Deadline: November 22, 2014
Qualified individuals are invited to apply for the Wellcome Trust Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellowship in Medical Humanities for 2015 academic year. The Fellowship is offered to PhD students or junior fellow and is funded through the Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities (MH) programme to undertake a three-month fellowship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST).
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.
Worth of Fellowship
- 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.
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
- 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.
- Applicants should contact the office for an application form via [email protected].
- Applications will be assessed by a panel consisting of staff from the MH programme and POST.
For more information, visit Wellcome Trust-Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellowship.
