Amber Young Burns Research Fellowships

Submissions are now open for 2026. Apply by 5pm on Friday 31 July 2026!

About the Amber Young Burns Research Fellowship

Supporting the next generation of burns researchers to improve outcomes for children and young people affected by burns.

The Amber Young Burns Research Fellowship is a generous grant scheme designed to support early career researchers in developing innovative research projects that improve outcomes for children and young people affected by burns across England and Wales.

The Fellowship has been made possible thanks to the generosity of Professor Amber Young, a much missed globally renowned paediatric burns specialist.

Amber’s generous legacy is a gift to the next generation of burns researchers, supporting research that has the potential to improve care, treatments and outcomes for children and young people affected by burns.

Norman Heckington, Amber’s husband, works alongside us to support this Fellowship in Amber’s name, and to continue the critical work into burns and wound healing which Amber dedicated her career to.

About the Fellowship

The £20,000 Amber Young Burns Research Fellowships support one early career researcher a year to undertake pump-priming, feasibility and proof-of-principle studies in paediatric burns research.

The aim of the Fellowship is to support early-stage research that can generate evidence, test new ideas, and has, in the past, helped researchers build towards larger funding applications from established funders such as the NIHR and MRC.

There is no disciplinary requirement for applicants. We welcome innovation from all fields, provided the proposed research has the potential to improve the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people affected by burns.

When Amber offered this legacy to The Scar Free Foundation, she wanted the funding to support:

• Small pump-priming grants that could help innovative projects get started and foster the next generation of paediatric burns researchers
• Researchers from any discipline to be able to apply
• Research projects that ultimately improve the quality of care for children and young people affected by burns

What projects does the Fellowship support?

Projects must:

• Address key issues in clinical burn care for children and young people aged from birth to 18 years old
• Be new projects rather than work that is already underway
• Be deliverable within 12 months
• Demonstrate how the research will ultimately benefit patients
• Where relevant, demonstrate collaboration across burns services in England and Wales

The Fellowship supports projects that have the potential to make a measurable improvement to patient care, either through the research supported directly or through future funding achieved as a result.

Funding can be used for:

• Patient and public involvement (PPI)
• Computing and software
• Materials and consumables
• Workshops and meeting costs
• Equipment
• Travel

Funding cannot be used for applicants’ personal salaries or indirect costs.

Research priorities

Applicants are encouraged to consider the top ten research priorities in global burns care, identified through the James Lind Priority Setting Partnership.

Just before Amber died, she was awarded a major NIHR grant to undertake this work, which brought together patients, families, clinicians and researchers to identify the most important unanswered questions in global burns research.

The resulting priorities, published in The Lancet Global Health in 2025, represent an important contribution to shaping the future of burns research. We encourage applicants to consider how their proposed project responds to these priorities.

Who can apply?

We welcome applications from individuals working across burns (and multidisciplinary) research who:

• Are working in England or Wales
• Are early career researchers, defined as:
• Within eight years of their PhD award (or equivalent professional training),
• Or within six years of their first academic appointment (the first full or part-time paid employment contract where research or teaching is the primary function)

Applications will be assessed through independent peer review by The Scar Free Foundation’s Burns Research Advisory Panel.

The Scar Free Foundation is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and follows the principle of independent assessment in research selection processes.

Previous Fellowship recipients

The 2025 recipient of the Amber Young Burns Research Fellowship was Olivia (Liv) Hartrick, whose research explores variation in the treatment of children with partial thickness burns across the UK.

Liv’s work aims to build the evidence base needed to improve consistency of care and support better outcomes for children and families affected by burns.

Read more about 2025’s Amber Young Burns Research Fellow, Liv, and her project here.

How to apply

To apply for the Amber Young Burns Research Fellowship:

1. Read the Amber Young Fellowship Terms of Reference 2026
2. Read the top ten research priorities in global burns care
3. Download and complete the Amber Young Fellowship Application Form 2026
4. Submit your completed application form and CV to [email protected] by 5pm on Friday 31 July 2026

If you have any questions about the Fellowship or application process, please contact [email protected]

Read the Terms of Reference here

Download the application form here

We look forward to receiving your application!