Wellcome Trust-Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellowship in Medical Humanities

Purpose

This scheme enables a PhD student or junior fellow funded through the Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities (MH) programme to undertake a three-month fellowship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST).

The Wellcome Trust-POST Fellowship allows unique access to a parliamentary and policy-making setting, thereby facilitating the real-world application of policy relevant research in medical humanities.

It is intended to develop awareness of policy environments and processes, and to raise a medical humanities related issue among a parliamentary audience.

What's included

The successful applicant will receive a fully funded three-month extension to their PhD or fellowship award.

While placements typically last three-months, they may be extended under exceptional circumstances.

If the successful applicant is not within reasonable daily travelling distance to POST in London, the Wellcome Trust will consider paying travel and accommodation costs up to a maximum of £2000.

Nature of the fellowship

During their time in Parliament, a Wellcome Trust-POST Fellow is expected to produce a POSTnote, to contribute to a longer report or to assist a select committee in a current enquiry. The topic of the fellowship will be determined by liaison between the Fellow, POST and the MH programme, depending on the research interests of the Fellow and the relevance and timeliness of the topic in Parliament. Fellows will also be required to write an article for the Wellcome Trust about their fellowship.

The fellowship will involve:

• identifying and liaising with a wide range of interested parties, including businesses, academia, regulatory bodies, non-governmental organisations and government departments;
• drafting concise briefing materials;
• responding to comments from internal and external peer review.

There may also be opportunities for Wellcome Trust POST Fellows to organise seminars in Parliament or elsewhere in order to inform or disseminate their work. In all cases, Fellows will be encouraged to interact closely with people and activities in the two Houses of Parliament, including select committees, MPs and Peers, their support services, 'All-Party Group' meetings and the very wide range of other activities at the Westminster Palace. Fellows will have similar interactions with interested parties outside Parliament.

Access to relevant conferences, workshops and seminars will be arranged, and Fellows may be able to draw on training facilities provided by the Houses of Parliament.

Eligibility

Applicants should be in the second or third-year of their PhD or in the first year of a fellowship funded by the MH Programme.

POST is a strictly non-partisan organisation. Wellcome Trust-POST Fellows will be required to abstain from any lobbying or party political activity, and generally uphold the principles of parliamentary service, including a commitment to confidentiality, during their time with the Office. All provisionally selected candidates must sign a declaration to this effect. They must also receive security clearance from the parliamentary security authorities as a condition of finally taking up the fellowship.

The Wellcome Trust-POST Fellow should expect to spend as much time as possible working at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. The Wellcome Trust and POST are keen to encourage applicants from all over the UK.

Application process

Please contact the office for an application form.

This is an annual competition and applications must be submitted by the published deadline.

An application should include your CV, a letter of support from your sponsor/supervisor and a summary of a proposed topic for a POST publication.

The summary should be no longer than 1000 words and should demonstrate:

• why you think this subject would be of particular parliamentary interest;
• how the training you have received and your research to date will enable you to carry out this work;
• your ability to write in a style suitable for a parliamentary (rather than an academic) audience.

Before preparing your summary you should examine the 'POST style' of writing, and the types of policy issues that are raised and discussed. All of POST's publications can be viewed online. For assistance, please contact Dr Peter Border.

Applications will be assessed by a panel consisting of staff from the MH programme and POST. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview approximately four weeks after the application deadline

Deadlines

We award one Wellcome Trust–POST Fellowship each year.

Applications should reach the Wellcome Trust by 22 November 2013.

Interviews are scheduled for 2 December 2013. If you intend to apply, please keep this day free. We will only consider re-arranging the interview date under exceptional circumstances.

The placement would begin in either spring or autumn 2014. The exact date is to be agreed between the successful applicant, POST, the Medical Humanities programme, as well as the applicant's supervisor and university.

Contacts

Grants Management – Medical Humanities
Wellcome Trust
Gibbs Building
215 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE, UK

T +44 (0)20 7611 8499
E mh@wellcome.ac.uk