Call for Proposals: Lady Mireille and Sir Dennis Gillings Global Public Health Fellowship

Lady Mireille Gillings exemplifies the transformative power of vision and action. As a trailblazer in business, science, and public health, her establishment of the Lady Mireille and Sir Dennis Gillings Global Public Health Fellowship marks a pivotal investment in shaping the future of global health. In a world forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, her commitment to nurturing leadership and advancing excellence in public health is both timely and visionary. This fellowship reflects her profound belief in empowering post-doctoral researchers to tackle the multifaceted challenges of public health with both expertise and strategic insight.

Designed to foster leadership and innovation, the Lady M Fellowship will equip emerging scientific leaders with the management skills needed to transform groundbreaking research into actionable global health solutions. This initiative underscores the critical importance of cultivating leaders who can navigate complex systems, inspire collaboration, and drive impactful change. Through this fellowship, Lady Mireille is leaving a legacy of empowerment and progress, fueling advancements, health equity, and the resilience of health systems worldwide.

Overview

The strength of Lady Mireille and Sir Dennis Gillings Global Public Health Fellowship lies in its novel approach to creativity and innovation. Central to this vision is Lady M’s philosophy of the “3 Ms”: money, management, and medicine—the conviction that lasting impact in global public health requires fluency across all three. Scientific excellence alone is not enough; progress depends on the ability to manage institutions, mobilize resources, and translate medical insight into scalable, sustainable solutions.

Lady M Fellowships are designed to bridge the business and scientific communities while teaching Fellows how to implement their ideas in an ever-shifting health care marketplace. An unprecedented group of partners—including the University of Cambridge, the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Concordia University, anchored by the France-based Institut Pasteur—ensures a diverse and well-represented grouping of academic resources, faculty leadership, and expertise, along with unrivaled opportunity.

Marshalling the resources of these institutions, coupled with their respective business schools, a Lady M Fellow will develop the management and leadership skills needed to function effectively in worldwide settings with global intelligence. This integrated training enables Fellows to maximize health impact for patients and populations, while understanding the financial and operational realities that accompany successful innovation.

It also equips Fellows to engage more effectively with policymakers and influence health-related decision-making.

A Lady M Fellowship reinforces the growing consensus—articulated and championed by The Lancet—that today’s health leaders must excel not only in medicine, but also in financial management, communication, cultural competence, and change management.

Fellowship Eligibility

Applicants must either be graduating or have graduated within the previous two years from University of Cambridge, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, or Concordia University with a PhD in the basic sciences and/or a related discipline.

Fellowship Administration and Application

Fellowships are funded for two (2) years and consist of three (3) modules woven throughout the entirety of the Fellowship: Scientific, Business, and Reporting.

Fellowships are Paris-based. At the commencement of the program, Fellows will be paired with a scientific mentor and have a complement of support services and resources available from their host lab in order to build further success.

Scientific (Module I)

Applicants must first select and then apply to a specific Institut Pasteur host lab from the list of participating labs noted below, based on the applicant’s proposed research project and their respective areas of research interest.

As part of the Fellowship, a portion of the Fellow’s time may also be spent at an Institut Pasteur International Network Site. Network site selection will be made in coordination with the Fellow’s host lab.

Throughout Years 1 and 2, Fellows will meet regularly with their scientific mentor to ensure research goals are met and opportunities to maximize support are achieved.

Business (Module II)

Concurrently, Lady M Fellows will take online business courses that will assist the Fellow with focusing their studies to meet their entrepreneurial and business-related needs and ensure pre-determined outcomes.

Fellowship-affiliated business schools are:

University of Cambridge Judge Business School
University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School
Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
Oxford University
HEC Paris
INSEAD

Fellows will incorporate at least two business courses per year from curricula at participating schools.

Reporting (Module III)

At Fellowship inception, Fellows will attend an orientation wherein they will meet with Institut Pasteur host lab directors/mentors. At that time, Fellows will describe and discuss their goals and desired outcomes.

At the conclusion of Year 1, Fellows will meet with their lab director to share accomplishments and articulate important leadership goals for Year 2. At the conclusion of the Fellowship in Year 2, Fellows will present a final report that summarizes their research and fellowship.

Key Dates

March 3: Call announcement
June 1: All application materials due
July 1: Applicants are notified
October 5: Fellowship begins

Fellowship Package

This Fellowship will be funded, in part, by Institut Pasteur and, in part, by the Pasteur Foundation.

The stipend package from Institut Pasteur is valued at approximately €75,000 (euros) per year gross, €45,000 (euros) net. The net salary reflects deductions for French social security contributions and health insurance coverage.

The Pasteur Foundation will provide supplemental compensation of $20,000 annually, to offset the cost of travel, housing, food, and related expenses associated with an international Fellowship.

Fellows are provided with up to $2,500 to spend on their online business course tuition for two courses throughout the year. This will be paid at the same time as the annual stipend payment of $20,000 but may only be used toward business courses, with proof of payment and confirmation of completion required during the reporting period.

Upon acceptance of Fellowship, information on visas, travel, housing assistance and related matters in support of the Fellows transition to Paris will be provided.

Fellowship Application Requirements

All application materials must be sent to gillings.fellowship@pasteurfoundation.org
A letter of introduction of the candidate by the head of the host laboratory or unit at the Institut Pasteur (requires that candidates speak with Host labs);
Candidate’s CV (2 pages maximum). CV should list the source and duration of all current grants and/or funding;
A list of the candidate’s publications (if applicable);
A synopsis of the candidate’s scientific accomplishments (up to 2 pages maximum, Arial 12 point);
A motivation letter (up to 2 pages maximum) detailing their interest in a fellowship at a Pasteur lab, including the “3Ms” approach;
Two letters of recommendation from scientists with personal knowledge of the candidate’s scientific qualifications to be sent via email from the recommender gillings.fellowship@pasteurfoundation.org

Eligible Labs

The following labs are accepting applications for post-doctoral fellowships.

David Bikard — david.bikard@pasteur.fr — Synthetic Biology — CRISPR-Cas systems; bacteriophage-bacteria interactions
Sylvain Brisse — sylvain.brisse@pasteur.fr — Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens — Bacterial diversity, evolution, and antimicrobial resistance; genomic epidemiology
Simon Cauchemez — simon.cauchemez@pasteur.fr — Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases — Transmission dynamics and intervention strategies
Gérard Eberl — gerard.eberl@pasteur.fr — Immunity in Host-Microbiota Interactions — Cross-talk between the immune system and microbiota
Sandrine Etienne-Manneville — sandrine.etienne-manneville@pasteur.fr — Cell Polarity, Migration, and Cancer — Adult and pediatric brain tumors (gliomas), inflammation; cell migration, invasion, mechanobiology
Simonetta Gribaldo — simonetta.gribaldo@pasteur.fr — Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell — Phylogenomics, microbial evolution, evolutionary biology, microbiome, bacteria, archaea, cell envelope, peptidoglycan, methanogenesis
Louis Lambrechts — louis.lambrechts@pasteur.fr — Insect-Virus Interactions — Mosquito vectors and arbovirus transmission
Marc Lecuit — marc.lecuit@pasteur.fr — Biology of Infection — Microbial pathogenesis, infectious disease pathophysiology, host barriers, immune evasion, maternal-fetal infections, aging and infection
Pierre-Marie Lledo — pierre-marie.lledo@pasteur.fr — Perception and Action — Neuro-immunology, neuro-virology, and aging
Michaela Müller-Trutwin — michaela.muller-trutwin@pasteur.fr — HIV, Inflammation and Persistence — HIV pathogenesis, inflammation and persistence, SARS-CoV-2, Long Covid, innate immunity, immunotherapy
Mathieu Picardeau — mathieu.picardeau@pasteur.fr — Biology of Spirochetes — Leptospira biology and leptospirosis
Javier Pizarro-Cerda — javier.pizarro-cerda@pasteur.fr — Yersinia Research Unit — Host-pathogen interactions and evolution of pathogenic Yersinia spp.
Olivier Schwartz — olivier.schwartz@pasteur.fr — Virus and Immunity — HIV and SARS-CoV-2 replication; virus-host immune system interactions
Roland Brosch — roland.brosch@pasteur.fr — Integrated Mycobacterial Pathogenomics — Mycobacterium, tuberculosis, virulence, ESX-1, type VII secretion, evolution, Mycobacterium canettii, vaccine, BCG, treatment
Pierre Bruhns — pierre.bruhns@pasteur.fr — Antibodies in Therapy and Pathology — Immunology, allergy, autoimmunity, asthma, therapeutic antibodies, vaccines, mouse models, antibody engineering, clinical studies, B cell repertoires
Carmen Buchrieser — carmen.buchrieser@pasteur.fr — Biology of Intracellular Bacteria — Infectious diseases, bacterial pathogenesis, emergence of pathogens from the environment, host-pathogen interactions, environmental water and human lung microbiome, evolution of virulence
Christophe D’Enfert — christophe.denfert@pasteur.fr — Fungal Biology and Pathogenicity — Mycology, human fungal pathogens, Candida albicans, genome plasticity, morphogenesis, cell wall biogenesis, systems biology, omics, overexpression screens
Ludovic Deriano — ludovic.deriano@pasteur.fr — Pathophysiology of the Immune System — DNA damage response in immune and cancer cells; DNA double-strand break repair; alternative DNA repair pathways; genetic adaptation; antigen receptor gene recombination
Guillaume Dumenil — guillaume.dumenil@pasteur.fr — Pathogenesis of Vascular Infections — Sepsis, meningitis, purpura, virulence factors, bacterial adhesion, bacterial pili, blood vessels, endothelial cells, inflammation, macrophages
Anna-Bella Failloux — anna-bella.failloux@pasteur.fr — Arboviruses and Insect Vectors — Mosquito-borne diseases, arboviruses, host-pathogen interactions, environmental and climate changes, mosquito ecology, vector control
Romain Koszul — romain.koszul@pasteur.fr — Spatial Regulation of Genomes — Genomics, chromosome biology, DNA repair, genome organization, metagenomics, gut microbiota, phage, nucleoid, bacteria
Sigolène Meilhac — sigolene.meilhac@pasteur.fr — Heart Morphogenesis — Developmental biology, heart morphogenesis, left-right asymmetry, patterning, mouse genetics, 3D quantitative imaging, congenital heart defects, rare genetic diseases
Lluis Quintana-Murci — lluis.quintana-murci@pasteur.fr — Human Evolutionary Genetics — Population genetics, functional genomics, quantitative genetics, single-cell technologies, human genetics, evolution, immunity, metabolism, demographic inference, selection inference
Eduardo Rocha — eduardo.rocha@pasteur.fr — Genetics of Genomes — Antibiotic resistance, comparative genomics, molecular evolution, bacteria, horizontal gene transfer, computational biology, mobile genetic elements, enterobacteria
Gerald Spaeth — gerald.spaeth@pasteur.fr — Molecular Parasitology and Signaling — Leishmania, parasite-macrophage interaction, host immune subversion, host-directed drug discovery, epigenetic regulation, comparative genomics, parasite fitness gain, Leishmania genome instability, biomarker discovery, sand fly infection
Shahragim Tajbakhsh — shahragim.tajbakhsh@pasteur.fr — Stem Cells and Development — Disease mechanisms, host physiology, immune response, experimental models, systems-level analysis, cellular responses, development, regeneration, and ageing
Chrisophe Zimmer — christophe.zimmer@pasteur.fr — Imaging and Modeling — Computational biology, biophysics, deep learning (AI) for biology, high-throughput and super-resolution microscopy, imaging and AI-based cellular phenotyping, antibiotic drug discovery, generative AI for drug discovery, hyperspectral light-sheet microscopy, computational imaging, chromatin structure and dynamics

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is eligible to apply for the Fellowship?

The Gillings Fellowship is open to candidates who have graduated, or will graduate, with a PhD in the basic sciences, public health, or a related discipline from one of the Fellowship’s partner institutions: the University of Cambridge, the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, or Concordia University.

For the 2026 application cycle, applicants must have received their PhD within three years of the application date, June 1.

Do I need to be a citizen of a specific country to apply?

No. Eligibility is based on your academic affiliation with one of the three partner institutions and your PhD timeline, not on citizenship or nationality.

Where is the Fellowship based?

The Fellowship is based at Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Fellows are hosted in participating Institut Pasteur laboratories and become part of the campus’s international scientific community.

What is the working language of Institut Pasteur laboratories?

The working language of Institut Pasteur laboratories is English. Fellows do not need to be fluent in French to conduct research at Institut Pasteur, although learning French may be helpful for daily life in Paris.

How long is the Fellowship?

The Fellowship itself is designed as a two-year program. However, Fellows may have opportunities to extend their stay at Institut Pasteur, either within their original host laboratory or in another laboratory, depending on available funding, grants, institutional opportunities, and mutual interest between the Fellow and the host team.

Is housing provided?

No. Housing is not provided as part of the Fellowship. However, Fellows will receive resources and guidance to help them search for affordable housing in Paris.

Will I receive help with visas and relocation?

Yes. Institut Pasteur will assist with visa-related matters and mobility support. Upon acceptance, Fellows will receive information and guidance related to visas, travel, housing assistance, and other practical matters connected to relocating to Paris.

Does the Fellowship cover health insurance?

Yes. The Fellowship package includes French social security contributions and health insurance coverage, along with other benefits such as paid vacation and partial public transportation reimbursement.

Does the Fellowship cover transportation?

The Fellowship package includes coverage of 75% of public transportation costs, consistent with standard French employment practices.

Does the Fellowship include vacation time?

Yes. Fellows receive 25 days of paid vacation.

Is the Fellowship only for public health researchers?

Not necessarily. The Fellowship is rooted in global public health impact, but eligible candidates may come from basic sciences or related disciplines, provided their proposed project aligns with the participating Institut Pasteur host laboratory and the broader mission of the Fellowship.