Oxford-BMS Fellowship

This prestigious 3-year Fellowship (formerly Oxford-Celgene Fellowship) aims to stimulate new scientific discovery and translation and to facilitate skills and people transfer between researchers in academia and industry.

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is a global biopharmaceutical company making advancements in oncology, haematology, immunology and cardiovascular disease. BMS are dedicated to helping patients prevail over serious diseases through a diverse and promising pipeline and new scientific platforms.

BMS acquired Celgene in 2019. Prior to 2019, in partnership with the Oxford Medical Sciences Division, Celgene co-developed and provided support for fellowships which will continue as the Oxford-BMS Translational Research Fellowship Programme.

The goals of this scheme are to stimulate new scientific discovery and translation and to facilitate skills and people transfer between researchers in academia and industry.

This programme offers fellows an opportunity to gain exposure to the field of commercial drug discovery and development. Fellows will have an assigned company mentor and where appropriate be encouraged to spend some time based in BMS laboratories.

Funding will be awarded to Oxford Principal Investigators to support 3 year fellowship projects for early career researchers that demonstrate a clear translational value to the advancement of therapeutics. Three to four awards are made annually.

Meet the current Fellows and read about their projects.

Who can apply?

Principle Investigators should apply for fellowship funding to support clinical (Grade E64) or basic research scientists (Grade 7/8) committed to translational science and interested in obtaining experience with drug development in an industrial setting.

Fellowship applications may include a named fellow, but this is not mandatory. It is expected that a suitable fellowship candidate will be identified by the Principle Investigator within 6 months of notification of successful project selection.

New for 2022: Principle Investigators can have a maximum of 2 Oxford-BMS Fellowships running at any one time (though you can be a co-investigator on other fellowships if you are already lead investigator on 2 projects).

The proposed fellowship needs to align with BMS’s fields of interest as listed below:

1. Novel targets, biomarkers, cellular therapeutic approaches, or translational models in one of the following areas:

immuno-oncology;
solid tumour targets including drug resistance
neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, FTD and MS;
fibrosing disorders including IPF, scleroderma, and Renal Fibrosis;
rheumatic and dermatologic disorders including RA, SLE, spondyloarthropathies, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis;
hematologic disorders including AML, Myeloma, DLBCL;
chronic heart failure (either with preserved or reduced ejection fraction).

2. Methods for evaluating biochemical, cellular, tissue and phenotypic consequences of modulating epigenetic targets.

3. Methods for immuno-phenotyping of human subjects in oncology and autoimmunity

4. Novel imaging approaches to measuring disease activity in the above areas.

The 2022 round has now closed for applications.