NIHR Fellowship Programme

Pre-doctoral Fellowship

NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowships are designed to support people who are looking to start or advance a career in health and social care research methodology, specifically in one of the following areas:

• medical statistics
• health economics
• clinical trial design
• operational research
• modelling
• bioinformatics
• qualitative research
• mixed methods
• epidemiology

Applicants without a Master's degree should use the Fellowship to undertake a Master's degree in one of the areas listed. Those already holding a relevant Master's degree (or currently completing one) should use the Fellowship to gain additional support and training to advance to the next level of their career. The Fellowship can be undertaken on a full-time or part-time basis.

Are you eligible?

To be eligible for a NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship you must:

• have completed a relevant first degree.
• have a proposed host who is an HEI, NHS body, or other provider of health and/or care services
• be proposing to develop a career as a methodologist in one of the areas listed above.

Applications open annually in late January/February to start from September the same year to March the following year. Exact dates are available close to the time of opening.

Check funding opportunities for details of latest funding rounds.

Please note, this Fellowship is not open to clinical applicants looking to undertake training in research methods.  Clinical applicants looking to develop a career as a clinical academic should consider schemes from the relevant clinical academic programmes provided by NIHR.

Useful resources for applicants

• Pre-doctoral Fellowship Round 6 Guidance Notes
• Pre-doctoral Fellowship Selection Committee
• Pre-doctoral Fellowship Round 4 Chairs’ Report
• NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship Potential Supervisors 
• NIHR Awards Management System. Please note the application form is only available during the application window. Registration on the system, however, can be completed at any time.

Doctoral Fellowship

The NIHR Doctoral Fellowship is a three year full-time award that supports individuals to undertake a PhD in applied health or social care research. This fellowship may also be taken up on a part-time basis of between 50% and 100% whole time equivalent (WTE).

Clinical applicants are able to include up to 20% clinical time as part of the fellowship, to ensure the maintenance of their clinical competence whilst undertaking the fellowship.

Are you eligible?

To be eligible for an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship you must:

• Have completed any relevant pre-registration training (for clinical academic applicants)
• Have completed a first degree (for non-clinical applicants)
• Have a proposed host who is an HEI, NHS body, or other provider of health and/or care services.
• Be intending to register for and complete a PhD
• Where already registered for a PhD (or MPhil with transfer to PhD), you should not have been registered for more than 12 months at 100% WTE by the time the award starts.

Full details of the latest funding rounds are available in funding opportunities.

Doctoral Timetable

Stage	April launch	October launch
Competition opens for applications for all Fellowships	April	October
Closing date for submission of online application	July	January
Interviews held in Leeds	November	June
Awards start on 1st of month	1 April to 1 September	1 October to 1 March

Partnership Fellowships

The NIHR has partnered with a number of charitable organisations to offer jointly funded NIHR Charity Partnership Fellowships and with Pfizer to offer an NIHR Industry Partnership Fellowship. Details are available for the latest Fellowship Round in Funding Opportunities.

Jointly funded Partnership Fellowships enable researchers to:

• Maintain and build a relationship with both the NIHR and a partner organisation
• Engage with and receive valuable input from patient groups, making the most of the public and patient engagement/involvement opportunities available
• Receive greater research exposure through a variety of media and communication channels.

Please refer to the Guidance Notes for  further details regarding the specific eligibility criteria for each partner (in addition to the standard eligibility criteria), the level of award available and the contact details for the relevant partner.

We encourage all applicants interested in applying for a jointly funded Partnership Fellowship to contact the relevant partner to discuss their research area of interest before they apply.

Please note, all other queries about the application process should be directed to the NIHR Academy.

Useful resources for applicants

• Doctoral Fellowship Selection Committee 
• NIHR Doctoral Fellowship Round 7 and 8 Chair's Report
• NIHR Awards Management System
• NIHR Doctoral Fellowship Round 12 Guidance Notes

Advanced Fellowship

The Advanced Fellowship is for those at a post-doctoral level and can be utilised at several specific points of a researcher’s career development.

The fellowship is between 2 and 5 years and can be completed on a full-time or part-time basis - between 50% and 100% whole time equivalent (WTE).

Advanced Fellowships will be available with a ‘clinical academic’ option, whereby clinical applicants will have the option to request up to 40% of their time be dedicated to clinical service/development which would be covered by the award.

If you are a Global Health researcher you should apply for the Global Advanced Fellowship.

When should you apply?

The NIHR Advanced Fellowship is aimed at individuals at various points of their career. You may have:  

• Recently completed or be about to be awarded a PhD, but haven’t yet established yourself as an independent researcher
• Established yourself as an independent researcher or you are in the process of doing so, but are not yet recognised as an international leader in your field
• Transitioned into applied health research or social care research from a basic science background or re-established your research career following a significant career break.

In addition, you may use the Advanced Fellowship to undertake innovative knowledge mobilisation (to support the more effective use of research knowledge), whilst simultaneously researching implementation processes and impacts.

If you are unsure about your eligibility for the Advanced Fellowship, as related to your career stage, please contact the NIHR Academy office on 0113 532 8410 and a member of the team  will be happy to discuss your proposed application.

Are you eligible?

To be eligible for an NIHR Advanced Fellowship you must:

• Have a proposed host who is an HEI, NHS body, or other provider of health and/or care services
• Hold a relevant PhD or MD, or have submitted your thesis for examination at the time of application (you must have been awarded a PhD or MD by the time you attend the interview)
• Not already hold a Chair at the point of application
• Complete the relevant pre-registration training (for clinical academic applicants).

Full details of the latest funding rounds are available in funding opportunities.

Advanced Fellowship Timetable 

Stage	April launch	October launch
Competition opens for applications for all Fellowships	April	October
Closing date for submission of online application	July	January
Interviews held in Leeds	January	July
Awards start on 1st of month	1 April to 1 September	1 October to 1 March

Partnership Fellowships

The NIHR has partnered with a number of charitable organisations to offer jointly funded NIHR Charity Partnership Fellowships and with Pfizer to offer an NIHR Industry Partnership Fellowship. Details are available for the latest Fellowship Round in Funding Opportunities.

Jointly funded Partnership Fellowships enable researchers to:

• Maintain and build a relationship with both the NIHR and a partner
• Engage with and receive valuable input from patient groups, making the most of the public and patient engagement/involvement opportunities available
• Receive greater research exposure through a variety of media and communication channels.

We encourage all applicants interested in applying for a jointly funded Partnership Fellowship to contact the relevant partner to discuss their research area of interest before they apply. Please note all other queries about the application process should be directed to the NIHR Academy.

Useful  resources for potential applicants

• NIHR Advanced Fellowship - Round 12 Guidance Notes
• NIHR Advanced Fellowship Selection Committee
• The common characteristics of a great Advanced Fellowship application
• NIHR Academy Awards Management System
• Introductory resources for Knowledge Mobilisation and planning your pathway to impact

Development and Skills Enhancement Award

The Development and Skills Enhancement Award (DSE) is a post-doctoral level award aimed at supporting  early to mid-career researchers.  It provides up to 2 years of funding for researchers to gain the skills and experience they need to progress to the next phase of their career. 

Read more about the DSE Award