Fellowship Sponsorship: Mechanistic theories of neural computation or learning
The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (SWC) and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (Gatsby Unit) invite expressions of interest from early career researchers who wish to be sponsored 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 in a purpose-designed building at University College London, they bring together world-leading experimental neuroscience, computational theory, and machine learning. SWC researchers, together with Gatsby Unit colleagues, are working towards providing mechanistic explanations of how the brain perceives and predicts, builds internal models of the world, reasons and plans, makes decisions, learns from experience, and controls behaviour. Gatsby Unit has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence and theoretical neuroscience, generating foundational theories of learning, inference, and neural computation. Together, the two Centres drive a uniquely productive theory–experiment loop, with shared trainees, joint PhD programmes, and a common language across disciplines.
UCL is ranked among the top ten universities worldwide and is home to over 450 neuroscience principal investigators, offering an unparalleled environment for collaborative research.
About the role
We are seeking an outstanding early career researcher to develop mechanistic theories of neural computation that bridge experimental and theoretical neuroscience. The successful candidate will establish an independent computational research programme, supported by an external fellowship and hosted jointly at SWC and Gatsby Unit, that develops models and theories linking the activity of neural circuits to the behavioural processes that underpin perception, cognition, planning, motor control and/or learning.
We expect successful candidates to link the experimental neuroscience taking place at SWC and the theoretical and machine learning research at Gatsby Unit. While this is a computational neuroscience position without dedicated experimental space, active collaboration with existing SWC and Gatsby Unit group leaders is strongly encouraged. The successful fellow will benefit from daily interaction with experimentalists generating rich datasets on animal behaviour and neural circuit function across multiple brain systems and species, as well as with theorists and machine learning researchers developing formal frameworks for learning, inference, and decision making.
What we offer
SWC and Gatsby Unit will sponsor the selected candidate to apply for an external career fellowship. Our support includes:
- A collaborative research community at the interface of experimental neuroscience, theory, and machine learning
- Application support and career mentoring
- Opportunity to co-mentor PhD students
- Office space and computational resources.
About you
We are looking for candidates who have:
- A PhD in neuroscience, physics, mathematics, machine learning, or a related quantitative discipline
- A strong track record of developing theories or computational models of neural computation grounded in neuroscience
- An ability to work at the interface of theory and experiment, with a clear vision for how theoretical predictions can be tested in neural circuits
- Evidence of, or strong potential for, productive collaboration with experimental neuroscientists
- A compelling research plan that would be competitive for a fellowship application.
Candidates should have postdoctoral research experience and a publication record appropriate to their career stage. The ideal candidate will have a clear idea of the fellowship scheme(s) they wish to apply to and a realistic timeline for application.
Process
Following application, shortlisted candidates will be invited to present a seminar and give a chalk talk at SWC and Gatsby Unit and meet with faculty members, students and postdoctoral fellows. They will be expected to demonstrate how their research programme complements the joint SWC–Gatsby Unit research strategy and how it could contribute to collaborative work across the two Centres. After this, the Directors will select candidates for sponsorship based on fit with the Centres' research strategy and the competitiveness of their research plan for a fellowship application.
Successful applicants will be supported to apply for competitive fellowships to support their salary and research activity, including the Wellcome Trust Career Development Award, UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, ERC Starting Grant, Royal Society University Research Fellowship, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, EPSRC Open Fellowship, Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, and similar schemes.
How to apply
To apply, please send the following as a single PDF to swc.hr@ucl.ac.uk:
- A cover letter (max 2 pages) explaining: why you are applying for the position; how your research would bridge experimental neuroscience and theory at SWC and Gatsby Unit; the fellowship scheme(s) you are interested in and a timeline for application
- An outline of your research programme that would be the basis for a fellowship application (max 4 pages, excluding references)
- A full CV, including a list of publications and the names of three referees.
Deadline: 16 July 2026
All candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination, and to creating an inclusive working environment. We particularly welcome applications from individuals who belong to groups currently under-represented at this level within SWC and Gatsby Unit. We strongly encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.
Contact
For informal enquiries about the role, please contact the Directors:
Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel (Director, SWC): t.mrsic-flogel@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Maneesh Sahani (Director, Gatsby Unit): m.sahani@ucl.ac.uk
For queries about the application process: swc.hr@ucl.ac.uk