The British Council’s ISPF Early Career Fellowships are specifically designed to widen participation and to support the careers of researchers from a variety of backgrounds, including those whose backgrounds are underrepresented in their research field.
This opportunity is available to early career researchers:
- who have not yet held a permanent research-related post or academic post with a research specific element,
- who wish to have a research experience at a UK university or research institution.
This could include converting their doctoral work into publications or other academic outputs and establishing new research relationships.
The scheme will have a focus on inclusivity: it will provide early career researchers with a foundation to launch their careers. It creates lasting benefits to the fellow, the UK and the international partners’ research communities through sustainable collaboration.
The Early Career Fellowships will support recent PhD (or equivalent) graduates (three from Brazil, three from Egypt, and three from Thailand), to undertake research fellowships under the supervision and mentoring of experienced academics drawn from the Centre for Natural Products Discovery, the wider School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, and other relevant schools or centres within the university.
Each fellow will have a supervisor (or a supervisory team) and benefit from an excellent range of resources and training for career development, including LJMU’s academic and professional support, as well as external training opportunities.
The research fellowship, which is 12 months in duration, must begin by the 31 March 2026. As we will deploy a cohort-based approach, we endeavour to have all nine fellows begin their fellowships around the same time.
The following research themes are eligible, in the context of interdisciplinary natural products research. Successful applicants will be able to work with the host to co-develop a detailed project plan before they start the fellowship:
Egypt and Thailand
- Prospecting for and characterising novel, nature-derived chemical scaffolds for the development of new therapeutic agents against:
- cancer
- neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, and
- antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Work in these areas will deploy a combination of methods in pharmacology, high-throughput screening, physico-chemical profiling, phytochemistry, cell and molecular biology, fluorescence imaging and omics-based approaches (3 positions available, each targeting one of the three disease conditions).
- Exploring natural products safety and drug-herb interactions through molecular toxicology and pharmacokinetic platforms and model organisms. Model organisms will include Drosophila and Galleria (1 position available).
- The use of computational approaches to study, model and predict the biological effects and cellular and molecular mechanisms of action of a biodiverse collection of natural products. Approaches will include molecular docking, network pharmacology, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and experimental validation (1 position available).
- Standardisation, quality control and advanced drug delivery systems for developing natural products into therapeutics or nutraceuticals. Approaches will include phytochemistry, HPLC, spectroscopy, spectrometry and nanodelivery systems (1 position available).
Brazil
- A combination of experimental, literature-based, computational and related approaches, as appropriate, will be used to:
- Explore Amazonian biodiversity for drug discovery, chemical tools development, bioeconomy growing, and climate change monitoring linked to health and well-being.
- Develop frameworks, models and approaches for mapping and documenting biodiversity and ensuring conservation and sustainability of medicinal and non-medicinal plants in the Amazon.
- Establish ethnopharmacological evidence base for selected indigenous medicinal remedies and practices in the Amazon and implications for public health.
Three positions are available to applicants from Brazil (projects must be in, or related to, biodiversity, bioeconomy, conservation or public health).
To be eligible for the ISPF Early Career Fellowship, you must:
- Be a permanent resident of and currently be residing in Brazil, Egypt, or Thailand.
- Be an Early Career Researcher (ECR)*.
- Not be in a permanent academic post with a research-related role or function.
- If you are applying for the Brazilian cohort, you must be from the Legal Amazon/ Amazônia Legal universities and research centres. ‘Legal Amazon’ includes all 9 states (Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia and Roraima, and Eastern Amazon, comprising the states of Pará, Maranhão, Amapá, Tocantins and Mato Grosso) with Amazonian land and the Amazon State.
- For Egypt: Be from public universities and research centres.
- For Egypt: Applicants need to show in their application benefits to Egypt in reference to 20/30 vision.
- Not currently be in receipt of financial support or funding towards any other programme in the UK from any other sources.
- Meet the English language requirement of Liverpool John Moores University (B2 level based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which can be demonstrated by an overall IELTS (Academic) score of at least 6.0, with a minimum of 5.5 in each component. The English Language proficiency requirement can be waived if an applicant is able to demonstrate that their PhD study or previous postdoctoral study was conducted in English or they have published at least two full-length data articles as first author in English and in a *reputable journal that publishes in English (*e.g., with Q1 or Q2 rating or searchable on databases such as PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus), and the applicant wrote at least 75% of the draft manuscript version that was accepted by the journal.
- Have a background or a proven interest in the proposed research area.
- Demonstrate in your application, and, if shortlisted, at interview a plan for the research activities to be undertaken during your placement, and their relationship to your PhD or previous work, and show this will contribute to your career development.
- Demonstrate ((in your application, and, if shortlisted, at interview)) future contributions to capacity-building and socio-economic advancement you will make through the benefits achieved after completing the fellowship programme and returning to your home country.
- Agree to maintain contact with the British Council for purposes of monitoring and evaluation during and after your fellowship.
- Demonstrate (in your application, and, if shortlisted, at interview) a plan and a passion to engage other early career researchers from your home country after the fellowship.
- Agree to your personal data being shared with the British Council and international associated partners of the countries involved (Brazil, Egypt and Thailand, accordingly) as a condition of applying for the bursary and agree to maintain contact with the British Council for purposes of monitoring and evaluation during and after your fellowship.
- Not be an employee of the British Council, the UK Government or Scottish, Welsh, or Northern Irish Governments.
- Not be from a for-profit organisation
*(ECRs) have completed or are close to completion of their PhD, potentially waiting for their final viva voce examination, which must be passed prior to taking up the award. ECRs will not have held a permanent academic post or a permanent post with a research-related element, or one which allowed them to supervise PhD students or submit research grants as a principal investigator. Time spent in teaching-only roles or academic related roles does not affect ECR status, provided no research element was part of the role. If a researcher does not hold a PhD but has research experience equivalent to a PhD holder and works in a field where a PhD is not a prerequisite for established research activity, they can still be considered eligible. Participants from for-profit organisations cannot be funded. As we move toward greater inclusivity for ECRs from a wide range of backgrounds, we are no longer counting years spent in a specific career stage. Career breaks and alternative trajectories to an early academic career are all considered outside the definition of career stage
- A stipend of £33,000 for the 12-month period.
- £12,500 for research-related expenses. This can contribute to consumables, small equipment, publication costs, or other expenses related directly to the research project.
- Financial support (up to £8k) to cover travel expenses (return economy-class travel from home country to UK – for the fellow only), visa, insurance, other ad-hoc costs (e.g., IELTS cost, NHS surcharges) and, where relevant, contribution to childcare costs. Please note that some fees such as for visa and the NHS health surcharge will require the fellows to initially pay upfront and then be reimbursed. Fellows may be eligible to apply for the Government Authorised Exchange Visa (Temporary Work) - https://www.gov.uk/government-authorised-exchange
- Access to state-of-the-art research facilities and resources (e.g., labs, library, software, journals).
- Support before and during the fellowship on a range of issues, including securing accommodation, visa application and other logistical needs. There will be a designated point of contact for any issues or concerns. There will also be a nominated safeguarding focal point.
- Career development support through LJMU’s Researcher Development Programme, in addition to research supervision and mentoring by academics. Career development training will adopt the “Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers” framework. Fellows will be supported to develop competitive research proposals for fellowship or grant applications beyond the lifetime of their fellowships, as well as collaborations and partnerships between the host institution and their home institutions.
- Fellows will have access to the university’s services for welfare, counselling, health and well-being, and other support needs at the same level as do university employees.
- Fellows will be able to join LJMU’s Research Staff Association.
- Fellows will be able to attend, free-of-charge, a range of researcher development workshops organised by the university.
- Fellows will be able to attend the monthly meetings of the CNPD, where they can present their work and receive helpful feedback, as well as discuss any issues relating to lab management that might require collective attention.
- Opportunities to collaborate, as relevant, with research groups at other UK institutions.
- Opportunities for each fellow to publish at least one high-impact paper in a reputable journal and give at least a poster or an oral presentation at a national or international conference.
- Opportunities to contribute to and gain from the university with respect to initiatives to improve research culture or support Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).
Uniquely, in order to give fellows the highest level of training, support and experience, this fellowship training will adopt an expanded cohort-based approach, which will have all the fellows from the three countries follow a path that involves both (i) individualised training and (ii) cohort-based training. This will allow them to interact with fellows from other countries and thus develop enhanced global perspectives and grow extensive networks that will be invaluable to their careers well beyond the duration of the fellowship.
The expanded cohort-based approach will also include skills training sessions on manuscript writing, grant writing, peer-reviewing manuscripts, leading a research laboratory, research ethics and research integrity, networking and developing an international profile, innovation and entrepreneurship (including research commercialisation), science and policymaking, public engagement and public dissemination of science. These sessions will be facilitated by distinguished internal and external speakers and providers. It will also involve external trips to key, relevant research or research-related (including industrial) organisations or centres in the UK that will enhance fellows’ appreciation of the research ecosystem and expand their networks. A writing retreat could also be arranged as appropriate.
A complete application must include the following:
Completion of an online application form that will ask a range of questions, including:
- Describe your research background and how your knowledge, skills, capabilities and expertise align to this fellowship opportunity and make you the right candidate for it (a maximum of 1000 words).
- Describe which of the research themes you would like to work on (if you are successful), why, and how you might undertake the work, including experimental approaches (a maximum of 1000 words).
- Describe your career aspirations and how this fellowship will contribute to your future career development (a maximum of 500 words).
- Describe how after the fellowship you will contribute to capacity building and socio-economic advancement in your country as well as engage other early career researchers from your country. Applicants from Egypt need to also demonstrate benefits to Egypt in reference to 20/30 vision (a maximum of 1000 words).
The following documents need to be sent as pdf files to the email provided at the end of the online application form:
- An academic Curriculum Vitae (CV) highlighting academic degrees, achievements, prizes and awards, research experience, experimental skills and other relevant pieces of information. Please include a list of your publications (if any), separated into peer-reviewed data articles, review articles, book chapters, conference abstracts, and other publications (each publication must be fully cited, clearly show applicant’s position on the authors’ list, and include the DOI). The CV should not be more than 5 pages (excluding publications list).
- A letter of recommendation from your PhD or recent/current postdoc institution, preferably from your PhD supervisor or postdoc advisor, addressing your skills and suitability for the fellowship. The letter must be on an official letterhead, with the full contact details of the referee (including at least an e-mail address and a phone number) and duly signed by them. The letter must indicate the referee’s professional relationship with the applicant. Please note that we may contact your referee during or after the assessment process.
