Enabling Promising Postdocs to Become the Global Research Leaders of Tomorrow

Guest post by Karen Vousden, PhD, Chief Scientist, Cancer Research UK 

Funded in partnership with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), our new Transatlantic Fellowships provide high-potential early-career researchers with a unique opportunity to accelerate their careers. The Fellowships offer £300,000/$400,000 over four years to support the development of recently graduated PhDs and early-career postdocs into independent researchers at top institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Newly graduated PhDs are at a pivotal moment in their careers, with an array of possibilities opening up before them. We want to ensure that the most promising postdocs seize this opportunity to fast-track their careers and become the global cancer research leaders of tomorrow. The AACR–Cancer Research UK Transatlantic Research Fellowships provide the financial support, intellectual freedom, and geographic mobility to make this ambition a reality.

The Transatlantic Fellowships offer promising postdocs a unique combination of support to realize their career goals and freedom to unleash their potential. Our strategic alliance with Cancer Research UK means that we can provide an exceptional opportunity on an international scale.
– Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), CEO, American Association for Cancer Research

Under this program, Fellows are encouraged to embrace a level of independence beyond their peers, broadening their research horizons and establishing their own research program in either the U.K. (if U.S.-based) or U.S. (if U.K.-based). Fellows are welcome to pursue a cancer research field of their choice and to move between institutions as their research program develops.

Supporting the next generation of cancer researchers is vital to our vision to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. The AACR–Cancer Research UK Transatlantic Fellowships provide a unique platform to shape the global cancer research leaders of tomorrow.
– Iain Foulkes, PhD, Executive Director, Research and Innovation, Cancer Research UK

We are pleased to fund these fellowships in partnership with the AACR; as the leading funders of cancer research on either side of the Atlantic, we are uniquely poised to foster international scientific collaboration. Our strategic alliance with the AACR will enable a cohort of Fellows to build a transatlantic network of collaborators that will form the bedrock of their careers and nurture future scientific engagement across borders.

The AACR-Cancer Research UK Transatlantic Research Fellowships are open to those with little or no postdoctoral experience. Applicants from the United Kingdom are expected to undertake the greater part of their research in the U.S., and applicants from the United States are expected to conduct most of their research in the U.K. The application deadline is July 25, 2019; interviews will begin in early December 2019; and fellowships will begin Feb. 1, 2020.

Additional information can be found at www.aacr.org/funding and www.cancerresearchuk.org. For those attending the AACR Annual Meeting 2019, we also encourage you to attend the AACR-CRUK Transatlantic Postdoctoral Fellowships Information Session, scheduled for Monday, April 1, 2019, from 1-2 p.m. in the AACRCentral Amphitheater in the Exhibit Hall.