News

Academics awarded prestigious fellowships

Three Edinburgh academics have been announced as recipients of a UK government fellowship that supports early career researchers and innovators with remarkable potential.

Future Leader Fellows UKRI 2020. From Left to Right: Professor Sam Lindley, Dr Jennifer Garden and Dr Lindsay Jaacks
UKRI Future Leader Fellows (from L to R): Professor Sam Lindley, Dr Jennifer Garden and Dr Lindsay Jaacks

Dr Jennifer Garden, Dr Lindsay Jaacks and Professor Sam Lindley are part of the third generation of the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) Future Leaders Fellowships.

An overall investment of £109 million will help to establish the careers of exemplary research and innovation leaders across UK business and academia.

Including the three from Edinburgh, 101 academics and innovators have been recognised in this round of funding.

Research Projects

Dr Jennifer Garden, from the School of Chemistry, will aim to develop a new chemical method that can effectively recycle plastic waste such as disposable cups, films and food packaging so they can be repurposed.

Dr Lindsay Jaacks, from the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food security, will use the funding to research the public health benefits of large-scale organic farming.

Professor Sam Lindley, an honorary staff member at the School of Informatics, will be re-joining the University in 2021. His research focuses on advanced web programming in order to enable the development of more robust software.

Fellowship programme

The Future Leaders Fellowship programme is part of the Government’s modern industrial strategy, which aims to secure the UK as a world-leader in the field of scientific research and innovation.

UKRI announces new fellows through six rigorous competition rounds over the three years of the Future Leaders Fellowships programme. Awardees will each receive between £400,000 and £1.5 million over an initial four years.

The money received by the Fellows supports their career development, as well as the development of challenging and innovative projects.

 

Related Links

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships

School of Chemistry

Garden Group Chemistry

Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security

School of Informatics