Are you an early career researcher from a Black heritage background, with an undergraduate degree and PhD awarded from a UK institution?

Are you interested in how we understand public perspectives on genomics? The intersection of ethics, policy, and genomics? Or the relationships between genomics, power, and equity in the context of research in low and middle-income countries?

Along with the Wellcome Sanger Institute, we are part of the Sanger Excellence Fellowship scheme. If you are a social scientist with a strong understanding of qualitative and/or quantitative methods, and an interest in biomedical science, and particularly genomics, we’d be very interested in hearing from you.

Genomic research does not happen in a vacuum, and public attitudes, expectations and perspectives can influence everything from policy and research practice, to the uptake of new health interventions and treatments. The ‘public’ is also not a homogeneous entity, and perspectives are likely to vary depending on a number of factors, including the community you are part of or previous experiences with research or healthcare.

Our Engagement and Society group, is interested in the ethical, legal and social issues raised by genomics. Innovative projects led by researchers in the group such as Your DNA, Your Say, have explored global attitudes to issues around DNA data sharing, something which underpins much genomics research. Other projects such as Music of Life, have investigated the type of language which resonates with people receiving critical genomics information, and how they understand this.

We are part of the same organisation as the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and therefore have a unique relationship with its research programmes, and are open to developing new projects in collaboration with them.

Connecting Science’s Engagement and Society group is led by Professor Anna Middleton, a creative researcher who is passionate about delivering research that has real practical value in influencing policy, clinical practice and public engagement; her mission is to ‘socialise’ genomics so that anyone, irrespective of prior knowledge or familiarity, can connect with the ethical issues of relevance to them.

Key research activities are led by Dr Richard Milne. Richard is a sociologist of science, technology and medicine, with a particular interest in how genomics and new diagnostic technologies shape our concepts of health and illness, and what that ultimately means for the care of current and future patients.

If you are interested in a Sanger Excellence Fellowship focussed on social sciences research as part of our programme, please get in touch!

You can find full details of the Sanger Excellence Fellowship scheme, who it is for, and how to apply here: sanger.ac.uk/about/equality-in-science/sanger-excellence-fellowship/

You can contact the Sanger Institute EDI team with a question about this Fellowship scheme by email on: sangerexcellence@sanger.ac.uk

If you’d like to talk to us informally about a potential area of research before you submit your Expression of Interest, you can contact Anna or Richard by email on: anna.middleton@wellcomeconnectingscience.org or richard.milne@wellcomeconnectingscience.org

You can find out more about Engagement and Society projects and activities here: societyandethicsresearch.wellcomeconnectingscience.org/projects

The deadline for Submissions of Interest in this Fellowship is Monday 14 February 2022.