Fully Funded 4 year MRes-PhD studentships in Fungal Infectious Disease

Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology at The University of Exeter

Start Date: September 2024

Application Deadline: Midnight 12th April 2024

Do you want to make a difference in patients’ lives? Are you interested in combatting fungal infectious disease? Do you want advanced training in molecular biology, genomics and/or immunology?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then you should consider the MRes-PhD studentships offered by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Exeter (MRC CMM).

The MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MRC CMM) is a world-leading research centre at the University of Exeter within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (HLS) that is helping to tackle the major global threats to human health caused by fungal diseases. The MRC CMM hosts an interdisciplinary group of internationally renowned scientists who study both the host immune response and the fungal pathogen, and is one of the largest such Centres in the world. The mission of the Centre is to facilitate pioneering cross-disciplinary research to substantially advance our understanding of life-threatening fungal infections. These advances will impact patient lives through improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment of fungal diseases in the future.

These four-year studentships start with a 1-year Master of Research (MRes) degree that provides a solid theoretical and practical foundation in fungal infectious disease. This includes one research project on host-pathogen interactions and a second on fungal pathogen biology. On successful completion of the MRes, students then progress to their 3-year PhD, choosing their cross-disciplinary PhD project from a broad selection of peer-reviewed proposals across the Centre’s 5 Research Themes.

Students will be supported with a research budget of £9k per annum. Students also receive additional research skills training, personal and career development opportunities, funding for travel to conferences and workshops, and support from mentors who provide independent career advice. Successful applicants will benefit from our vibrant, friendly and collegiate atmosphere, and the interdisciplinary nature of the world-leading science being performed in our Centre.

For information regarding the MRes Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology please click here. 

Find out more about our MRC CMM team and its wide-ranging expertise which enables the development of unique synergies within the Centre, facilitating the simultaneous analysis of both the host and pathogen to determine their individual contributions to the pathogenesis of disease.. To learn and discover more about this exciting research area visit our new site thefungalthreat.com.

Funding:

The studentships are funded by the Medical Research Council in partnership with the University of Exeter.  They include a tax-free stipend, tuition fees and research costs are covered for the four years of the programme.  Funding is available for both UK/EU / worldwide candidates.

For informal enquiries regarding the programme please contact the MRC Centre at mrccmm@exeter.ac.uk.

Please see the 'How to Apply' section below to apply for the studentship funding.

Entry requirements

Applicants for a studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in an area appropriate to the skills requirements of the centre.

English requirements

If English is not your first language you will need to have achieved at least 6.5 in IELTS (and no less than 6.0 in any section) by the start of the programme.  Please click here for further information.

How to apply

Apply now

To apply for funding, please click on the 'Apply now' button above.

In the application process you will be asked to upload several documents.  Please note our preferred format is PDF.  Each file must be named with your surname and the name of the document, eg, “Smith – CV.pdf”, “Smith – Cover Letter.pdf”, “Smith – Transcript.pdf”.

1. CV
2. Cover Letter outlining your academic interests, prior research experience and reasons for wishing to undertake the project;
3. Personal statement: sharing your future ambitions and how this MRes-PhD programme will enable you to achieve those ambitions;
4. Transcript(s) giving full details of subjects studied and grades/marks obtained. This should be an interim transcript if you are still studying;
5. If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need to submit evidence of your current proficiency in English (see English Requirements above);
6. Two References (applicants are recommended to have a third academic referee if the two academic referees are within the same department/school).

Reference information:

You will be asked to name 2 referees as part of the application process, however we will not expect receipt of references until after the shortlisting stage. Your referees should not be from the prospective supervisory team.

If you are shortlisted for interview, please ensure that your two academic referees email their references to the pgrapplicants@exeter.ac.uk, 7 days prior to the interview dates. Please note that we will not be contacting referees to request references, you must arrange for them to be submitted to us by the deadline.

References should be submitted by your referees to us directly in the form of a letter. Referees must email their references to us from their institutional email accounts. We cannot accept references from personal/private email accounts, unless it is a scanned document on institutional headed paper and signed by the referee.

All application documents must be submitted in English. Certified translated copies of academic qualifications must also be provided.

Important Information

We anticipate several recruitment rounds for four studentships available in total this year. The recruitment will cease once the four positions have been filled. The closing date is midnight  12th April 2024.

Interviews will commence on w/c 29th April 2024

Data Sharing

During the application process, the University may need to make certain disclosures of your personal data to third parties to be able to administer your application, carry out interviews and select candidates.  These are not limited to, but may include disclosures to:

• the selection panel and/or management board or equivalent of the relevant programme, which is likely to include staff from one or more other HEIs;

• administrative staff at one or more other HEIs participating in the relevant programme.

Such disclosures will always be kept to the minimum amount of personal data required for the specific purpose. Your sensitive personal data (relating to disability and race/ethnicity) will not be disclosed without your explicit consent.

Summary