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Career Progression Fellowships

Find out more about the  Career Progression Fellowships and how you can apply.

*****Opening for applications in Spring 2022*****

We have developed two fellowship schemes that will support post-doctoral researchers to help them realise their research aims and career ambitions, no matter what their experience or career stage. This is the first time Pancreatic Cancer UK has delivered fellowships. We will pilot their structure and processes in 2021/22, testing the fellowships in the community, evaluating with feedback from the applicants and wider field and, if necessary, redeveloping for future rounds.

The two fellowships are the Career Foundation Fellowships and the Career Progression Fellowships and they cover two different levels of experience. These are intentionally flexible allowing applicants to define them (within some broad eligibility criteria), however, applicants will also have to clearly and convincingly justify why the budget, duration and fellowship type chosen enables them to realise their career goals in pancreatic cancer research.

This page contains information about the Career Progression Fellowships,  if you are at an earlier stage in your career then you may be eligible for our Career Foundation Fellowships. Find out more about them here.

Key details

  • Eligible for:
    • Researchers with significant postdoctoral research experience that have made important contributions to pancreatic cancer research e.g. publications, patents, techniques, policy influence
    • PCUK Career Foundation Fellows may also apply
  • Open to applications from clinicians and non-clinicians
  • Proposals may focus on any aspect of research that aims to improve the lives of people affected by pancreatic cancer
  • Maximum duration: 3 years
  • Maximum size of award: £300,000
  • Applicant will be Principal Investigator but should have named Supervisor and Collaborators

Using Patient and Public Involvement in your application

Applicants should be aware that their proposals will also be reviewed by people with lived experience of pancreatic cancer and are therefore strongly encouraged to demonstrate how they have already/intend to involve people with lived experience in the development and delivery of their work. At Pancreatic Cancer UK, we have a fantastic Research Involvement Network (RIN) made up of over 250 individuals that have been affected by pancreatic cancer including patients, carers, loved ones and survivors. They give valuable insight and help to ensure that research is centred around the needs of patients. If you would like members of RIN to help shape your application you can find out more about how to do this here. Please get in touch with the Research Team as soon as possible if you would like to discuss this further or if you have any questions.

If you believe your point of entry is for Career Progression Fellowships track, these will likely open in Spring 2022 with more detail on these in early 2022. If you wish to start planning your application we recommend that you look at the Career Foundation Fellowships page, as although the awards are different in their size, duration and required applicant experience, the application process is likely to be very similar. 

Virtual Panel: Fellowships launch and grant writing discussion

We held a virtual panel in order to help those who may wish to apply to either of our new Post-doctoral Fellowships. Attendees were able to ask questions they had about the Fellowships and there was a panel discussion, with questions from the audience, on how to write a successful fellowship application. We would recommend that potential applicants watch this before applying as we believe it will give them the tools they need to make their application to us, as well as to any other fellowships, as strong as possible.

Watch it here

The Agenda

  • Date: Thursday 23rd September 2021
  • Time: 3.30-4.30pm (BST)
  • Agenda:
    • Introduction to the Fellowships
    • Questions from the audience on the Fellowships
    • Writing a winning grant application, panel discussion with questions from the audience
  • Recording: we will be recording this event, so if you are unable to attend the live session, please contact us and we will be able to make the recording available to you.

The Panel

We have handpicked a panel of experts, that have vast experience in applying for and reviewing fellowships. The panel will be made up of:

  • Professor Michelle Garrett, Professor of Cancer Therapeutics in the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent and Visiting Professor of Cancer Therapeutics at the Institute of Cancer Research. Michelle will be chairing the panel and has experience in applying for and undertaking a fellowship herself, as she was awarded the Lucille Markey International Research Fellowship, in 1991.
  • Dr Gina DeNicola, Assistant Member in the Department of Cancer Physiology, Moffitt Cancer Center. Gina was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Lewis Cantley at Weill Cornell Medical College and received a fellowship from Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in 2014. Since then, she has also established her own lab at the Moffit Cancer Centre, and so is responsible for recruiting her own post-doctoral fellows. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board that will be reviewing the Career Foundation Fellowship applications.
  • Dr Shereen Sabbah, Research Programme Manager, Versus Arthritis. Shereen has been responsible for the development and delivery of the fellowship and PhD awards at Versus Arthritis since she joined the charity in 2017. The charity has funded 409 personal awards worth ~£82million over the past 20 years and she has a wealth of experience in what makes a successful fellowship application.
  • TBC

Enquiries

We strongly encourage all potential applicants to attend the webinar, you can register to attend here. If you are unable to attend, please get in touch with us to request a recording of the webinar.

For any queries relating to the new Post-Doctoral Fellowships, please email or call the research team on 020 7820 6705.