Author: Carl Marincowitz, Clinical Lecturer in Emergency Medicine, UNiversity of Sheffield
On 24th January 2024, I was nervously waiting in the lobby of a hotel in Leeds to be called to face the panel for my NIHR Advanced Fellowship interview. I was also imminently about to complete my clinical training in Emergency Medicine. Having followed the NIHR clinical academic pathway from Academic Clinical Fellow, Doctoral Research Fellow and Clinical Lecturer (CL), I was now facing a bit of an uncertain future both in terms of continuing my research and what my clinical post training life would look like. I am now 6-months into starting my Advanced Fellowship. I currently have my ideal balance between research and working as an Emergency Medicine consultant in both academic and clinical environments that I feel very lucky to be part of.
I had a lot of help in preparing my application (for which I am very grateful) and hope the following we be helpful for anyone considering applying. Importantly, the NIHR has recently simplified their post-doctoral fellowships (including removing the name Advanced Fellowship) into a single Post Doctoral award scheme. Info can be found here (https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/research-career-funding-programmes/postdoctoral/postdoctoral-award) but the principles are the same…
Timing
Personal fellowships at any level require a lot of time and planning. A key difference at Advanced Fellowship level (compared to Doctoral) is that you need to demonstrate that you are someway along the path to independence/leadership. You will need time to build a convincing CV, collaborations, meaningful patient and public involvement (PPIE), develop your project idea, write the actual application and get many iterations of feedback.
I knew quite early on in my clinical lectureship that the only way I was likely to have the academic role I wanted was to secure an Advanced Fellowship. Throughout my CL I looked for opportunities to show research citizenship/leadership (e.g. reviewing on panels, committee membership etc), secure modest funding and lead projects. Once I knew what area I wanted to focus on, 18 months before submission I started doing the preparatory work conducting systematic reviews and identifying collaborators (both academic, stakeholders and PPIE). I spent 6 months before the submission of the written application (July 2024) focusing my 50% research time just on writing, getting feedback, and finessing the application. There is also finance and other admin (like a SOECAT! https://www.nihr.ac.uk/online-soecat-guidance) to sort out.
I found out in December that I was going to be interviewed and had around 4 mock sessions practicing for the 5-minute presentation and 25 mins panel questions. I cannot stress enough how this kind of preparation helped, especially from people with experience of being on these panels.
Understand the brief
There are 4 domains on which the application is scored: Person, Project, Site and Support, and Training and Development. The tendency (which I was guilty of) is to get carried away with the research question and neglect the other ¾ of the marks. Your project must be important to the NHS, well thought through and feasible. However, as a wise person told me, what the panel ultimately is buying into is you and, the version 2.0 version of you, that the fellowship will deliver. You need to create the narrative that you are already a successful researcher with a lot of potential and the fellowship will allow you to achieve the next level of success in an area of importance to the NIHR (both through your training and delivering your project). The plain English summary and host support statement also matter disproportionally for reviewers. You will need to show that you are working with the best people in whatever your area is (as collaborators and mentors), not just who is local and accessible. PPIE, EDI and research inclusion are all priorities for the NIHR, and indeed most funders, and need to be embedded throughout.
Have a Plan B
On reflection, it probably wasn’t a good idea to fill my last 12-months of my clinical lectureship/emergency medicine training with the Advanced Fellowship application, FRCEM OSCE and desperately trying get everything together to CCT. My personal life did suffer. However, through that process I developed a clear idea of what was important to me and plan of what I would do if I wasn’t successful (your chances are about 1/4). Have conversations early both within the university and with whatever NHS trusts you work at to try and develop a fallback position with some funded time for research. You can reapply 12-months after an initial submission and lots of people succeed second time round. On reflection, it may have been wiser for me to have tried to put my application in 12-months earlier than I did.
Support
I am happy to be contacted by anyone thinking about applying ([email protected]). The details of my project can be found here. Try to talk to previous applicants and get hold of their applications/feedback. Also talk to panel members.
A successful GP colleague and I, put together this presentation about applying