Applications are now open for up to ten BioFAIR Fellows — funded ambassadors who will help researchers in their fields make data more findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. The deadline to apply is 16:00 on 07 August 2026.
BioFAIR has launched the second call for its Fellowship Programme, inviting applications from data stewards, research software engineers, biocurators, bioinformaticians and data-focused researchers across the UK life sciences.
BioFAIR Fellows are ambassadors for excellence in FAIR research data management. Each Fellowship funds 0.2 FTE (around one day a week) for twelve months, giving the holder dedicated, protected time to embed FAIR data practices within their institution and across their research domain — and to join the growing national network that forms the BioFAIR People Commons.
Where the inaugural 2025/26 cohort focused on bioinformatics workflows and analysis methods, this second call turns to research data management itself: data stewardship, metadata, standards and ontologies, data curation, and the AI-readiness of biological data. The two cohorts are designed to be complementary, together spanning the full data lifecycle from capture through to analysis and reuse.
BioFAIR is particularly keen to reach the people who are already the de facto data experts within their communities — across fields as varied as spatial transcriptomics and single-cell genomics, metagenomics and the microbiome, environmental DNA and biodiversity monitoring, bioimage informatics, cryo-electron microscopy, proteomics and metabolomics, plant phenomics and agri-tech, ontology engineering, core-facility management, and biomedical AI. The programme aims to appoint a cohort that is diverse in scientific focus, institutional setting and geography.
Each Fellow receives funding equivalent to 0.2 FTE over twelve months, along with access to a shared travel and training fund to support attendance at key events. Beyond their own community, Fellows contribute to shared cohort outputs — including a library of FAIR data management resources, community-needs reporting, and peer-learning across the network — and retain lasting status under BioFAIR’s “once a fellow, always a fellow” policy.
The Fellowship is open to early-, mid- and established-career professionals at any UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a selection and development day in September, with the new cohort starting on 01 October 2026.
Applications are open until 16:00 on 07 August 2026. Full details, eligibility, the application form and webinar information are available on the BioFAIR opportunities page: