Clinical Academic Careers
The School of Health Sciences @Surrey has an excellent track record in training clinicians and supporting them on their academic pathway.
Do you want to act as a catalyst for change? Are you a clinician and thinking about combining a clinical and research career? What does it involve and how to make that journey? Watch our 'Clinicians Leading Change' film to hear four clinicians talk about their experiences of taking that journey, and how they’ve made a difference to their patients on a wider scale. Film participants reflect on the value of being linked to Surrey which offers a thriving and supportive professional and research community with a wealth of research expertise on offer.
Routes to a career as a Clinical Academic
The School of Health Sciences has an excellent track record in training and supporting clinicians on their academic pathway.
If you are a clinician or practitioner and are considering a clinical-academic career, there are various routes you can take.
NIHR Fellowship Route
NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic (ICA) Programme provides research training awards for health and social care professionals, excluding doctors and dentists, who wish to develop careers that combine research and research leadership with continued practice and professional development.
This fellowship provides clinical buyout and enables clinicians to undertake a PhD by research while continuing their clinical careers. There are four NIHR-funded schemes:
- Internship Scheme
- Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) Scheme
- Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (DCAF) Scheme
- Advanced Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (ACAF) Scheme
Once funded, there are opportunities to obtain short-term Bridging Awards, which support development of doctoral or post-doctoral award applications.
If you are a health and care professional working in a primary care setting, you should also refer to the In-Practice Fellowship (IPF).
For more information about these fellowship opportunities, visit the NIHR website.
Wellcome Trust PhD Fellowships for Health Professionals
Fellowships supported through these programmes aim to create knowledge, build research capability and train a diverse group of future leaders in clinical academia, within a positive research culture. Fellowships include salary, research costs, fees, travel and training costs. For more information about eligibility and priority topics, visit the Wellcome Trust website.
Other PhD funding opportunities
Other non-clinical funding routes are available. Some clinical academic clinicians working at Surrey applied for internal studentship schemes which allowed them to undertake their PhD part or full-time.
Find out more about us
Visit the School of Health Sciences postgraduate research page for more information about the range of research we do, the facilities we offer, for help finding a supervisor and to find out more about PhD opportunities and other enquiries.