Exeter researcher awarded as part of £7.6m Academy of Medical Sciences programme
Our researcher Dr Rosie Walker has been recognised as an emerging scientific leader as part of a £7.6 million funding initiative from the Academy of Medical Sciences.
This is the Academy’s largest-ever funding round for early-career researchers, with the aim of the investment to tackle urgent health challenges from Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and obesity to addiction and climate change impacts on health.
Dr Walker’s work as part of the Psychology department at Exeter focuses on the risk factors for dementia and her research aims to inform intervention strategies that will prevent dementia onset and lessen its severity.
She said: “I am thrilled and very grateful to receive this award. As a new lecturer, this funding will be instrumental in allowing me to build a research group and develop a programme of work investigating the molecular underpinnings of cognitive function and its link with dementia risk. Ultimately, this will contribute towards efforts to prevent or delay the onset of dementia.”
Dr Walker will receive £125,000 through the Academy of Medical Sciences’ Springboard programme, alongside mentoring and career development support to help establish her independent research career.
The Academy has awarded 62 promising scientists across 41 UK institutions in this record funding round, with support from the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Wellcome, and the British Heart Foundation. It marks £43.8 million of investment to research leaders since the Springboard awards launched in 2015.
