The importance of flexible Fellowships in supporting Medical Researchers in advancing healthcare

Medical research is crucial in driving advancements in healthcare by uncovering innovative treatments, therapies, and medications that can improve and extend the lives of individuals suffering from various diseases and conditions. Those driving medical research enable greater understanding of the human body and the complexities of diseases – leading to more accurate diagnoses and prevention strategies.

However, researchers can often be faced with having to take a break from their career through no fault of their own (family, health or caring reasons). The pace science and technology moves on can lead to researchers needing retraining and support to return, with depleted confidence levels.

Lack of flexibility in work can also have significant drawbacks. In a paper by Beth Cornell, published by HEPI, a staggering 70% of PhD students had left academia three and a half years after graduating, with the most common reason being lack of work-life balance (20%). At the Daphne Jackson Trust, with the help of our sponsors, we have aided the return of researchers to their medical field through flexible, part-time Fellowships.

Supporting success stories

While caring for her children and father, Dr Katherine Baxter took a career break of six years, returning to research with the help of the Daphne Jackson Trust and Medical Research Scotland (MRS). This collaboration provided Katherine with the support and time needed to retrain and regain confidence in her research skills:

“Having three years to retrain and develop my capabilities as a researcher has been invaluable and I am now more confident in my abilities and research skills.”

Katherine’s interests are in biofilms – an extracellular substance produced by microorganisms to protect themselves from their external environment. She’s investigating how they contribute to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to further understanding that will help develop treatments to tackle biofilm-associated disease.

Making a difference

Dr Kirsty Roberts took a career break for family reasons – she’s now a proud Mum of two boys after a research break of around four years, which was longer than planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kirsty is researching the mechanisms underpinning menopausal hot flushes, with the aim of furthering understanding of physiological mechanisms and helping to design effective treatments in the future.

Before taking her career break, Kirsty had no idea that this kind of support to return to research was available, and feared it would be difficult. She was therefore grateful to her former PhD supervisor for sharing details he’d seen on the BHF website, which led her to apply and be awarded the fellowship. Kirsty felt supported by both organisations:

“I feel honoured to have been awarded the BHF Daphne Jackson Trust Fellowship and to have the support of two fantastic organisations. As a Daphne Jackson Fellow the support and retraining opportunities are extremely beneficial and reassuring in helping you to get ‘back on track’.

I had a health issue at the very start of my Fellowship and was worried about the impact this may have on my programme, but I can honestly say that the support I received from my Fellowship advisor, the Daphne Jackson Trust and the BHF was excellent and helped to ease my fears and take things one step at a time.” 

Kirsty was awarded Highly Commended Poster at the Daphne Jackson 2022 Conference.

Sharing the opportunities

The Daphne Jackson Trust, with support from their sponsors have aided 470 research returners to their field. The Trust is in the fortunate position of currently being able to offer 7 sponsored Daphne Jackson Medical Research Fellowships (see table below).

Help us to continue to support Medical Research returners by doing these three things:

1. Tell three people about Daphne Jackson Fellowships
2. Please share the below opportunities with your network
3. Find out more about how our Fellowships make a difference by reading our Impact Report and by following us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Here are all our current Medical Research Fellowship Opportunities: