Career support, advice and mentorship

In addition to our own fellowship programme, the Academy for Training and Education has made major contributions to wider capacity building in Manchester. We provide support to a large number of trainees, offer advice on submitting applications and carry out realistic practice interviews to prepare candidates for external fellowship applications.

Working with The University of Manchester, we have established an open-access programme of advice and mentorship for Manchester trainees across the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre applying for personal fellowships.

We have drawn together a panel of advisory figures with experience of either holding senior fellowships or serving on awarding panels for the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and major charity funding bodies. The University of Manchester’s size and comprehensive research profile has ensured representation on nearly all the major UK panels.

These approaches have created a current Academy of more than 40 fellows holding all grades of fellowship, from senior awards to doctoral level funding.

Case study:

Training the next generation of clinical academics

Dr Emma Burkitt Wright, a Clinical Research Training Fellow at the Biomedical Research Centre, was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellowship in December 2009.

Emma is studying cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome (CFC), one of the genetic conditions that arises due to mutations that alter signalling through the RAS-MAPK pathway. Patients with CFC experience a wide variety of health and developmental problems including congenital heart disease, learning disabilities, epilepsy and skin problems. These occur because this pathway is important in the formation and function of many different body tissues.

Better understanding of how the altered genes cause each of these effects will lead to better management and future treatments for these problems.

On being awarded the prestigious external fellowship, Dr Burkitt Wright said:

“Input from the Academy for Training and Education was crucial to the success of my application. Wellcome Trust fellowship awards are made on the basis of a written application and interview.

 “The advice from the Biomedical Research Centre academic leads on making my written and verbal presentation concise, specific and compelling was invaluable. It was great to be able to benefit from the experience of people who regularly sit on award panels.”