Dream job for 12 new stars

Strathclyde University is offering a dozen high-status jobs to early-career academics eager to give a real boost to their research.

The university is advertising in this week's Times Higher 12 research lectureships for which the appointees will be excused from most teaching duties.

The John Anderson research lectureships, named after Strathclyde's founder, will be funded for three years. Exceptional candidates could command senior lecturer pay rates.

The new posts cover nine academic specialisms: management science, economics, government, maths, life sciences, and civil, chemical, mechanical, electronic and electrical engineering.

Allister Ferguson, Strathclyde's deputy principal, said that it was expected that appointees would teach for a maximum of six hours a week.

"We want to attract the highest quality people and allow them to really motor with their research. Essentially, they can spend all their time on research," he said.

The posts will be funded for three years from the research excellence fund set up by Professor Ferguson.

"The fund is used mainly to attract fresh talent to the university," he said. "We had an internal competition to select the areas we wanted to develop through these research lectureships."

When the three years are up, the researchers will be offered posts paid for in the normal way from faculty funds. Teaching responsibilities may change after three years.