Krazy Krystal's Laboratory

The announcement

After weeks of waking up in the morning and hesitantly opening my inbox, constantly scanning the fellowship outcomes website and generally walking on eggshells and holding my breath, I woke this morning to find an email neutrally entitled
sitting at the top of my inbox. Of course the results were released at 5:30pm Australian time, so the bomb had been sitting there for a good few hours before I got to it!

I had a few stern words to myself, a couple of deep breaths and with a slightly melodramatic "Here we go..." I opened it. The email itself was a straight form letter, with no indication of the result, just "The outcomes have been announced" however the attachment entitled "Evans_Succ Fell App" looked a little more promising. I opened it and woke my housemates with screams of "I GOT IT!!!!".

What does this mean?

The CJ Martin award provides me with two years of funding here in the UK, and then two years of funding in Australia. It's for my own specific project, with my own salary (yah! pay rise!) and some travel and expenses money too! The fellowship can begin any time in 2007, but I am hoping to defer one year to begin in 2008. So for those of you up with the maths, that means staying in the UK till at least 2010 with a return to Australia after that. At present, my nominated return lab is at QIMR in Brisbane, but this may or may not work out. Personally I hope it does, but it's still a good few years away yet, and science is a changing world, but at least I know there is a way for me to come back home on of these years!

It also meaning I am in the NH&MRC fellowship system, which as well as being prestigious (etc, etc) it will make it easier to stay in the NH&MRC funding system later, in terms of applying for more grants and fellowships later down the career line.

It is so strange to be alone in my room with no one to jump around and celebrate with....

Thanks to the amazing people in my life who hold my hand (both literally and virtually) make me cups of tea, talk sense to me and remind me why I play this science game. I couldn't do it without you. And of course, to those who proof read, edited, scanned documents, made corrections and directly helped out with my fellowship application. You guys rock!

Now, i think i might go out for a coffee!!

posted by Dr Krystal @ 8:29 am