Professor Clare Mackie, Pro Vice Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) and Dr Katie Perry, CEO Daphne Jackson Trust

The University of Sussex is today (Monday 8 September) announcing the sponsorship of four Daphne Jackson Fellowships to help talented scientists, engineers and technologists return to research after a career break.

As part of its on-going commitments to equality and diversity and the Athena Swan Charter, the University has entered into partnership with the Daphne Jackson Trust – an independent charity. Sussex will sponsor four Daphne Jackson Fellowship Awards to be hosted in the Schools of Engineering and Informatics, Life Sciences, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Psychology.

The successful Fellows will carry out a part-time, two-year, supervised research project and training programme at Sussex.

Fellows are offered support, guidance and mentoring throughout the application process and Fellowship. The award of a Fellowship does not guarantee employment; however, it helps to overcome the barriers to returning to research following a career break and, on completion, Fellows are able to compete for employment with their peers on a level playing field.

Professor Clare Mackie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) and Chair of the University’s Athena SWAN self-assessment team that championed the new partnership with the Daphne Jackson Trust, said: “ I am delighted that by sponsoring and hosting the Daphne Jackson Fellows, the University will benefit from the skills and knowledge of four  talented  and experienced research fellows. A career break can give rise to new ideas and perspectives on research and, therefore, I look forward to seeing the outcomes of the projects devised and conducted by the Fellows.

“The University is committed to supporting the development of our researchers who represent a wide range of backgrounds and experience. Supporting routes for researchers to return to their career following a break is one of a range of initiatives we are undertaking to promote equality and diversity within the research community at Sussex and across the University as a whole.”

Dr Frances Pearl, a former Daphne Jackson Fellow and current Bioinformatics Academic Research Manager in the School of Life Sciences, said of the announcement: “ I am absolutely delighted that the University of Sussex is sponsoring four Daphne Jackson Fellows.   

“The Fellowships are a fantastic opportunity for returning scientists.  Firstly, having the opportunity to retrain at an excellent university and also, to be mentored by the Daphne Jackson Trust’s staff, whose advisors help you refine your research proposal so that it is competitive and help you organize a bespoke re-training program.”

Following a seven-year break to look after her three children, Dr Pearl was awarded a Daphne Jackson Fellowship funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and hosted in the Computational Biology and Chemogenomic Team at the Institute of Cancer Research.  Working half-time, she updated her skills in bioinformatics, in particular focusing on developing novel applications for drug discovery.  Her project, in collaboration with scientists at the Genome and Stability Centre and the Translational Drug Discovery Group at Sussex, was to identify new oncology drug targets.  Some of the targets that she identified as being particularly promising, are now being pursued in experimental drug discovery programs at Sussex.

Dr Pearl added: The fellowship helped me re-establish my career and I have now returned to work full time as the Bioinformatics Academic Research Manager for Life Sciences at Sussex.”

Dr Katie Perry, CEO of the Daphne Jackson Trust, said:   “The Daphne Jackson Trust’s unique fellowship scheme helps UK universities and research institutions increase the diversity of their workforce by offering flexible fellowships to women and men wishing to return to research after a career break. I am delighted that the University of Sussex is now working in partnership with the Trust to host and sponsor Daphne Jackson Fellows, and look forward to seeing a number of Fellows returning to research at Sussex in the near future."

The sponsored fellowship positions have been advertised by the Daphne Jackson Trust and University of Sussex (see current vacancies) with a closing date of Friday 31^st October. All staff are urged to pass on information of the Fellowship opportunities to friends, family and former colleagues that might be interested in returning to a research career in one of the host Schools following a career break of two or more years for family, caring or health reasons.

Following successful progress through the Daphne Jackson Fellowship Awards process the Fellows are expected to take up their new posts in August 2015.

The scheme at Sussex is being coordinated by the Research Staff Office and overseen by the University’s Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team. All queries relating to the scheme should be directed to Dr Natalie James, Research Staff Officer (N.A.James@sussex.ac.uk).