Biophysical Sciences Institute

Fellowships

Fellows are a valued part of our community. We invite enquiries from potential Fellowship applicants and offer support throughout the application process.

Our support will take you from the early stages by making any necessary introductions to laboratory hosts in your field of research, through the proposal writing process to the final peer review of your finished application.

Fellowship Opportunities

Below is a list of 2023 Fellowship opportunities, arranged in chronological order by closing date. For more information about these schemes please click on the links to visit the funders' webpages. If you would like to talk to us about applying for a Fellowship and how we can support you please use the link above to get in touch.

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship

This scheme offers a recognised first step into an independent research career for outstanding postdoctoral scientists and engineers who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances, such as caring responsibilities or health issues.

Closing date: Next round opens 3 September 2024

Website: https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/dorothy-hodgkin-fellowship/

Royal Society University Research Fellowships

These enable outstanding scientists to build an independent research career. Applicants can now apply for a maximum award value over eight years (£1.83 million for the 2023-2024 round). Maximum caps for salary contribution and research costs have been removed by the Royal Society, and going forward there will be a total maximum grant value for applicants to work within.

Closing date: Next round opens 11 July 2024

Website: http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/university-research/

MRC Career Development Award

Support to become an independent researcher in a medical research field. Applications are welcomed from across all areas of the MRC remit to improve human health. This may range from basic studies with relevance to mechanisms of disease, to translational and developmental clinical research.

Website: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/career-development-award/

MRC Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship

Applications are welcomed from across all areas of the MRC remit to improve human health. This may range from basic studies with relevance to mechanisms of disease, to translational and developmental clinical research.

Website: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/senior-non-clinical-fellowship/

EPSRC Postdoctoral and Open Plus Fellowship

Personal, career development focused awards in any area funded by EPSRC. Open plus fellowships can design a package of work that meets your wider aspirations by championing a topic to deliver improvements in research culture. Open fellowships are for all career stages beyond postdoctoral level and include researchers who are close to their first academic appointment, leading in an area of technical development, or are a highly experienced researcher.

Website: https://www.ukri.org/publications/post-doctoral-and-open-fellowships/

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships

This scheme is for early career researchers, with a research record but who have not yet held a full-time permanent academic post, to undertake a significant piece of publishable work.

Closing date: 22 February 2024

Website: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/early-career-fellowships

European Commission Marie Curie Fellowships

Fellowships for researchers at all stages of their careers. Efforts are made to increase participation by women researchers, by encouraging equal opportunities in all 'Marie Curie Actions', by designing the actions to ensure that researchers can achieve an appropriate work/life balance and by facilitating resuming a research career after a break.

Website: https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/calls/msca-postdoctoral-fellowships-2024

Closing date: Next call opens 9 April 2024

About the BSI

We support research at the boundaries of the life sciences and other physical sciences including physics, mathematical sciences & computer science. Our research takes a fresh, interdisciplinary approach to fundamental biosciences processes and systems which have real-world applications e.g. in drug discovery or the development of novel materials. Our community is drawn from across scientific disciplinary boundaries and career stages. We are united by a commitment to collaborative research and to fostering a supportive research culture.

Find out more here:

Contact us

Find out more about interdisciplinary biosciences at Durham University and how we can support your application. Get in touch by email to admin.bsi@durham.ac.uk or sign up to one of our drop-in sessions and meet the BSI Director Professor Steven Cobb.