The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has announced the new list of grant holders for its Discovery Fellowships 2021.
The Discovery Fellowship scheme supports researchers who:
- show excellent potential
- wish to undertake independent research in a host research group
- wish to gain the skills to start moving towards being fully independent research leaders.
15 new fellows
The new grant holders are:
Dr Jacques Carolan, UCL
Project: All-optical electrophysiology: probing real-time dynamics of neural circuits.
Dr Jasmine Ono, University of Exeter
Project: Linking adaptive evolution and reproductive barriers in budding yeasts.
Dr Nima Khalighinejad, University of Oxford
Project: Deciding ‘if’ and ‘when’ to act: a neuroanatomical and neurochemical investigation.
Dr Amanda Warr, The University of Edinburgh
Project: The impact of gut microbiome on the innate immune response against enteric coronaviruses.
Dr Nichola Hawkins, National Institute of Agricultural Botany
Project: Predicting the durability and resistance risk of crop protection measures through experimental evolution of plant pathogens.
Dr Thomas Blacker, UCL
Project: Autofluorescence across scales: an integrated understanding of redox cofactors as intrinsic probes of metabolic state.
Dr Luis Yanez Guerra, University of Exeter
Project: Reconstructing the evolution of monoamines as neurotransmitters.
Dr Cynthia Okoro-Shekwaga, University of Leeds
Project: Integrated biological approaches for high-grade biomethane vehicle fuel production from food waste.
Dr Philip Kitchen, Aston University
Project: Understanding aquaporin-4 relocalisation in the central nervous system.
Dr Claudia Contini, Imperial College London
Project: Designing motile and chemotactic protocells to investigate and exploit cellular collective behaviours.
Dr Alice Pollard, Imperial College London
Project: Establishing AMP-activated protein kinase as a regulator of adipose stem cell plasticity and function in health and disease.
Dr Marcelo Bueno Batista, John Innes Centre
Project: Engineering a synthetic symbiosis to solve the nitrogen crisis.
Dr Charlotte Elizabeth Walker, University of York
Project: Investigating inorganic carbon transport in globally important algal lineages.
Dr Jane Usher, University of Exeter
Project: Combatting resistance to combinatorial stress and macrophage killing in Candida glabrata.
Dr Divya Venkatesh, University of Oxford
Project: Seals: a natural experiment in cross-species transmission, adaptation and pathogenicity of influenza A virus.
Projects awarded up to £400,000
The 15 grant holders were awarded up to £400,000 out of total fund of £6 million.
The successful applicants had to demonstrate:
- the potential to become a future research leader
- a wish to conduct their own independent research within a host lab
- a wish to gain leadership skills.
The three-year projects have to be within the remit of BBSRC.
The project’s full economic cost can be up to £500,000.
BBSRC funds 80% of this (£400,000), with the host research organisation funding the rest.
Apply for Discovery Fellowships 2022
The scheme for 2022 discovery fellows has just opened.
Potential applicants can learn more and apply on the funding opportunity page: BBSRC Discovery Fellowships 2022
Top image: Credit: AnnaStills, Getty Images