MRC Medicines Development Fellowship Programme

Importance Clinical academics combine time treating patients in hospitals with research. They make a vital contribution to UK health research by bringing first-hand experience of clinical need and by bridging the gap between scientific discovery and making those discoveries work in practice in healthcare. Over the last ten years, the number of clinical academics in the UK has decreased. The number of late-stage clinical trials funded by industry has also dropped in recent years, with half as many trials in 2021 as in 2017. The lack of clinical academics, particularly senior clinical academics who are fully qualified as consultants and highly experienced researchers, is an important factor in the crisis facing clinical academia. There is a critical need for investment in expanding our clinical academic workforce. Background Our team delivered the North West England MRC Clinical Pharmacology Fellowship Scheme. This was created to develop the next generation of leaders in academic clinical pharmacology research – work looking at how medicines work in different individuals and how we can best use medicines for patient benefit. Our goal for this scheme was for each Fellow to work in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry, laying foundations for successful collaboration in the future. When the scheme ends in 2024, we will have trained 28 Clinical Research Fellows, many of whom have already established their own research groups. This scheme provides a blueprint for a creating a skilled clinical academic workforce. Our approach We aim to build on the success of the Clinical Pharmacology Fellowship Scheme to deliver the MRC Medicines Development Fellowship Programme. The science covered by this scheme will now cover the whole of the development pathway, making it more attractive to both industry and trainees. We will also include the use of data and developing technologies such as artificial intelligence within the framework of the programme. We will also recruit clinicians at two different levels of experience, the more junior clinical research training fellows and senior clinician scientist fellows. This is in response to work showing that many talented clinical academics go back to full time clinical work due to the lack of senior roles. These positions also enable a Fellow to work for five years with an industry partner, delivering a large research project that will have potential for future impact on patient health. To deliver the pilot we have created a partnership between four world-class universities, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Queen Mary University London, and four industry partners (GSK, AstraZeneca, Optum UK and Hammersmith Medicines Research) covering different aspects of the medicines development pathway. We aim to recruit four clinician scientist fellows and four clinical research training fellows. Each of the Fellows will co-develop a project with an industry partner, and will spend time with the industry partner (50% of time for clinician scientists). The universities will ensure that the fellows are mentored by experienced clinicians and researchers, and will train them in cutting-edge research techniques. Impact This exciting scheme between four UK Universities and four industry partners will enable training of both pre-doctoral clinical fellows and clinician scientists in academic and industrial scientific discovery. We have designed the scheme to enable the Fellows to move seamlessly between the clinic and industry and to lead research spanning from bench to bedside. We hope that this pilot will form the framework for a much larger scheme in the future, ensuring that the UK can lead the world in medicines development.