IVVN ECR Career Development Fellowship Scheme

Key Dates

Event

Date

Time

Community Q&A Webinar
(Click here to register)

16 January 2025

10:00 AM GMT

Closing Date

17 February 2025

4:00 PM GMT

Funding Decision Announcement

14 April 2025

 

Introductory Workshop (Online)

May 2025
(Date TBC)

Timings TBC

In-Person Early Career Researchers Workshop
(Location: Vienna, Austria)

15-16 August 2025

 

About the IVVN ECR Career Development Fellowship Scheme

Apply for funding to become an IVVN Early Career Researcher training fellow. This fellowship scheme aims to support the professional development of those working in veterinary vaccinology research and innovation over an 18-month period.

The IVVN ECR training fellowship will run in conjunction with a separate One Health mentoring scheme for ECRs working on veterinary infectious diseases funded through the RCVS Knowledge 2024 Plowright Prize.

The scheme will support:

Professional Development: The scheme does not duplicate basic training but instead focuses on building advanced scientific, project management and leadership skills that fellows can apply in their research setting.

Mentorship: including senior researcher mentorship, group networking and peer-to-peer learning within veterinary vaccinology and One Health research.

Multidisciplinary Approach: All activities seek to complement and strengthen linkages across research on veterinary vaccinology and One Health.

Scope of the Scheme

An important aim of the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network is to support the career progression of its members, with a particular focus on Early Career Researchers (ECRs), researchers from LMICs, and those identifying as female and/or non-binary, in recognition of career progression inequities. To support these aims, the network is running this fellowship scheme.

Essential Requirements

All the applicants:

  • Must be a member of IVVN (Membership is free, sign up here).

  • Must demonstrate appropriate and relevant research, technical or innovation experience.
  • Should have several years of research experience beyond the doctoral level and demonstrate a good record of research output appropriate to their career stage.
  • Must demonstrate the capacity to become future research leaders in their chosen discipline.
  • Ideally, applicants should already have some experience applying for funding from local, national, or international donors.
  • Should have a strong commitment to veterinary vaccinology research.

How to Apply

To submit your application, please include:

  • Cover letter
  • Completed application form (to be shared soon)
  • Supporting letter from your institute
  • Supporting letter from an external researcher

Please submit your application form and associated documents as a single PDF by 4 PM GMT on the closing date, 17th February 2025, to the Network Management Team at IVVN [at] roslin [dot] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk.

It is important that you review all the details about the award and assesment criteria on this page before applying. If you have any questions about the funding call, please contact the IVVN Network Manager, Dr. Madeleine Clark, at IVVN [at] roslin [dot] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk.

We strongly advise applicants seek help/guidance from more experienced senior scientists in your institute or other centres to review and help you improve your application prior to submission.

Ensure your application is focused, has clear objectives that are achievable within the timeframe. You may need Institution/finance approval sign off for your application so ensure you leave plenty of time to obtain this prior to the call deadline.

An online Q&A session about this Fellowship call will be held on Thursday, 16th January 2025 at 10:00 GMT. Click here to register for the session.

More Details About the Fellowship

The fellowship scheme will support career development of researchers working in Veterinary Vaccinology.

The fellowship includes:

  • Regular one to one mentoring with a senior mentor (every 3 months)
  • Regular peer-to-peer and group mentoring (monthly)
  • Monthly journal clubs
  • In person and online training workshops
  • Dissemination week showcasing research and successes of fellows
  • Funding available throughout the duration of the scheme for small pots of funding e.g. lab exchanges, 3 month projects (dependent of available funding)

Training course including, but not limited to:

  • Grant writing
  • Presenting
  • Networking
  • Industry
  • Reviewing
  • Scientific communication
  • Research uptake
  • Commercialization
  • Career vision
  • Statistics
  • Using animals in research
  • Harmonization of regulations and legislation
  • Project management including working with finance and legal teams
  • Leadership
  • Dealing with failure
  • Time management (e.g. applying for grants, permits)
  • Engaging with industry
  • Knowledge translation
  • Nagoya protocol
  • Social science and gender
  • Your career vision
  • Statistics
  • Emerging technologies
  • Target product profile

Eligible Costs

  • Travel bursaries for fellowship related workshops and training
  • Access to online learning platforms
  • Opportunity to apply to small funding pots for lab exchanges and short research

Expected Impact

The expected impact of the fellowship scheme is to develop a global community of leaders in Veterinary Vaccinology who can meaningfully contribute to research and innovation.

Assesment Criteria

Fellowships are awarded through a competitive application process and applications will be assessed by an expert panel of senior independent academics and relevant stakeholders, including members of the IVVN Management Board, in March 2025.

Applications to the call will be assessed with reference to the scope of the opportunity and against the following assessment criteria:

Career Development and Research Plan

  • Career development goals that align with the remit of the IVVN – the development of novel veterinary vaccines
  • Ability to conceive scientifically robust research concepts and ideas
  • Consideration of applicant’s research within or beyond the fields or area in veterinary vaccinology
  • Potential to advance current understanding, generate new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area.
  • Impact on world-leading research, society economy or the environment
  • Appreciation of the requirement in the current research environment for skills in a range of areas including leadership, communication and management

Support From:

1) The Host Institution

  • The host organisation will support the applicant (through a supporting letter)
  • The applicant has considered how the fellowship scheme will contribute to the success of their work, in terms of suitability of the host organisation and strategic relevance to the project
  • The host organisation will ensure time commitment to the fellowship is protected

2) Other Scientists

  • There is support for, and recognition of the career potential of, the applicant from members of the scientific community external to the host institute.

Conditions of the Award

The funded applicants will be expected to:

  • Attend and actively participate in all ECR cohort meetings

  • Meet with mentors regularly
  • Attentively participate in peer-to-peer support meetings
  • Attend training workshops
  • On request, provide testimonials, reports, feedback about the scheme to the IVVN Management Team