Applications open: 21 June 2023
Applications close: 31 July 2023
Notification of outcome: By 18 August 2023
Scheme starts: September 2023
Background
The Turing-Roche Strategic Partnership is a 5 year collaboration which launched formally in June 2021. Both Roche and the Health and Medical Sciences Programme at the Alan Turing Institute (which the partnership sits under) have long term interests in personalised healthcare, and through this partnership we are working together to generate insights and develop methodology to tackle patient and disease heterogeneity- for example, why disease can manifest differently in different people, and why medical treatments can affect different people in different ways.
Whilst research is a key part of the partnership, it is also paramount for us to build connections and collaborations between the two organisations and the wider scientific community. As part of this we have developed the Turing-Roche Community Scholar scheme, building further researcher engagement into our partnership whilst supporting the career development of PhD students.
We are grateful for discussions and advice from the Software Sustainability Institute and the FAIRPlus programme that helped us shape the scheme.
About the Turing-Roche Community Scholar Scheme
The year-long scheme will support up to 10 PhD students to become Turing-Roche Community Scholars and will award them a stipend of £3000 to embed themselves within the partnership community, attend a relevant conference and undertake a selected, community-based project.
We hope the scheme will give successful applicants experience of this unique academic-industry partnership and develop skills that will help further and benefit their careers.
The 2023 Community Scholars will form our inaugural cohort and will pave the way for cohorts annually.
Why apply for the Community Scholar Scheme?
The scheme gives PhD students the opportunity to be a key part of this collaborative partnership. As part of the partnership community, Community Scholars will be involved in shaping activities and outputs and gain valuable ‘behind the scenes’ experience of an academic-industry partnership in action.
Scheme benefits:
- Experience developing an impactful community based project
- Connected into the Alan Turing Institute and Roche and their associated networks such as the Turing Way, Turing Interest Groups and the Roche Advanced Analytics Network, which we hope will prove valuable for future career advancement in academia or industry
- Embedded as a member of the partnership community and involvement in shaping community activities and outputs
- Community Scholar profiles featured in the partnership newsletter and webpage
- Networking and working collaboratively with other Community Scholars and the partnership team through regular Community Scholar cohort calls
- Curated events and opportunities, including a final celebration event
- Travel opportunities e.g to a relevant conference and potential to visit the Turing Institute
Who are we looking for?
We are keen to ensure our Community Scholars come from a mix of backgrounds and experience.
We are welcoming PhD students based at a UK university or research institution who have completed their first year of study (by the time the scheme begins) to apply for the Community Scholar scheme. The students need to be PhD students for the duration of the scheme and working in a field relevant to the partnership’s broad scope of personalised healthcare e.g data science, computer science, mathematics, statistics/biostatistics, public health/epidemiology, medicine.
Community Scholars will be continuing their studies and remaining enrolled at their university during the scheme. Whilst time commitments may vary throughout the year, Community Scholars may expect to contribute roughly 3-5 hours per month over the course of the scheme. They must have the support of their supervisor and their institution.
Potential applicants should review the Call Document below for full eligibility and assessment criteria before preparing their application. We also recommend reading our FAQs.
Information and Q&A session
We ran a virtual information and Q&A session about the scheme on the 05 July 2023. The partnership team gave some background on the partnership, why we developed this scheme and how we foresee the scheme working in practice. You can watch the recording here or below.
Application process
- Candidates should read the Community Scholar scheme information on this webpage including the Call Document and FAQs in the ‘Related documents’ section below
- Candidates should discuss the scheme with their supervisor to gain their approval to participate
- Candidates apply directly through our Flexigrant application portal. As part of this they will upload a template letter of support from their supervisor and also a letter of support from their university admin department (more detail on this in our Call Document)
- Applications will be reviewed by the partnership team panel of Vicky Hellon (Community Manager), Rohan Chakraborty (Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate) and Sarah McGough (Senior Data Scientist at Roche). Assessment criteria can be found in our Call Document. Successful candidates will be made offers by 18 August 2023
- If successful students will sign a Student Agreement which lays out responsibilities and obligations in regard to the scheme. The Student Agreement can be found in the ‘Related documents’ section below
The Alan Turing Institute is committed to championing equality, diversity, and inclusion. If you have questions about the Community Scholar scheme or require any adjustments to the application process please contact our partnership Community Manager Vicky Hellon at [email protected]
For more information about how we process applicants' data please see our transparency notice.
Contact
For any general questions about the scheme, please get in touch with Vicky Hellon, the Community Manager for the Turing-Roche Partnership at [email protected]
Any queries on Flexigrant, the application process or terms and conditions can be sent to [email protected]