Dr Chris Stewart

I am currently a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Lister Institute Prize Fellow and I am proud to be a group leader at Newcastle University. I moved to Newcastle in 2018 as a Faculty Fellow. This followed 2 postdocs, including 2.5 years in the USA, and I felt I was ready to begin developing my independence.

Unlike tenure track Fellowships that are offered by many institutions, the Faculty Fellowship scheme was unique in being aimed at people with under 5 year postdoc experience. The scheme provided my salary and consumable/equipment funds to kickstart my independent research and generate pilot data to enhance external Fellowship applications. I also had access to internal mentors and grant support teams that played crucial roles in my successfully applying for other Fellowships to further my research programme.

I was impressed by the tailored training offered to Faculty Fellows, including the Principal Investigator Development Programme that provided essential learning and was a great way to meet other Fellows.

I was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship early into my Faculty Fellowship position, and, with the support of colleagues at Newcastle University and the local Royal Victoria Infirmary, I have been able to continue to gain momentum and expand my research group. I am now fortunate to supervise excellent PhD students and a postdoc, who really help to push the science into new areas and make my job so enjoyable. In recent years we have made important advances in our understanding of host-microbe interaction in preterm infants. This work is now being expanded into adults with inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer with colleagues based at the University.