Supporting your career development
We offer a range of training and career development opportunities to support your professional development as an independent MS researcher.
You can find further information, including dates and deadlines, under each opportunity.
Training and resources
Our ECR Assessment Framework outlines the skills and training we look for if you apply to our Early Career Fellowships. You don't need to demonstrate every item in the Framework. But you should think about what you can evidence in your application. And where there are gaps in your skillset, don't ignore them. Instead, tell us how you're working to gain those skills or experience.
In this webinar, we discussed our funding opportunities and what you need to do to make your application as competitive as possible when applying to us. We covered our different award types, making sure your application is in remit, our Research Strategy and patient and public involvement.
Watch the webinar recording on Youtube
Read more about our research awards
In this webinar, we hosted a conversation with Professor Sue Pavitt and Professor Patrick Lewis, Chairs of our Career Development Award and Catalyst Award rounds. We spoke about what happens once you’ve submitted your application, what our review panels are looking for in an application and common reasons why applications may not get funded.
Watch the webinar recording on Youtube
Current opportunities
Deadline to register: 16.00 on Friday 28 March 2025*
* the event has limited spaces so this deadline will be brought forward if we reach capacity.
We’re hosting an in-person ECR Retreat on Wednesday 30 April and Thursday 1 May 2025. The event is a networking opportunity and skills development event, offering the chance to meet fellow ECRs, gain peer-to-peer advice and learn practical skills that will aid you in your career progression. This programme is designed for late-stage PhD students and postdocs working in MS research. And includes sessions on:
- leadership in research
- how to commercialise your research
- our funding offer for ECRs, with a panel discussion with our Early Career Fellows.
- a mock review board, where you'll try your hand at reviewing funding applications.
- You can also submit an abstract to be considered for a poster presentation or flash talk.
It’s aligned with the Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair (CCMR) Annual Symposium. at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre (JCBC) on the Biomedical Campus, University of Cambridge. Attendees will also be welcome to attend the wider CCMR Symposium on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 May. The ECR Retreat is free to attend. And we’ll cover the cost of your registration for the CCMR Symposium if you’re attending the Retreat.
We have limited spaces which are available on a first come, first served basis. Registration closes at 16.00 on Friday 28 March 2025. This date will be brought forward if we reach capacity, so we recommend registering early to avoid disappointment. This event is open to UK-based ECRs only.
We can offer funding support towards travel and accommodation for attendees based outside of Cambridge. And we'll confirm details of this after you've registered. If you'd like to ask anything about the venue or the event before registering, you can email [email protected].
Secure your place for the ECR Retreat and register on Microsoft Forms
This opportunity is open to researchers applying for Catalyst Awards and Early Career Fellowships. You should check our Funding for Researchers page for deadline dates.
If you’re applying for our funding, you need to write a clear lay summary. And outline your involvement plans for your research. Your application is reviewed by people affected by MS alongside experts in your field. And our funding panels also include researchers without direct expertise in your area of research. If your lay summary is too brief or too complex, it’ll be difficult for them to comment on and score your application. And this will affect whether it might be funded.
Our Lay Summary Development scheme can help you. Members of our Research Network can give feedback on your lay summary and involvement plans before you submit. They’ll comment on:
- how accessible your language is
- how well they understand your research plans
- the quality of your involvement plans
- how important the topic is to people affected by MS
This opportunity is open to researchers applying for Early Career Fellowships. You should check our Funding for Researchers page for deadline dates.
We’ve designed this scheme to support early career researchers, who may have less experience of PPI, to develop their skills in this area. You’ll receive more intensive PPI support compared to our Lay Summary Development scheme.
You’ll be paired with someone (or a small group) affected by MS who’ll be your PPI partner. Your partner can help you develop your ideas from the perspective of those affected by your research topic. You’ll receive verbal feedback from your PPI partner through a series of online meetings, rather than one-off written feedback as with Lay Summary Development.
This format gives you a chance to ask for clarification on the feedback you receive and to ask follow-up questions. You'll take your re-drafted application back to your PPI partner to show the changes you have made based on their feedback. And actively work with them to make improvements before you submit.
Deadline for applications: 12.00 noon on Tuesday 8 April 2025.
We’re inviting you to observe our Catalyst Awards Round 1 Review Panel meeting, which is being held virtually on Thursday 8 May 2025. We hope this gives you insight into our grant review process.
- You don't need to be funded by us to apply. But you do need to be based in the UK.
- We'll consider applications from final year PhD students through to junior PIs (inclusive of the clinical equivalents)
- You can't apply for this opportunity if you're involved in any capacity in an application to our 2025 Catalyst Awards Round 1.
We're committed to supporting researchers from diverse backgrounds and experiences. So we particularly encourage applications from groups underrepresented at senior academic levels, including women and those from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Apply to observe our Catalyst Awards Review Panel meeting through Microsoft Forms.
Application deadline: Wednesday 12 March 2025
We’re looking for Early Career Researchers to join the Scientific Steering Committee for our MS Frontiers conference in 2026. You’ll help us develop an exciting scientific programme that best meets the needs of the research community.
You’ll attend monthly virtual meetings April 2025 – June 2026, with some additional activity in between. We can offer you complimentary registration, travel and accommodation at the conference.
If you’re interested in joining the Committee, please send an expression of interest to [email protected], telling us:
- Your name, institution and position
- Why you’d like to be part of the Committee (max 150 words)
We particularly welcome applications from people from underrepresented groups. We’re committed to arranging an inclusive conference. And are striving to ensure our committee can support us to do this.
Any UK-based MS researcher is eligible to apply, and we’re looking for people from all areas of MS research, including basic scientists, clinicians, allied health care professionals and early career researchers.
Upcoming events and opportunities
Please check back later. We'll update this page with any future events as soon as we can.
Past events and opportunities
We'll run this workshop again in 2025.
Patient and public involvement (PPI) in research is when people with personal experience of health conditions work in active partnership with researchers. Or research funders like us.
In this virtual workshop, we discussed what PPI is and how and when you should involve people affected by MS. We also spoke about PPI in people's own research projects. And how the MS Society can support ECRs to involve people affected by MS in research.
We invited ECRs to observe our virtual Catalyst Awards Round 2 review panel meeting. Applications to observe our next Catalyst Awards review meeting will open in February 2025.
We gave you the opportunity to co-Chair parallel sessions at MS Frontiers in July 2024. Successful applicants will chair the live session with a co-Chair from the Frontiers Scientific Committee. They'll also help select abstracts for presentation and co-design the parallel session format.
This opportunity may be offered again in 2026.
In November 2023, we invited PhD Fellows to our London office for a day of networking, talks and workshops. We spoke about patient and public involvement (PPI), developing independence and communicating research to a non-specialist audience. We also had a talk from one of our Early Career Fellows about their journey to an MS Society Early Career Fellowship.
We'll run this workshop again in 2024.
In this workshop, we discussed the value of communicating well with patients and the public. We spoke about getting to know the needs of your audience and building an understandable research story. We also covered writing in plain English, accessibility, and using social media.
We’re pleased to have recruited several Early Career Researchers to join the Scientific Steering Committee for MS Frontiers 2024. This opportunity will be offered again in 2025.
