Ashok Kumar fellowship

What is the Ashok Kumar fellowship?

The Ashok Kumar Fellowship provides funding for one successful candidate each year to spend three months working at the UK Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST).

The post-holder will be expected to produce a short briefing paper, contribute to a longer report or assist a select committee in a current inquiry. The topic of the work will be relevant to chemical and process engineering or the process industries

The fellowship is jointly funded by IChemE and NEPIC.

Who was Ashok Kumar?

Ashok Kumar was the only serving chemical engineer in UK Government at the time of his sudden death in March 2010. An IChemE Fellow, Kumar had been the Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland since 1997, his second spell in parliament following a brief stint in 1991. Prior to his career in politics, Kumar spent 14 years working as a research scientist for British Steel at the Teesside Technology Centre in Grangetown. From that background he took with him a strong conviction of the importance of industrial R&D to the UK’s economy.

Who is the post open to?

The fellowship is open to researchers with postgraduate qualifications (i.e. PhD, EngD, Masters) as well as postgraduate students in engineering or other disciplines related to the chemical and process industries. PhD or EngD candidates should be at a stage where they have completed their first year but will still be registered at the time the fellowship starts The successful applicant will (if they are still a student) receive a 3 month extension to their postgraduate funding or equivalent.

IChemE and NEPIC will reimburse the additional costs to the university to ensure that their stipend will continue to be paid while based at POST. The fellowship is for 3 months and may be carried out from March 2013, but candidates should try to avoiding starting in June, July and August, which are the summer recess months. The start date is to be agreed between the applicant, POST, the applicant's supervisor and University, IChemE and NEPIC. The post is open to all IChemE members – not just those based in the UK.

Read the Ashok Kumar Fellowship blog >>

Read the first Ashok Kumar Fellowship briefing paper >>