HEE-NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic Programme

Internships

Internships are short duration awards for individuals with little or no research experience. They deliver a range of taught and academically supervised components that engage and expose the award holder to a research environment. Interns develop the practical skills required to undertake a research project or to develop a project idea, supported by an expert supervisor.

The award covers salary costs for the days undertaking the Internship and away from their health or care role.

ICA Internships are managed by local NHS England teams.  Further details of the scheme and contact details for your local team are available from the NHSE/NIHR Clinical Academic Career web pages.

Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF)

Formerly the Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship.

The ICA Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) scheme offers salaried time to develop a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake funded academic training that will equip awardees with the skills and experience to access doctoral level funding.

The PCAF is open to early career researchers who are committed to a practitioner academic career; combining research  with continued practice and professional  development.

Applicants must hold registration with one of the ICA Programme approved regulatory bodies, or have plans in place to hold the required registration by the proposed award start date.

Structure 

The PCAF scheme offers two distinct streams, which allow applicants to choose the level of support most appropriate to their individual requirements.

1. Funding to support the submission of a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake a programme of academic training at Masters level (“standard” PCAF).  Awards can be taken up at one of the following options:

• full time for 12 months (5 days per week)
• part-time over 24 months (2.5 days per week, 0.5 WTE)
• part-time over 30 months (2 days per week, 0.4 WTE).

 2. Funding to support submission of a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake a small amount of academic training at Masters level (PCAF Bridge). Awards can be taken up at one of the following options:

• 4 days per week for 6 months (0.8 WTE)
• 2 days per week for 12 months (0.4 WTE).

Funding

Both funding streams provide:

• salary costs (including the employer's contribution to National Insurance and pension) to support the time undertaking the fellowship
• training and development costs
• research development support costs (supervision and/or PPI costs)

Applicants can also request up to 20% clinical development / practice skills development time paid for through the award.

Full scheme details

Available from the PCAF Applicant Guidance Notes:

• Full eligibility
• Funding available 
• How to apply

Applicants are required to read these guidance notes in full before starting an application or contacting  us with any queries.

Competitions

Funding competitions open annually in late January each year and notifications of competition dates are available in career development funding opportunities.

Useful resources for prospective applicants

• ACAF Round 6 Guidance Notes (2024)
• ICA PCAF Chairs Report - Round 6
• ICA PCAF Public Minutes - Round 6
• Example contracts for host organisations on Apply for an Award page
• ICA PCAF Funding Committee
• NIHR Awards Management System (through which applications are made)
• What to consider when choosing your Host Organisation
• Watch a webinar explaining the PCAF scheme
• Sign up for Funding Alerts to be informed of competition launches and news

Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (DCAF)

Formerly the Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (CDRF).

The Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (DCAF) scheme funds registered healthcare professionals to undertake a PhD by research and, concurrently, to undertake further professional development and practice.

Structure

The DCAF is a three year award (up to six years part time), approximately 80% of which will be spent working academically over the course of the fellowship. The remaining 20% of fellowship hours will be spent devoted to practice and professional development. 

We require that applicants have  the support of an English health or social care provider and a university  and hold a contract of employment with one of these organisations for the hours and duration of the fellowship.

Funding

Our personal research training award offers funding to cover your salary costs, PhD tuition fees, the costs of an appropriate research project, and the costs of tailored clinical and academic training programmes.

Full scheme details

Available from the DCAF Applicant Guidance Notes:

• Full eligibility
• Funding available
• How to apply.

Please read these guidance notes in full before starting an application or contacting us with any queries.

Competitions

Funding competitions open twice each year in March and September.  Competition details are published in career development funding opportunities.

Useful resources for prospective applicants

• DCAF Round 6 Guidance Notes
• Example contracts for host organisations on Apply for an Award page
• NIHR Awards Management System
• NHSE/NIHR  DCAF Round 1 Chair's Report
• NHSE/NIHR DCAF Round 2 Chair's Report
• NHSE/NIHR DCAF Round 3 Chairs' Report
• NHSE/NIHR DCAF Round 4 Chairs' Report
• NHSE/NIHR DCAF Round 1 Public Minutes
• NHSE/NIHR DCAF Round 2 Public Minutes
• NHSE/NIHR DCAF Round 3 Public Minutes
• NHSE/NIHR DCAF Round 4 Public Minutes
• NIHR DCAF Round 4 Guidance Notes

Advanced Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (ACAF)

The ACAF has been developed to replace the ICA Clinical Lectureship and Senior Clinical Lectureship schemes and represents increased opportunity for post-doctoral applicants to the ICA Programme.

The ICA Advanced Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (ACAF) supports post-doctoral researchers  to develop their academic career  whilst developing their health or care career.

Applicants may:

• have recently completed or soon be awarded a PhD but have yet to establish themselves as an independent researcher
• be starting to establish themselves as an independent researcher
• already be established as an independent researcher but have yet to be recognised as an international leader in their field
• be seeking to re-establish their research career following a significant career break
• be seeking to re-establish their research career following time back in health or care practice

Applicants for an ACAF must hold registration with one of the ICA approved regulatory bodies or have plans in place to hold the required registration by the proposed award start date.  Full eligibility criteria are available through the Applicant Guidance Notes.

Structure

ACAFs can be between 2 and 5 years in duration if taken up full time or can be taken up part-time between 50% and 100% WTE.

Individuals are eligible to be awarded up to two ACAFs sequentially, not normally totalling more than 8 years WTE of funding.

Between 20% and 40% of the award time must be dedicated to development of the awardee’s clinical service or practice role, which will be funded through the Fellowship.

Funding

ACAFs offer funding to cover the Lead Applicant’s salary costs, the costs of an appropriate research project, and the costs of a tailored academic and professional development programme.

Full scheme details

Available from the  ICA ACAF Applicant Guidance Notes:

• Full eligibility
• Funding available
• How to apply

Applicants are required to read these guidance notes in full before starting an application or contacting us with any queries.

Competitions

Funding competitions run twice each year in March and September.  Competition details are published through career development funding opportunities.

Useful resources for prospective applicants

• ACAF Round 6 Guidance Notes (2024)
• ACAF Round 1 Chair's Report (2023)
• ACAF Round 3 Public Minutes (2023)
• Example contracts for host organisations on Apply for an Award page
• ICA ACAF Selection Committee
• NIHR Awards Management System (through which applications can be made)
• Sign up for Funding Alerts to be informed of competition launches and news

 Post-doctoral public health researchers seeking to apply to the NIHR for a personal award should be aware that in addition to the above, several other schemes run alternative competitions to similar timetables . It may be, depending on personal circumstances, that one of the below represents a more appropriate offer than the scheme described in detail on this page.

• The Advanced Fellowship (AF) supports individuals undertaking research in any scientific discipline or sector than can demonstrate a contribution to improving health and/or care
• The Advanced Local Authority Fellowship (ALAF) supports individuals (excluding doctors and dentists) employed within local authority settings to develop practitioner academic careers by undertaking health or care research whilst concurrently progressing their practice/policy careers
• The Population Health Career Scientist Award (PHCSA) supports senior academics that are undertaking research delivered outside of NHS settings which aims to address the wider determinants of health.
• Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) and Advanced Fellowship (EME-AF)  supports individuals that are conducting a large clinical study.  Successful applicants will receive salary and research training and development through the Advanced Fellowship and research project funding through the NIHR EME programme.

Applicants are advised to consider carefully which postdoctoral award would best support their needs and are welcome to contact NIHR to discuss the postdoctoral opportunities further to support this decision.

Bridging Schemes

ICA Bridging schemes support health and care professionals (excluding doctors and dentists)  to build on their previous academic training and to develop proposals for a pre or post-doctoral award, and take the next step in their clinical academic or practitioner academic career.

Applicants to the ICA Programme schemes must hold registration with one of the ICA approved regulatory bodies or have plans in place to hold the required registration by the proposed award start date.

ICA Bridging awards  are managed by local NHS England teams.  Further details of the scheme and contact details  for your local team are available from the NHSE Clinical Academic Career web pages.

Mentorship Scheme

The ICA Mentorship Scheme offers individuals holding doctoral or post-doctoral ICA awards the opportunity for free one-to-one clinical academic career mentorship by an appropriate mentor.

The scheme is positively received, and recognised as providing a crucial layer of support to our aspirant clinical academic awardees. As a result, and following agreements between NHS England, NIHR and Versus Arthritis (a merger of Arthritis Care and Arthritis Research UK) mentorship through the scheme is also available to nominated Versus Arthritis fellows.

The ICA Mentorship Scheme is currently administered by the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Information for prospective mentors and mentees

Mentoring is uniquely valuable to aspiring non-medical clinical academics and is afforded by the scheme through formalised and funded contact time with the most qualified individuals available. 

Mentorship goes beyond the guidance afforded by a supervisor and acts to support the awardee through the challenges encountered during the development of a clinical academic career.

The scheme’s mentors are recognised senior healthcare researchers and professional leaders. As such, they bring essential and unique sector knowledge, as well as an understanding of the leadership challenges that face clinical academic researchers from the non-medical healthcare professions.

The scheme administers:

• A faculty of mentors comprising of senior healthcare researchers and professional leaders
• One-to-one mentoring support for ICA Programme funded doctoral and postdoctoral awardees
• Mentorship training
• Training events and resources for mentees and mentors.

Accessing the scheme

All doctoral and post-doctoral ICA awardees are welcome to access mentorship through the scheme.

Prospective mentors or mentees requiring further information should contact our mentorship provision service at UWE by email on: icamentor@uwe.ac.uk.