Clinical Research Fellowships (CRF) - England
Some deaneries in England offer short-term research fellowships with a mixture of academic and clinical time. Academic time will vary post to post and clinical time is usually a combination of special skills time (clinics, scanning, theatre) and on-call rota commitments. They differ from ACFs as they are taken out-of-programme therefore permission to pause specialty training is required from your training deanery. They are often funded by NHS trusts to help fill gaps in the on-call rota, or by research supervisors where funding for a specific project has already been obtained. They usually last one or two years and represent an excellent opportunity to gain research experience. These posts vary greatly between deaneries therefore potential applicants should enquire locally about these posts.
SCREDS Clinical Fellowships OOP - Scotland
In Scotland out-of-programme research time is generally only permitted when funding has been independently obtained for a higher degree, usually a PhD. The funding body needs to be recognised by the Chief Scientist Office e.g. Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, University, or a charity.
To be eligible you already need to be in specialty training, or have an equivalent core training number recognised by a Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (LETB). See ‘funding bodies’ for funding opportunities.
For specialty trainees who have successfully completed their out-of-programme doctoral research, NHS Education Scotland (NES) will generally provide a clinical lecturer to enable the award of a CCT.
More information can be found on the SCREDS webpage.