Royal Society announces over £80m of funding for early career researchers

The Royal Society has announced recipients of three of its flagship early career research schemes, investing more than £80m in establishing the next generation of research leaders in the UK. 

The 39 University Research Fellowships, seven Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships, and 40 Newton International Fellowships have been awarded to outstanding scientists with the potential to become leaders in their fields. The long-term, flexible funding schemes provide researchers with the stability and support required to pursue innovative, cutting-edge scientific research, form international collaborations, and establish research groups.

Across all three schemes, over £80m of funding has been allocated, a sign of the investment in world leading researchers the UK needs to become a global science superpower. 

Sir Adrian Smith, president of The Royal Society, said: "The importance of long-term funding for scientists at the early stages of their research careers cannot be understated. These scientists are fundamental to the future of research and innovation in the UK, and it is essential that we give them the support and stability they need to allow them to pursue novel and groundbreaking research. Through its globally competitive grant schemes, The Royal Society aims to ensure we attract the brightest scientists from across the world.”

The researchers will take up their new posts at institutions across the UK and Ireland from the start of October. They will be working on research projects spanning the physical, mathematical, chemical, and biological sciences. 

The full list of appointments is as follows:

University Research Fellowships

This year, 39 candidates have been awarded University Research Fellowships across 21 different UK and Irish universities, including University of Lancaster, University of Oxford, University of Dundee, and National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC). This announcement includes the appointment of four Royal Society – Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellows funded by Science Foundation Ireland and available for outstanding researchers in the Republic of Ireland.

Dr Adina Pusok 
Making the Ocean Floor: Two-phase dynamics of mantle melting and deformation of oceanic lithosphere
University of Oxford

Dr Alexander Keshavarzi
Searching for new physics with muons
University of Manchester

Dr Andrea Dotto
Categorical and geometric aspects of the p-adic Langlands program
University of Cambridge

Dr Azadeh Maleknejad
Particle Physics of the Early Universe, Origin of Matter, and Gravitational Waves
King's College London

Dr Christopher Broderick
Enabling atomistic in silico design of semiconductor nanowire heterostructures
National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC)

Dr Claudio Savarese
Enabling Light Dark Matter searches with Low Threshold dual-phase Time Projection Chambers
University of Manchester

Dr Chiara Maniaci
Cleave to Modify: Illuminating the “dark proteome” with novel chemical biology tools
University of Dundee

Dr Craig McEntee
Deciphering the role of PYHIN proteins in T cell-mediated adaptive immunity
Trinity College Dublin

Dr Daniel Whitaker
The Origins of Homochiral Nucleic Acids
University College London (UCL)

Dr Daniel Pearce
Controlling active matter with topology and geometry
University of Warwick

Dr Hannes Houck
Innovative Thermoreversible Photocycloaddition Reactions for Sustainable Materials Design
University of Warwick

Dr Harry Miller
Geometric control for quantum stochastic thermodynamics
University of Manchester

Dr Heather Au
A Sustainable and Structural Lithium-Sulfur Battery
Imperial College London

Dr Ian Jacobs
Cool materials for a cooler planet: electrically controllable radiative cooling with organic electrochromics
University of Cambridge

Dr Inokentijs Josts
Understanding novel siderophore uptake pathways in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and their exploitation for the delivery of novel antibiotics
Newcastle University

Dr Ingrid Pelisoli
Characterising the Galactic population of binary white dwarf stars: a treasure chest for constraining stellar evolution
University of Sheffield

Dr Iris Hardege
Deciphering the Molecular Complexity of the Nervous System
University of Cambridge

Dr Jack Rowbotham
Radical Rebound Retrained: Engineering Metalloenzymes for Unnatural Catalysis
University of Manchester

Dr James Robinson
Oceanic Subsidies: human and climate drivers of tropical marine food webs
Lancaster University

Dr Jess Wade
Chiral molecular materials and their application in quantum technologies
Imperial College London

Dr Jolanda Van Munster
Understanding activities of the rumen microbiome during herbivore digestion to enable sustainable ruminant farming
Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC)

Dr Justin Henthorn
Developing carbodisulfuranes as powerful carbon-atom transfer reagents: Synthesis of new terminal metal carbides and metal-carbide clusters
National University of Ireland, Dublin (UCD)

Dr Katherine Beckham
The ins and outs of mycobacteria: in search of novel outer membrane transport proteins
Newcastle University

Dr Lakshya Bhardwaj
Fundamental Physics Applications of Novel Symmetries
University of Oxford

Dr Luca Franci
Thermal, suprathermal, and energetic particle dynamics in space plasmas
Imperial College London

Dr Margarita Khokhlova
From the Advance of Attosecond Light Sources to Ultrafast Dynamics of Chiral and Topological Matter and Back Again
King's College London

Dr Marco Del Tutto
Neutrinos as a Door to Physics Beyond the Standard Model
University of Edinburgh 

Dr Monika Markowska
Unlocking the drivers of global desert expansion in warmer and colder worlds
University of Northumbria at Newcastle

Dr Maria Makarova
Hypoxia-driven adaptation of lipid metabolism
University of Birmingham

Dr Oliver Padget
Spatial cognition in highly mobile animals
University of Liverpool

Dr Philip Gregory
A quantum-degenerate Fermi gas of polar molecules
Durham University

Dr Richard Nair
RODEO: ROot Dynamics for Ecosystem Observation
Trinity College Dublin

Dr Robert Heathcote
Antipredator colouration in aggregating prey
University of Oxford

Dr Stefan Borsley
Nonequilibrium Dynamic Compartmentalisation
Durham University

Dr Svetlana Menkin Bachbut
Enabling Multivalent Batteries: Fundamental studies of Interfacial Structure, Dynamics and Plating
University of Cambridge

Dr Samuel Witte
Neutron Stars as Axion Laboratories
University of Oxford

Dr Soheyla Feyzbakhsh
Geometric applications of stability conditions on triangulated categories
Imperial College London

Dr Siul Ruiz
Quantifying Soil Biomechanics With X-Ray Diffraction-imaging And Mathematical Models
University of Southampton

Dr Tatiana Dimitriu
Helping bacteria resist antimicrobial resistance
University of St Andrews

Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships

The Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships support scientists who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances. This year, seven scientists across seven institutions will receive funding.

Dr Andrei Constantin
Mathematical and Computational Tools for Particle Physics in String Theory
University of Oxford

Dr Clare Thorpe
Microbes, minerals and material heterogeneity; how (bio)geochemical processes affect the long term durability of glassy materials
University of Sheffield

Dr Catherine Kamal
Understanding and improving the production of 2D nanomaterials by liquid-based methods: a mathematical perspective
University of Cambridge

Dr Kyle Oman
Key dark matter particle properties from dwarf galaxy astrophysics
Durham University

Dr Kara Lynch
Probing the charge radius of proton emitters for the first time
University of Manchester

Dr Naomi Dyer
Evolution of mosquito gene expression as an adaptation to gain insecticide resistance
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Dr Sophie Nedelec
The bioacoustics of coral reef resilience
University of Exeter

Newton International Fellowships

Newton International Fellowships support non-UK researchers in the early stages of their career who wish to conduct research in the UK. 40 scientists will be hosted across 17 different UK institutions. The NIFs offer up to £420,000 over three years. This announcement includes the appointment of two Royal Society K C Wong International Fellows.

Dr Aleksandra Dimitrievska
Probing New Physics in Photon-Photon Collisions at the LHC
University of Birmingham

Dr Alfio Chiarenza
Extinction, recovery, migration, and adaptation during ancient hyperthermals
University College London

Dr Alice Gauthey
CO2: Friend or Foe? Investigating its role in buffering or aggravating extreme weather events in temperate forests
University of Birmingham

Dr Arpita Das
Quantum magnetism with ultracold RbCs molecules in magic-wavelength optical lattices
Durham University

Dr Benjamin Tam
Searching for neutrinoless double beta decay using the SNO+ Experiment
University of Oxford

Dr Boris Lozhkin 
(De novo miniprotein)-dendrimer-drug conjugates for tumour-specific delivery  of chemotherapeutic cocktails
University of Cambridge

Dr Christina Hodson
When Mendel’s laws are successfully overthrown: evolution and maintenance of germline restricted chromosomes in flies
University College London

Dr Claudia Alvarez Carreno
Evolutionary Processes that Shape Protein Folds
University College London

Dr Cyril Gadal
Self-organization in cohesive granular flows
University of Manchester

Dr Dominique Lungwitz
Investigating the correlation between Hubbard interaction U and charge transport properties in n-doped polymers
University of Cambridge

Dr Gilles Seropian
Using jet noise to improve volcanic monitoring
University of Exeter

Giovanni Italiano
Fibring of odd-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds
University of Oxford

Dr Jessica Moretti
The roles of cortical-striatal circuits in perceptual learning
University of Oxford

Dr Lorenz Kretschmer
Decoding the development of immunological memory in humans
Wellcome Sanger Institute

Dr Manudeo Singh
Characterising surface water dynamics in drylands: how will wetlands in the Indian drylands respond to future environmental change?
Aberystwyth University

Dr Matteo Marcoli
High Precision Theory for High Luminosity LHC
Durham University

Mattia Magnabosco
Geometric structure of spaces satisfying a synthetic lower curvature bound
University of Oxford

Dr Mengwei Liu
A chemically mediated artificial neuron for biomedical neural interfaces
University of Oxford

Dr Nachiappan Valliappan
Compositional Normalisation with Modal Types
University of Edinburgh

Dr Nada Farag
Stimuli-Responsive DNA-Based Artificial Cells for Synergistic Cancer Theranostics
University of Cambridge

Dr Nikunj Patel 
High-throughput Live Cell FTIR To Accelerate Drug Discovery
King's College London

Pablo Roldan
Multi-Functional Imaging Catheters for Experimental Medicine in the Human Lung  (PulmoScope)
Heriot Watt University

Dr Rohitashva Shukla
How does biodiversity in many forms produce a tropical hotspot? A test using freshwater fish communities of the Western Ghats
University of St Andrews

Dr Sandeep Pandey
Plastic Waste Derived Graphene Nanosheets Based Efficient Photosupercapacitors
University of Strathclyde

Dr Saurabh Khodia
Formation of organic particles in the atmosphere by stabilized Criegee intermediate chemistry
University of Bristol

Dr Shaswat Saincher
Dynamics of shared moorings for floating offshore wind turbine farms
University College London

Dr Shiwei Liu
From Sparse Training to Sparse Scaling: Towards Efficient Neural Network Scaling through Sparsity
University of Oxford

Dr Sobhan Mortazavi-Derazkola
Atomically precise, multi-ligated Au/Ag nanoclusters for combating antibiotic resistance
University of Leeds

Dr Subrata Bhattacharjee
Expanding and exploring new chemical space using non-classical carbocations
University of Oxford

Dr Sudhakar Gaikwad
Cages for Selective Chemical Separations
University of Cambridge

Dr Theodosios Famprikis
Optimizing the synergy between anion-nd cation-dynamics in functional materials
University of Oxford

Dr Thiago Silva
Cardiovascular outcomes post-infections and the potential for vaccines to mitigate them
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Dr Valentin Schmutz
Learning nonlinear population codes from large-scale recordings
University College London

Dr Vedad Kunovac
Characterising the Evolution of Alien Solar Systems
University of Warwick

Dr Wenxin Mao
Towards Next-Generation Printable Luminescent Solar Concentrators
University of Cambridge

Dr Yael Balbastre 
High-resolution spatiotemporal models of the brain across the lifespan for diagnosis and decision-making
University College London

Dr Yan Lin
Atom and Step Economical Late Stage Functionalisation of Bioactive Compounds
University of Sussex

Dr Yi-Chen Chan
Shedding Light on the Reactivity of Low-Valent Organoantimony Species (feStibal)
Queen Mary University of London

Dr Yikai Yang
Experimental realization and thermodynamic analysis of measurement-fueled quantum engine
University of Oxford

Dr Yoonjung Yi
Intergroup conflict: pre-emptive behaviour and lasting consequences
University of Bristol