I am a passionate advocate for mentoring and facilitating career development across a researcher’s life-course, and as previous Versus Arthritis Career Development Fellowship awardee I have personal experience of the challenges involved in transitioning to become an independent PI. I have also had my own experience of failure, having been interviewed for a Kennedy Trust Senior Fellowship in 2018.

During my tenure as England Representative on the British Society of Immunology (BSI) Members Forum (2018-2022), we shaped the society’s five-year national strategy for supporting immunology research, creating a roadmap for career development across immunology-based sectors and introducing the BSI Career Enhancement Awards to enable capacity building within the UK Immunology Community. Moreover, I act as a external Career Development/Fellowship mentor for ECR members of BSI and British Society for Rheumatology.

I also have gained significant experience has a grant/fellowship reviewer and am a member of a number of funding panels with the UK and Europe:

1. UKAN - MyAGE – Management Committee - 2024 - present

2. Royal Free London– Research Panel Member - 2023 - present

3. European Commission Expert Panel Member and Rapporteur (H2020-DIAMOND) - 2023 - present

4. Versus Arthritis – Priorities 2023, 2024, 2025 – Accelerating Diagnosis and Treatment Funding Recommendation Panel - 2022-present

5. Arthritis Research UK - Career Development Fellowship Committee - 2022 - present

6. Arthritis Research UK - Foundation Fellowship Committee - 2022 - 2023

7. Arthritis Research UK - PhD Studentship Committee - 2017 - 2022

8. European Commission Expert Evaluator, Panel Member and Rapporteur (H2020-MSCA-IF) - 2016 - present

9. Arthritis Research UK - College of Experts - 2016 - present

Meet Professor McGettrick

I was originally a physicist and am now jointly appointed between the College of Medicine and Health and the School of Mathematics having originally started by lab at King’s College London with an ERC Starter Grant. My lab was later funded from a number of BBSRC grants focussed around data-driven biology, technology development and interdisciplinary science.

I hold a number of roles internally including chairing the Research Development Fund (RDF), CMH’s internal funding stream which prioritises pump-prime funding for future grant and fellowship applications. Externally, I sit on the interview panel for the Wellcome Career Development Awards (CDAs) in Arm 1 which mainly handles technology development applications and those related to molecular mechanisms.

I am also a member of the Talent Panel College (TPC) for the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships and the expert review panel for Cancer Research UK multidisciplinary fellowships/grants was well as the pool of experts for BBSRC grant applications in committees C and D.

Meet Professor Owen

I am a statistician in the Department of Applied Health Sciences. I have developed programmes of research, publications, and funding for both independently-led methodological research and as a collaborator and lead statistician on large trials and other health and medical research programmes. My work is supported by several grants from NIHR, MRC, NIH (US), and other funders. I am keen to support the development of fellowships in both applied health work focused on public health, health service, and global health research, as well as methods research to support studies in this area.

I am a member of the MRC’s Applied Global Health Research Board, and review grant and fellowship applications for a range of funders including NIHR, MRC, Diabetes UK, Leprosy Research Initiative, ZonMW, and others.

Meet Dr Watson

I am a geriatrician and clinician scientist and have an interest in cognitive disorders in general hospital settings (delirium and dementia) and how these affect both long term cognitive outcomes and the link with the ageing immune system. I am based in the Immunity and Ageing (Immunesenescence) research group within the Department of Inflammation and Ageing.

Meet Dr Jackson