Capacity building: clinical research training fellowship

Full Job Description

Opportunity status: Upcoming

Funders:

Medical Research Council (MRC)

Funding type: Fellowship

Publication date: 9 October 2026

Opening date:

21 October 2026 9:00am UK time

Closing date:

13 January 2027 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding to reacquire research skills.

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

• be a registered healthcare professional

• be a PhD graduate working outside of research, usually five or more years

• show plans to pursue a clinical academic research career and be at an appropriate point in your clinical training

We will fund your salary and project costs for three years. We will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC).

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

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

Eligibility

This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.

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

Who Is Eligible To Apply

You can apply if you are 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

This funding opportunity is for you, if you have a PhD and want to apply for funding to reacquire research skills. If you want to undertake a PhD or similar, please see the Professional Doctorate: CRTF funding opportunity.

Capacity building CRTF applicants are considered in open competition with professional doctorate applications.

If you already have a PhD, but have not been active in research since, this funding offers an opportunity to refresh your research skills and re-establish research momentum.

To be eligible to apply for this funding opportunity you must:

• have received a PhD or equivalent, usually five or more years ago

• be at an appropriate point in your clinical training, with clear plans for completing your speciality training

• have not undertaken substantial periods of academic research since your PhD. We may also consider your application if you have a National Institute for Health Research academic clinical fellowship or similar since your PhD

• have the support of an eligible research organisation

• intend to be clinically active in the UK during or after the award

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

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.

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.

If you are a non-medical healthcare professional, such as a nurse, midwife or allied health professional, you must have completed your professional training.

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 UK 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.

Demand Management

You can only have one fellowship application of the same type under consideration by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) (which encompasses all fellowship schemes led by any of the research councils or Innovate UK and new investigator awards). If you submit another application while one is being assessed, the new application will be rejected. You should wait until you receive a decision on your current application before submitting another.

Who Is Not Eligible To Apply

You are not eligible to apply if:

• you have applied for an MRC fellowship within the last year or twice before

• you have applied for another UKRI fellowship of the same type and your application is being assessed

• you are not planning to be based at an eligible UK organisation for your fellowship

If you want to reapply within a year, you should request permission from the relevant programme manager before resubmission by emailing fellows@mrc.ukri.org

Equality, Diversity And Inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

• career breaks

• support for people with caring responsibilities

• flexible working

• alternative working patterns

• job shares (contact us for further guidance)

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

We are supportive of applicants wishing to combine their research training with caring responsibilities and in that context, our fellowship awards may be held on a part-time basis or within flexible working arrangements.

Further Fellowship Guidance

Further information related to all aspects of the fellowship application process, can be found in the MRC guidance for fellowship applicants.

If you’re unsure whether you are eligible to apply, email fellows@mrc.ukri.org before beginning your application.

Demand Management

Demand management is being applied to this funding opportunity. Further details are provided in the ‘who can apply’ section.

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

• methodology

• public health

Explore MRC’s areas of scientific remit.

Please note that global health research and underpinning methodology research should align with our core remit spanning from biomedical discovery research to early translational research.

Qualifications And Requirements

You must be able to:

• explain why a fellowship is the best way to support you to reacquire research skills and your plan to pursue clinical academic research career

• have plans for a coherent and integrated training programme

• outline how you will seek opportunities to access career development support, for example, professional training development and relevant training courses

You also must have at least one sponsor, who:

• is a senior member of the department where you are applying to host your fellowship

• acts as a supporter for the application and the fellowship (they do not have a supervisory role)

• 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 sponsors if necessary to support all areas of the proposed work and they may be from other organisations.

If your application does not clearly address the requirements, it may be rejected prior to seeking expert reviewer comments.

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 (this should be included in the total FTE time and costing of the proposal)

We recognise the challenges faced by clinicians in combining research 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, you 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 fellows@mrc.ukri.org before applying.

Explore the expectations that come with an MRC fellowship.

For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the ‘Additional information’ section.

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. You may hold an award 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.

If you are medically qualified, you 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 October 2027 and no later than January 2028. Any start dates outside of this must be discussed with us prior to the two day decision meeting, concluding 1 July 2007.

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

• is comparable with the funding for Professional Doctorate: clinical research training fellowship, as these fellowship types will be considered in open competition

We will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC) and 100% of permitted exceptions.

Explore full economic costing.

What We Will Fund

The capacity building clinical research training fellowship will cover the full cost of your salary.

The fellowship will also provide funding for:

• research consumables

• equipment

• travel costs

• training activities

• data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs

• estates and indirect costs public partnerships and related activities, including payments to public contributors

• NHS research costs, when they are associated with NHS studies

The award will also support a period of research overseas, at a second UK research organisation or in industry, whichever is most appropriate. We encourage successful applicants to take advantage of these opportunities to establish collaborative networks and cross-sector development.

You may spend up to 12 months of your award at a second organisation. Applicants intending to spend longer periods overseas must contact us at fellows@mrc.ukri.org before applying.

Staff costs will only be funded in exceptional circumstances where the delivery of the project requires additional staff costs. If intend to request these costs, you must contact us fellows@mrc.ukri.org before applying.

What We Will Not Fund

We will not fund:

• costs for PhD studentships

• publication costs

• funding to use as a ‘bridge’ between grants

• costs for sponsors

• costs for mentors

• costs for a large research team

• costs for senior staff included under any role

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 fellowships with the following charities:

• Addiction Healthcare Goals (AHG), led by the Office for Life Sciences (OLS)

• The Borne Foundation

• Breakthrough T1D (formerly Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)

• British Journal of Anaesthesia

• DEBRA (the butterfly skin charity)

• Diabetes UK

• Epilepsy Research Institute

• Kidney Research UK

• Macular Society

• Medical Research Foundation

• Motor Neurone Disease Association

• Multiple Sclerosis Society

• Muscular Dystrophy UK

• Prostate Cancer UK

• Scleroderma & 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 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 industry collaboration framework.

Find out more about subcontractors and dual roles.

Who Cannot Be Included As A Project Partner

Any individual included in your application with a core team role or who is from your host organisation cannot also be a project partner.

Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation. This includes other departments within the same organisation.

Human Participation In Research

If you are applying to do research in the NHS, public health or social care you usually need to complete a Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Tool (SoECAT). We are looking for evidence you have taken the appropriate steps and for the full costs of your research to be appropriately attributed.

It is important to complete a SoECAT to be eligible for support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network. You must complete a SoECAT even if you don’t think your research will involve excess treatment costs.

See MRC guidance on who needs to complete a SoECAT.

SoECAT guidance can be found on the NIHR website.

These are the steps you need to take:

• Contact your local attributing the costs of health and social care Research & Development (AcoRD) specialist as early as possible in the application process. They can advise on completing the SoECAT and provide a bespoke service to meet the needs of your study. There are different ways to contact an AcoRD specialist, depending on where you are in the UK:

• England: NIHR website

• Scotland: NHS Research Scotland website

• Wales: email fundingsupport@wales.nhs.uk

• Northern Ireland: HSC R&D division website

• Complete an online SoECAT. If you do not have an account for NIHR’s Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS) you will need to create and activate one.

• Once your account is created and active, you can complete an online SoECAT by selecting the ‘Apply for a service for a new study’ pathway. Further guidance can be found on the Online SoECAT guidance page.

• Request authorisation of your SoECAT.

• When you have authorisation, include the ‘funder export’ Excel document from your SoECAT as part of your application in the Human participation in health-related research section.

• England: NIHR website

• Scotland: NHS Research Scotland website

• Wales: email fundingsupport@wales.nhs.uk

• Northern Ireland: HSC R&D division website

Contact us about any issues including a SoECAT or AcoRD specialist feedback in your application, such as:

• your proposed research involves human participation and the NHS, but you don’t think you need a SoECAT, explain why not when you contact us

• your proposed research involves human participation in Health and Social Care (not NHS), and you think you need a SoECAT

Find contacts in the ‘Contact details’ section

Supporting Skills And Talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

Trusted Research And Innovation (Tr&I)

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has a long-standing and continuing commitment to supporting and enabling safe and effective collaboration in research and innovation. UKRI is equally committed to ensuring that this takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks.

Our Principles and expectations set out the principles that UKRI applies to TR&I and our general expectations of the research organisations (including businesses, research institutes, and research technical organisations) that we support. Organisations supported by UKRI should be able to provide evidence that their internal controls and processes meet these expectations.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the UKRI Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

The fellow is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application. The fellow will need input from their research office for costing the fellowship and submitting the application by the deadline.

Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

If the lead research organisation is an NHS organisation check it is available in the Funding Service. You are encouraged to check this early as there may be additional steps for the organisation to be set up before you can apply.

To Apply

Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

• Confirm you are the fellow.

• Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password.

• Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.

• Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.

• Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.

• Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

When including images, you must:

• provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit)

• insert each new image on a new line

• use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include:

• sentences or paragraphs of text

• tables

• excessive quantities of images

A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:

• how applicants use the Funding Service

• how research offices use the Funding Service

• how reviewers use the Funding Service

References

References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:

• references are easily identifiable by the assessors

• references are formatted as appropriate to your research

• persistent identifiers are used where possible

General Use Of Hyperlinks

Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Ai)

Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.

For more information see our policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment.

Deadline

MRC must receive your application by 13 January 2027 at 4:00pm UK time.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

Processing Personal Data

MRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.

If you apply for joint funding, you agree to MRC sharing your personal data with the relevant co-funder(s). This information could include your application, relevant information as part of the assessment process, the award offer letter, and subsequent grant reporting.

Sensitive Information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email fellows@mrc.ukri.org

Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include:

• individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)

• declaration of interest

• additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section

• conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection

• the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.

This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.

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

You can apply if you are 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

You are not eligible to apply if:

• you have applied for an MRC fellowship within the last year or twice before

• you have applied for another UKRI fellowship of the same type and your application is being assessed

• you are not planning to be based at an eligible UK organisation for your fellowship

If you want to reapply within a year, you should request permission from the relevant programme manager before resubmission by emailing fellows@mrc.ukri.org

You must be able to:

• explain why a fellowship is the best way to support you to reacquire research skills and your plan to pursue clinical academic research career

• have plans for a coherent and integrated training programme

• outline how you will seek opportunities to access career development support, for example, professional training development and relevant training courses

You also must have at least one sponsor, who:

• is a senior member of the department where you are applying to host your fellowship

• acts as a supporter for the application and the fellowship (they do not have a supervisory role)

• 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 sponsors if necessary to support all areas of the proposed work and they may be from other organisations.

If your application does not clearly address the requirements, it may be rejected prior to seeking expert reviewer comments.