VPH Webinar Series: Navigating Grants and Fellowships: Your First Application

For many early-career researchers, securing a first major grant or fellowship may be one of the most important steps towards an independent research career. It is usually the first time a researcher has to present their own ideas as an independent research programme, often without a track record of leading funded work and without a clear picture of what a successful application looks like.

In addition, funding schemes can vary widely between funders and countries, and most researchers may experience unsuccessful applications along the way. As a result, preparing the first application may be challenging with limited guidance on where to start, what funders are looking for, and how a successful proposal is actually developed.

In this webinar, we are pleased to welcome Blanca Rodriguez (University of Oxford), James A. Glazier (Indiana University Bloomington), Vee San Cheong (University of Sheffield), and Noelia Grande Gutiérrez (Carnegie Mellon University) to share their experiences of pursuing research funding while developing their research independence and building collaborations. Their experience spans different career stages and countries, and covers research fellowships and grants, career development awards, and collaborative programmes.

Each panellist will open with a 10 to 12 minute account of their own path, focusing on their first or recent application experiences. This will be followed by a roundtable discussion and an open Q&A, giving the audience the chance to raise the questions that matter most to them. The webinar is aimed at early-career academics who are thinking about their first major application or developing their long-term research independence, particularly those who are unsure where to begin.

This webinar will be moderated by VPH Young Scientist Committee members, Juntong Lai (Insigneo Institute, University of Sheffield) and Luca Bontempi (Erasmus MC – TU Delft).

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Speaker’s bio:

Blanca Rodriguez
Professor Blanca Rodriguez is Professor of Computational Medicine and Head of the Computational Biology and Health Informatics Theme at the University of Oxford. Her research has contributed pioneering work on Digital Twins for precision medicine and in silico trials for therapy testing. She has secured over £40 million in public and private funding and supervised more than 30 DPhil/PhD students. She also leads doctoral training programmes at the intersection of computer science and biomedicine.

James A. Glazier
James A. Glazier is Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering and Director of the Biocomplexity Institute at Indiana University Bloomington. His research focuses on physics-based, multiscale “Virtual Tissue” models for understanding disease, tissue repair and drug discovery, with applications in toxicology and in silico medicine. He is the founder and lead developer of CompuCell3D and a leader of OpenVT, promoting reusable, interoperable and reproducible virtual tissue models.

Vee San Cheong
Dr Vee San Cheong is a Lecturer in Biomechanics at the Insigneo Institute and the University of Sheffield, UK, and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Her research focuses on developing predictive models and innovative approaches to improve orthopaedic treatments, including the design and optimisation of bioactive implants for large bone defects. She holds a PhD in Bioengineering from Imperial College London and has conducted research at UCL, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, the University of Sheffield and ETH Singapore.

Noelia Grande Gutiérrez
Noelia Grande Gutiérrez is Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with a courtesy appointment in Biomedical Engineering. She leads the Biomedical Flows Simulations & Multiscale Modeling Lab, where her research combines patient-specific modelling and computational fluid dynamics to improve cardiovascular risk assessment and personalised therapies. Her work contributes to the development of digital twins in healthcare, with a particular focus on women’s health.

Juntong Lai
Dr Juntong Lai is a Research Associate in Computational Biomechanics at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on patient-specific and multiscale computational models to understand musculoskeletal disease, using approaches including finite element analysis and image-based biomechanics. He currently contributes to the METASTRA Horizon Europe project, developing tools for fracture-risk assessment and personalised treatment planning in patients with vertebral metastases.

Luca Bontempi
Luca Bontempi is a PhD candidate at Erasmus MC and TU Delft, specialising in computational modelling and digital twins for cardiovascular applications, particularly stroke treatment. His research integrates biomechanics, imaging, and clinical data to support personalised medicine and improve endovascular therapies.