Current Vacancies

• Salary: N/A, Fellowship funded
• Closing Date: 16 July 2026

About the role

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (SWC) and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (Gatsby Unit) invite expressions of interest from outstanding early-career researchers seeking sponsorship for external career fellowships to establish an independent research group in mechanistic theories of neural computation or learning.

SWC and Gatsby Unit share a vision to understand the mechanisms of intelligent behaviour in brains and machines. Co-located at University College London (UCL), they bring together world-leading experimental neuroscience, computational theory, and machine learning. Together, the two Centres drive a close theory–experiment loop, supported by shared trainees, joint PhD programmes, and a collaborative research environment.

The successful candidate will develop an independent computational research programme, supported by an external fellowship and jointly hosted at SWC and the Gatsby Unit. This programme should focus on developing models and theories that link neural circuit activity to behaviour, including perception, cognition, planning, motor control and/or learning.

This is a computational neuroscience position without a dedicated experimental space. However, active collaboration with SWC and Gatsby Unit researchers is strongly encouraged. The successful fellow will benefit from close interaction with experimentalists generating rich datasets and with theorists and machine learning researchers developing formal frameworks for learning, inference, and decision-making.

About you

You will have:

• A PhD in neuroscience, physics, mathematics, machine learning, or a related quantitative discipline
• A strong track record in developing theories or computational models grounded in neuroscience
• The ability to work at the interface of theory and experiment, with a clear vision for testing theoretical predictions in neural circuits
• Evidence of, or strong potential for, collaborative work with experimental neuroscientists
• A compelling research plan suitable for a competitive fellowship application

You should also have postdoctoral research experience and a publication record appropriate to your career stage. Candidates should have identified relevant fellowship scheme(s) and have a realistic application timeline.

What we offer

SWC and the Gatsby Unit will sponsor the selected candidate to apply for an external career fellowship. Support includes:

• A collaborative research environment at the interface of neuroscience, theory, and machine learning
• Mentorship and support with fellowship applications
• Opportunities to co-mentor PhD students
• Office space and access to computational resources

In addition, you will benefit from being part of UCL, one of the world’s leading universities, with a large and highly collaborative neuroscience community.

How to apply:

Send the following as a single PDF to swc.hr@ucl.ac.uk:

• A cover letter (max 2 pages) outlining your motivation, how your research bridges SWC and Gatsby Unit, and your intended fellowship scheme(s) and timeline
• A research proposal (max 4 pages, excluding references)
• A full CV, including publications and three referees

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to present a seminar and participate in a chalk talk, followed by meetings with faculty and researchers. Final selection will be based on alignment with the Centres’ research strategy and fellowship competitiveness.

All candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application.

For more detailed information on the opportunity and application process, please visit the Fellowship Sponsorship page.

Contact

For informal enquiries:

• Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel (SWC): t.mrsic-flogel@ucl.ac.uk
• Professor Maneesh Sahani (Gatsby Unit): m.sahani@ucl.ac.uk

For application queries:

• swc.hr@ucl.ac.uk