Queen’s Illuminate Global Challenges Fellowships

Queen’s Illuminate Global Challenges Fellowships are an opportunity for exceptional and ambitious early-career researchers to join Queen’s to focus on achieving research excellence that aligns to our strategic vision. As a Russell Group University, Queen’s has a reputation for delivering world-class research.

Successful Fellows will join a strong and talented team of researchers on a three-year scheme with a career pathway to a permanent academic post upon successful completion of the Fellowship, subject to meeting probationary requirements. Fellows will benefit from membership of a dedicated Fellowship Academy, designed to provide targeted development and support for researchers with outstanding potential, including a Fellows’ Network and bespoke mentoring.

• Healthy, Equal Societies
• Resilient, Sustainable Planet
• Diverse, Creative Cultures.

To build on our world-leading research, this Fellowship round focuses on priority areas for the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences.

• Illuminate Global Challenges – addressing key health, data, and bioscience challenges.
• Illuminate Future Medicines – advancing experimental therapeutics and translational discovery.
• Illuminate LLNI Blood Cancer – focusing on clinical and translational blood cancer research.
• Illuminate Pharmacy – To undertake original and internationally leading research in an area relevant to pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology or the practice of pharmacy.

• competitive salary
• £60,000 Fellowship Enhancement Award
• funding for a full-time PhD studentship

Join Queen’s to push boundaries, build partnerships, and deliver research with real-world impact.

All applicants should hold a relevant degree with a PhD (or equivalent), have 2–8 years’ post-PhD experience, and a high-quality publication record.

You should make your application to one of the following four fellowship routes:

• Illuminate Global Challenges – addressing key health, data, and bioscience challenges.
• Illuminate Future Medicines – advancing experimental therapeutics and translational discovery.
• Illuminate LLNI Blood Cancer – focusing on clinical and translational blood cancer research.
• Illuminate Pharmacy – pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology or the practice of pharmacy.

Please refer to the relevant Illuminate Fellowship candidate information for full details of essential and desirable criteria for the role.

All applicants are required to include a short research proposal (maximum 2 pages) as part of their application.

To be successful at shortlisting stage, please ensure you clearly evidence in your application how you meet the essential and, where applicable, desirable criteria listed in the Candidate Information.

Fixed term contract posts are available for the stated period in the first instance but in particular circumstances may be renewed or made permanent subject to availability of funding.

• holiday entitlement of up to 8.4 weeks a year
• pension schemes
• development opportunities
• flexible working options
• work-life balance initiatives
• support for physical and mental health

Beyond a competitive salary, the University offers an attractive benefits package including a holiday entitlement of up to 8.4 weeks a year, pension schemes and development opportunities. We support staff wellbeing with flexible working options, work-life balance initiatives and support for physical and mental health. You can find more detail on all of this and more on Our website.

Queen’s University is committed to promoting equality of opportunity to all. We subscribe to Equality Charter

Marks such as the Diversity Charter Mark NI and Athena Swan and have established staff networks such as iRise (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and International Staff Network) and PRISM (LGBTQ+) which help us progress equality.

If you are an international applicant and don’t already hold a visa that permits you to take up the role you are applying for, please use the information provided on our website to self-assess whether the University is likely to be able to support a visa application.