Associated organisationsCardiff University · University of Bath · University of Bristol · University of ExeterEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£7.1M
PeriodMay 2022 — Sept 2029
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
A new training programme will recruit health professionals—doctors, dentists, vets, nurses, and allied staff—into PhDs with guaranteed post-doctoral positions that protect their research time. The problem is a leaky pipeline. Clinicians who want to do research often face a career dead end: they complete a PhD but then lack the protected time, mentorship, or funded positions to continue. Many leave academic medicine entirely, taking their hard-won expertise with them. This programme aims to plug that gap by offering structured, long-term support from the start of the PhD through to an independent research post. If it succeeds, the programme will retain more clinical researchers in the UK’s universities and NHS trusts. That means more studies on real patient problems—from cancer treatments to veterinary disease—led by people who understand both the lab and the clinic. The scheme is a training infrastructure, not a single experiment, so its impact will be measured in the careers it sustains and the research those careers produce over decades.
View original technical description
Building on our Wellcome-funded Clinical Academic Training Programme (GW4-CAT) that uniquely supports Medical, Dental and Veterinary professionals; we will deliver a scheme that combines world class PhD training with exit to mentored post-doctoral positions with protected research time, open to all health professions (GW4-CAT-HP). Capitalising on the world class facilities and absolute commitment of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter (Great Western 4 - GW4), and our partner NHS Boards and Trusts and Vet School, our objectives for GW4-CAT-HP are to: - Recruit talented Fellows from diverse disciplines and clinical specialties, supporting them to make bold choices by accessing the wide range of world-class cutting-edge research environments across GW4 where they will be stretched intellectually and practically. - Foster a positive and inclusive research culture, through robust equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practice and enabling the highest standards of research integrity through support and formal training. - Ensure, through bespoke and structured long-term support and mentoring, that all our Fellows secure externally funded post-doctoral support and linked clinical academic posts provided in partnership with our NHS Trusts, Boards and Vet School, to achieve research independence and retain excellent researchers in clinical academia.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know