Transition Fellow

Overview

Applications are invited for two three-year independent fellowships based in the new Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) in Exposome Immunology, hosted jointly by the universities of Manchester and Oxford.

The successful candidates will establish their group within the MRC CoRE and leverage cutting‑edge computational approaches, novel experimental models, and/or experimental medicine studies to uncover how pollutants and infections interact with our genes to cause and exacerbate chronic inflammatory diseases.

The purpose of these fellowships is to support experienced postdoctoral researchers to generate ideas and supportive data to underpin applications for prestigious intermediate fellowships (e.g. the Career Development Award schemes funded by MRC or Wellcome), enabling them to establish their own independent research groups at The University of Manchester.

Applicants are expected to have clear plans for how they will develop an original research programme with direct relevance to the MRC CoRE in Exposome Immunology’s short‑term focus—to understand the immunological mechanisms by which environmental exposures cause or exacerbate chronic inflammatory conditions of the lung and gut, namely asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They will be expected to align with the MRC CoRE’s priority of multidisciplinary science incorporating aspects of core disciplines including immunology, inflammatory disease, atmospheric sciences or data science.

We are particularly excited to hear from candidates whose work crosses these traditional disciplinary silos, including:

• How the microbiome responds to environmental exposures and mediates disease
• The intersection between computational biology, bioinformatics/emerging ‘omics technologies, and wet‑lab disease biology.
• Experimental medicine studies delivering mechanistic insight, or biology with a heavy mechanistic focus.
• Cross‑disciplinary research incorporating other biological systems (e.g. neuroscience, matrix biology, genetics).

Successful applicants will be provided with a three‑year salary and a consumables budget of £20,000 per year. They will join a growing, vibrant community of immunologists, data scientists, clinicians, and environmental scientists across Manchester and Oxford, with access to extensive cutting‑edge research infrastructure, including gnotobiotic facilities, spatial multi‑omic platforms, high‑performance computing clusters, and highly‑controlled pollutant generation and exposure chambers. Extensive mentorship will be provided to help launch your academic career and craft successful external grant applications.

What you will get in return:

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

We are positive about flexible working. Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.