Professor Rebecca Drummond received a Career Development Award in 2018. The five-year award from the Medical Research Council (MRC) was to further her research into fungal immunology.
The award supports talented post-doctoral researchers to lead their own research plans and establish their own research team to make the transition to independent investigator. This helped Rebecca to kick-start research into how brain immune cells deal with fungal invaders, an area that had limited study at the time.
She was then subsequently awarded the MRC Transition Fellowship 2024, an extension to the Career Development Award. Her lab aims to determine the mechanisms underlying protective immunity during fungal brain infections, focusing on cryptococcal meningitis which kills approximately 100,000 people every year.
Rebecca’s fellowship gave her protected time to set up an ambitious research programme, over a period of 5 years, “This meant I had more time to trial out risky models and approaches which I couldn’t have done in a more standard 3-year grant”.
“My fellowship was a hugely important stepping stone in achieving the type of research group I envisioned having. It’s giving me the breathing space I needed to focus on my work, but also to network and make connections which are really important in an academic career.”
Rebecca received important local support from College colleagues while preparing for her fellowship application, “Colleagues peer-reviewed my proposals for me and gave me a lot of suggestions for how to improve, particularly in taking advantage of the facilities and collaborations available to me in Birmingham.”
In addition, Rebecca attended grant clinic and mock interviews to help her prepare for her interview and received an award from RSSD which funded an important data set for the lab and formed the basis of several grants as preliminary data.
For colleagues who are considering applying for a fellowship, Rebecca has the following advice: “Don’t keep putting it off – if you have an idea start drafting and speak to your colleagues to get feedback nice and early and do consider the feedback given to you. Never underestimate the time it takes to get a really good proposal drafted and written.
“Always ask for advice and support, mentors are especially important at this critical stage.”