Predoctoral clinical research training fellowship

NERC - the Natural Environment Research Council; Swindon; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An esteemed research organization in the UK is offering a clinical research training fellowship for registered healthcare professionals seeking to pursue a PhD. This fellowship will fund a competitive salary, project costs, and the chance to engage in research to improve human health. Candidates must demonstrate ambition for a clinical academic career and show alignment with the Fellowship's goals. The fellowship provides support for both predoctoral and postdoctoral positions, allowing applicants to balance clinical and research commitments.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Funding for research costs

Flexible clinical commitments

Qualifications

• Must be a registered healthcare professional.
• Be at an appropriate point in training for PhD.
• Show plans for a research career.

Responsibilities

• Lead a research project focused on improving human health.
• Conduct research as part of fellowship funding.
• Participate in clinical activities as needed.

Skills

Registered healthcare professional

Clinical research experience

Education

Research master's degree or equivalent

Job description

Overview

Opportunity status: Open

Funders: Fellowship

Publication date: 22 October 2025

Opening date: 22 October 2025 9:00am UK time

Closing date: 14 January 2026 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding to undertake a PhD.

Your research can focus on any area of Medical Research Council (MRC)’s remit to improve human health.

You must :

• be a registered healthcare professional
• be at an appropriate point in your training to undertake a PhD
• show plans to pursue a research career

We will fund your salary and project costs for three years. We will fund 100% of the justified costs.

You may also choose to apply for joint funding from one of the collaborating organisations.

This is an ongoing funding opportunity. Application rounds close every January, April and September.

Who can apply

To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation.

Who is eligible to apply

Eligible professions

You can apply if you’re a registered healthcare professional. This includes, but is not limited to :

• nurses
• midwives
• allied health professionals
• healthcare scientists
• pharmacists
• clinical psychologists
• doctors
• dentists
• general practitioners
• veterinarians

Types of applicants

We welcome both predoctoral and postdoctoral clinical research training fellowship (CRTF) applicants. This funding opportunity is specific to you if you want to undertake a PhD or similar. If you already have a PhD or similar and want to apply for funding to reacquire research skills, see the.

This funding supports clinically active healthcare professionals to undertake a higher research degree, such as a PhD or MD.

To be eligible for this funding opportunity you must :

• be able to demonstrate ownership of your project and show ambition to follow a clinical academic career
• be at an appropriate point in your clinical training to study for a PhD, with clear plans for completing your speciality training
• want to request a minimum of 24 months funding full-time equivalent to complete your PhD
• have the support of an
• intend to be clinically active during or after the award

You do not need to have registered for a PhD at the time of your fellowship application.

If you have spent significantly more time than one year on your PhD course, we will consider your application only in exceptional circumstances and you should contact us in advance of submission at

You do not need to have held a position that includes formal research time, for example, an academic foundation or an academic clinical fellowship.

Doctors and dentists

We expect you to be undertaking your specialty training and have completed your membership of the Royal College of Physicians’ exams or equivalent.

You should consult your deanery about studying for a PhD and your plans for completing specialty training before you apply for a clinical research training fellowship.

If you are earlier or later in your clinical training, you will need to make a clear case for why now is the right time for you to undertake a PhD. We recommend discussing this with us by contacting

General practitioners (GP)

If you are a GP, you are considered to be at an appropriate career stage to apply for up to three years post-qualification.

Veterinarians

If you are a veterinarian, you may apply if you are a registered vet and a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Your proposed project must be relevant to human health.

Clinical psychologists

If you are a clinical psychologist, you must have a professional doctorate-level qualification in clinical psychology that is accredited by the British Psychological Society before starting the fellowship.

Non-medical healthcare professionals

If you are a non-medical healthcare professional, such as a nurse, midwife or allied health professional, you must have :

• completed your professional training
• hold a research master’s degree or equivalent postgraduate research-oriented qualification

International applicants

Applications are welcomed from applicants of all nationalities, including those not currently based in the UK, however, this is subject to the fellowship being hosted by an eligible UK based research organisation.

You will need to be registered with a regulatory body, such as the General Medical Council or the Health and Care Professions Council or have plans in place to hold the required registration by the proposed award start date.

What we look for

Scope

We welcome applications from across all areas of our remit to improve human health.

This may range from basic studies with relevance to mechanisms of disease, to

translational and developmental clinical research.

We expect your clinical work will help to inform and strengthen your research work.

Our science areas include :

• infections and immunity
• molecular and cellular medicine
• population and systems medicine
• neurosciences and mental health
• translation
• global health research (which must align with MRC’s core scientific remit spanning biomedical discovery research to early translational research)
• methodology
• public health

Funding and requirements

You must be able to :

• explain why a fellowship is the best way to support your plan to pursue a research career
• show how your skills and experience match those of the training career stage by exploring our applicant skills and experience criteria

You also must have at least one supervisor, who :

• is a member of the department where you are applying to host your fellowship
• will have academic responsibility for you
• has expertise in the research area and acts as guarantor for the quality of the proposed work, suitability of you as a fellowship candidate and the quality of training and development you will receive
• you can have additional supervisors if necessary to support all areas of the proposed work and they may be from other organisations

What the fellowship gives you

This fellowship provides a competitive salary, giving you the chance to concentrate fully on your research, training and development. You may :

• spend up to six hours a week (pro-rated for part-time fellowships) on other commitments such as teaching, demonstrating, or other funded projects
• undertake up to two clinical sessions a week

We recognise the challenges faced by clinicians in combining research training with the demands of a clinical career.

We operate this fellowship as flexibly as possible. This gives you the chance to negotiate the extent of your clinical commitment depending on your specialty and your research needs.

For individuals in craft specialties including surgeons and fellows undertaking patient-oriented projects where the clinical sessions will be of direct relevance to the research, applicants may undertake up to four clinical sessions a week.

If you are planning to undertake more than two clinical sessions a week during your fellowship or request more than three years funding, we advise you email before applying

Duration

Clinical research training fellowships usually last three years but never less than two years.

For patient-oriented projects where additional time is needed to collect patient samples and complete follow up assessments, you may request up to four years funding.

These periods are based on full-time equivalents. Awards may be held on a part-time basis to meet personal commitments but not because of other professional commitments.

We will consider requests from GPs, nurses, midwives, allied health professions and other non-medic healthcare professionals to undertake a part-time award to continue professional clinical responsibilities during the fellowship.

Medically qualified applicants may not apply for a part-time award in order to continue higher specialist training during the fellowship.

We expect you to start your fellowship no earlier than August 2026 and no later than January 2027. Any start dates outside of this must be discussed with MRC prior to the July 2026 decision meeting.

Funding available

There is no limit to the amount of funding you can request, however all costs must be fully justified and demonstrate value for money.

Your application must be for an amount that :

• is appropriate to the project
• you can justify in order to meet the objectives of your proposed research

We will fund 100% of the justified costs and all costs should be entered as exceptions in the application resources and cost justification section.

This fellowship is not subject to full economic costing.

What we will fund

This fellowship provides :

• a salary appropriate to your level of training
• tuition fees at standard home student rate (set by the research organisation) or supervisors’ time
• up to £25,000 each year to cover consumables, equipment and travel

For consultants, salaries must be capped within the Level 1 threshold for the duration of the award, reflecting the changing role and return to training.

Supervisor costs can only be requested if you are not requesting tuition fees and are only supported in exceptional circumstances when well justified. The request should not exceed 5% of their time (or a total of 5% FTE across all supervisors if more than one).

Staff costs will only be funded in exceptional circumstances where the delivery of the project requires additional staff costs, these must be requested within the £25,000 each year limit.

You may be able to request extra funding for :

• the cost of training at an overseas or second centre or industry placement
• the purchase and maintenance cost of animals, excluding experimental costs, related consumables or project licences
• the costs associated with healthy volunteer studies, where costs for patient studies would be met by local clinical research networks
• the costs associated with an experimental intervention or challenge in humans and human medical imaging (such as magnetic resonance imaging), where costs cannot be met by local clinical research networks

Only these costs can be applied for above the £25,000 each year limit.

If you are requesting costs above the £25,000 each year limit you should be mindful of the scope and aims of the fellowship, with the proposed project demonstrating an appropriate level of ambition.

What we will not fund

We will not fund :

• estates and indirect costs
• publication costs
• costs for mentors

Joint funders

We collaborate with royal colleges and charity funders to offer jointly funded clinical research training fellowships.

These awards offer the prestige of having the relevant organisation co-fund your fellowship and may offer additional opportunities to report on your project, present your work at meetings and take part in professional networking.

We are inviting applications for jointly funded clinical research training fellowship with the following organisations :

• Addiction Healthcare Goals (AHG), led by the Office for Life Sciences (OLS)
• The Borne Foundation
• Breakthrough T1D (formerly Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)
• British Journal of Anaesthesia
• Cystic Fibrosis Trust
• DEBRA (the butterfly skin charity)
• Diabetes UK
• Epilepsy Research Institute
• Fight for Sight
• Kidney Research UK
• Leukaemia UK
• Macular Society
• Medical Research Foundation
• Motor Neurone Disease Association
• Multiple Sclerosis Society
• Muscular Dystrophy UK
• Parkinson’s UK
• Prostate Cancer UK
• Scleroderma and Raynaud’s UK
• Stroke Association
• Vivensa Foundation

We will offer all jointly funded fellowships under standard UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and MRC terms and conditions, except where the co-funder has specified additional terms and conditions.

See ‘Additional information’ for further details of the joint funders.

Project partner

A project partner is a collaborating organisation in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU, who will have an integral role in the proposed research. You may include team project partners that will support your fellowship through cash or in-kind contributions, such as :

• staff time
• access to equipment
• sites or facilities
• the provision of data
• software or materials
• recruitment of people as research participants
• providing samples, such as human tissue, for the project

Each project partner must provide a statement of support. If your application involves industry partners, they must provide additional information if the team project partner falls within the.