Springboard to research success

Over £1.8m has been awarded by the Academy of Medical Sciences to the first participants in Springboard, a new scheme to support researchers on their path to research independence.

Springboard has been designed to fill a gap in the funding and training currently offered to non-clinical researchers at the stage of forming a research group and establishing an independent research project – one of the most crucial but difficult steps in the career of a scientist. The awardees will receive a research grant of up to £100,000 for two years plus mentoring from Academy Fellows and access to leadership and career development activities.

The Academy has a long tradition of supporting clinical researchers through a range of funding schemes, but these are the first major research awards it has made exclusively to the 'bench-side' researchers, who play an important role in the translation of biomedical discoveries into health benefits for society.

Recipients in this round include Dr Molly Crockett, from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, working to identify risk factors for personality disorder using harm aversion as a way to uncover them.