fully funded PhD studentship; a transparent, established tenure-track procedure; mentorship from worldleading scientists; and active support during the process of preparing their application.

For further information please visit http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/ and contact our Head of School, Prof. Michelle West; Deputy Head of School, Prof. Miguel Maravall; or the relevant Head of Department. 

Further information about Life Sciences at Sussex:

The School of Life Sciences seeks to understand the mechanisms that drive biological and chemical processes, with a mission to develop innovative and diverse approaches to enhance human health, technology and the environment.

In terms of research activity, the School of Life Sciences is the largest in the University of Sussex, with an annual research income of around £13 million. The School has a teaching and research faculty of around 90, over 140 research staff, and an administrative team of around 20. Two of the University’s Centres of Excellence in research, the Genome Damage and Stability Centre and Sussex Neuroscience, are hosted by Life Sciences – representing two key areas of strength. Members of the School are also important contributors to the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme and Sussex AI Centres of Excellence. We host the Sussex Drug Discovery Centre, our strategic base for translational research into therapeutics.

The Life Sciences have played a major role in the research and teaching of the University of Sussex since 1961. The original School of Biological Sciences (BIOLS), founded by John Maynard Smith FRS, trained some of the world’s leading biologists and biomedical scientists, and was a beacon of innovation and creativity in its integrated approach to research and teaching.

More information on our research can be found here:

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/schools/life-sciences/research

School of Life Sciences policy for the career development of independent fellows: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=independent-fellows-career-policy-2023-final-docx.pdf&site=7

Life Sciences work on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/schools/life-sciences/about/equality-diversity-inclusion

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