Trust expands international funding scheme
25 April 2008
This year, the Wellcome Trust’s International Senior Research Fellowship scheme is expanding. In addition to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Poland as present, biomedical researchers wishing to establish an independent career in Croatia, Slovenia or the Slovak Republic will now also be eligible to apply for Trust funding through this scheme.
It is hoped that this expansion will encourage researchers who are working outside their own countries to return home. In the longer term, this funding will help build capacity for high-quality science in these countries, giving future generations of scientists more of a chance to develop their careers in their own countries.
The fellowships support those working across a broad section of the biomedical sciences - from basic lab-based research to clinical, population and public health studies. Researchers applying for the scheme should be medically or scientifically trained and have between five and ten years’ postdoctoral experience (or clinical equivalent).
This latest expansion builds on the support already available to researchers working in selected countries of central Europe and the Baltic States. Since 2002, 37 fellowships have been awarded to scientists and clinicians based in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Poland.