Applying for Fellowships Henry Wellcome experience Ben Wilson benjamin Applying for Fellowships Henry Wellcome experience Ben Wilson benjamin.wilson@newcastle.ac.uk Only my experience, not exhaustive, or necessarily accurate

Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship Early career award (<2 years post-PhD) Biomedical science or public health 4 years of funding £250,000 Salary Research expenses Travel “Offers recently qualified postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to start independent research careers”

My background 2009 - 2014 – PhD in Neuroscience in Newcastle 2014 - 2016 – Post-doc in Newcastle 2016 - 2020 – Henry Wellcome Fellowship I stayed in Newcastle Go to the best place for the research New research sponsors Newcastle Leipzig, Germany

Lessons learned Timing Take advice, even when you don’t like it The application takes longer than you think Be aware of internal deadlines and requirements Make use of the help that Newcastle offers Take advice, even when you don’t like it Discuss your proposal widely, for breadth of ideas, opinions and insights

Preliminary application Very short (2 pages) However, this took me as much effort to write as the full application I had a clear idea of the experiments I wanted to do But it took more effort to clearly lay out the impact and implications Try and look at previous applications Again, take advice seriously

Full application Build on preliminary application Don’t repeat yourself or copy and paste Words are tight, and any redundancy is wasting a chance to show something else to the interviewers However, do restate key points from different perspectives E.g., A project might have both basic science and policy implications. Emphasise the value in that.

Full application In every section, think about what information the reviewers want from a strong candidate “In what way will the fellowship further the applicants scientific goals and personal careers aspirations” Use this as an opportunity to show them that you are worth investing in The Wellcome Trust want to develop scientists as much as they want to fund research

Interview Prepare thoroughly Mock interviews Think about answers to likely questions If the panel list is available, look at who will be interviewing you There will be a lot of non-specialists, so be broad But the main interviewers will have read your application in detail, so be prepared for in depth questions Be aware of what you are walking into

Take home messages Prepare! At this stage, the Wellcome Trust want to identify, invest in, and develop, potential future scientific leaders Not just funding great research projects, but people Cover both technical and scientific detail, and place the work into a broader, more accessible context

Questions? benjamin.wilson@newcastle.ac.uk

Application Project Person Place Your own ideas, probably based on your prior work Person They want to fund future scientific leaders (not great technicians) Place Is Newcastle the best place in the UK/world to do your project?