Dr Will Brackenbury

MRC Career Development Fellow

I graduated from my PhD in 2006 and went on to a postdoc at the University of Michigan, US. My postdoc supervisor encouraged me to apply for junior Fellowship funding almost straight away. My initial applications were small and intramural, but the experience was very useful. As is usually the case, at first I was unsuccessful, but with perseverance I was awarded a one year fellowship from the University of Michigan Medical School in 2007. This was followed by a larger one year fellowship from a US research charity (Epilepsy Foundation of America) in 2009. Through this process, my applications and ideas for independent research became stronger (as did my CV, through starting to publish results from my postdoc) such that I started to consider applications for independent research.

In 2008/9, I started to develop Fellowship applications to funders in the US (NIH) and in the UK (MRC career development award). As part of the process of considering potential host institutions in the UK, I visited the Department of Biology at the University of York to give a seminar and meet with various academic staff. Although I also considered several other institutions as potential hosts, I found the support available to Fellowship applicants at York particularly attractive. Several members of the Department provided mentoring while I prepared the application, and I received excellent administrative support for preparing the budget and various justifications, etc.

In summer 2010, when I found out that my application had been shortlisted for interview, the Head of Department and Departmental Chair of Research arranged a mock interview via Skype, which was very helpful for preparing for this stage of the process. Shortly after the MRC panel interview, I was awarded the fellowship and I took up my position at York in January 2011.