23 April, 2020

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced its latest round of Future Leaders Fellowships today (23 April 2020). Congratulations to Dr Dan Jones and Dr Clara Manno of British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who are UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships recipients.

 

Sir Mark Walport, Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation, explains

“The Future Leaders Fellowships are UKRI’s flagship talent programme, designed to foster and nurture the research and innovation leaders of the future. We are delighted to support these outstanding researchers and innovators across universities, research organisations and businesses.”

 

Dr Dan Jones will work on Advanced state estimates of the ocean and cryosphere: innovative new tools to better understand, predict, and prepare for sea level changes.

“I am honoured to receive this fellowship. The application process was intense, and I am grateful for the support that I received from my project partners and my institute. I am excited about the opportunity to make my project a reality; the toolkit that I intend to establish will help advance polar science by extracting additional value from the relatively sparse measurements that our community works so hard to obtain.” Dr Dan Jones

 

Dr Clara Manno will work on CUPIDO: CalcUlating the strength of the Plastic pump In counteracting the Deep export of Oceanic carbon.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to be awarded this prestigious fellowship and look forward to developing an energetic and diverse research group here at BAS.

Climate change poses a serious threat to the ecosystem. The new team will explore how an emerging global environmental problem such as plastic pollution can influence the impact of climate change in the future.

I will establish a new science platform that uses multidisciplinary approaches through a combination of laboratory, field work and modelling to evaluate how the presence of plastic in the ocean can impact the ability of the ocean to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.” Dr Clara Manno

Clara and Dan have praised the support and guidance received in submitting their applications to UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships from the BAS Research Development and Support (ReDS) Pre-Award Team, as well as support from colleagues and external partners during the vigorous application process. For those who would like to pursue UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships applications in the next round (round 5) the deadline was recently extended to 2 June 2020 in response to the situation regarding Covid-19.

Please join us in congratulating Dr Dan Jones and Dr Clara Manno for their success in receiving UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships. We look forward to following their exciting and timely research.

 

Kirsty Grainger, Director of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, states

“The Future Leaders Fellows represent some of the most brilliant people working in the country. We’re supporting researchers from every background – from the arts to medicine, and the social sciences to engineering – helping them become the research and innovation leaders of the future.”