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Job title Prize Fellow (fixed-term)

Department Life Sciences

Salary Starting from £45,585, rising to £54,395

Grade Grade 8

Contract Type Full Time, Fixed Term

Placed on Thursday 27 June 2024

Closing date Sunday 28 July 2024

Interview date Friday 13 September 2024

Reference ED11795

Applicant Visa Guidance Skilled Worker visa: guidance for applicants (bath.ac.uk)

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Prize Fellow (fixed-term)

About the role

The Department of Life Sciences is seeking to appoint two early career researchers to its Prize Fellowships.  

The positions are being offered as part of the expansion of microbiome-related research within the Department. 

Where appropriate, fellows may also become members of the Milner Centre for Evolution (https://www.bath.ac.uk/research-centres/milner-centre-for-evolution/).  

These are 3 year fixed-term positions intended to provide a route to independence for promising postdoctoral scientists seeking to establish a career in academia. 

To this end, they are fully research focussed with no associated teaching obligations or administrative duties. 

In return, it is expected that the holder will secure significant extramural funding – ideally but not exclusively, a Research Fellowship (such as a Royal Society URF, Welcome Trust or UKRI award) within the time-frame of the appointment.  

Success in establishing an externally-funded research programme will lead to a full time permanent (tenured) appointment at least at the Assistant Professor/Lecturer level. 

There is no compulsory retirement age.  

About you

The successful candidate will have a proven record of research achievement, evidenced by high-quality research publications as well as other indicators (such as prizes, fellowships, awards etc) with clear potential to become an independent investigator.  

Their research experience and future plans will embrace some aspect of microbiota biology, including but not restricted to:

  • microbial community ecology
  • mechanisms of host-microbe interactions
  • biodiversity
  • pharmacomicrobiomics

About us

The Department of Life Sciences at the University of Bath was established in 2022 through the merger of the former Departments of Biology & Biochemistry and Pharmacology & Pharmacy.

The department is located on the main University campus, in close proximity to the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics. 

There is a strong interdisciplinary and collaborative culture across departments, fostered by a number of research centres including those for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI), Mathematical Biology (CMB) and Bioengineering and Biomedical Technologies (CBio) as well as the Milner Centre for Evolution (MCE).

The department boasts a suite of environmentally controlled culture rooms as well as greenhouses, a zebrafish aquarium, Drosophila laboratory, a GridION and PromethION 2 Solo nanopore sequencing facility and a range of dedicated microscopes including confocal, 2-photon, light-sheet and TIRF. Researchers within the department also have access to the university’s central imaging and mass spectrometry facilities as well as the GW4 Cryo-EM facility located at nearby Bristol University (https://www.bristol.ac.uk/gw4-electron-cryo-microscopy/equipment/).

We are currently recruiting 6 academic positions with a focus on Microbiome – details of each position can be viewed here.  

Additional info

For informal enquiries please contact Professor Philip Ingham FRS (lifescienceshod@bath.ac.uk). 

However, please ensure your application is submitted via the University website.

Alongside completion of the online application form, you should also upload a full Curriculum Vitae.

What we can offer you:

Find out more about our benefits.

We consider ourselves to be an inclusive university, where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students, so we encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on our teams. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We are very proud to be an autism friendly university and are an accredited Disability Confident Leader; committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.

Find out from our staff what makes the University of Bath a great place to work. Follow us @UniofBath and @UniofBathJobs on Twitter for more information.

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Further details:


We are constantly seeking to reduce the unconscious bias that enters any assessment process, with the goal of creating an inclusive and equal assessment process. To support this, personal details will be removed from application forms at the initial shortlisting stage.