MRC Funded Research Opportunities
Harriet Warburton
Programme Manager, Research Career Awards, MRC
Imperial College Junior Doctors’ Training Day
London – 12th September 2012
About the Medical Research Council
The Medical Research Council was founded in 1913 is a publicly-funded
organisation dedicated to improving human health.
We support research across the entire spectrum of medical sciences, in
universities and hospitals, in our own units, centres and institutes in the UK, and
in our units in Africa.
MRC funding for research - £758m (2009/10)
• 50% of funding is directly to MRC research establishments
3 institutes, 28 units (2 overseas)
• 50% of funding is to universities and centres
22 centres, research grants, training awards and fellowships
• £78m pa on training and career development
People
• Supports 5,700 staff
• 350 research fellows and 1,500 students
Balance: People – Project - Place
• Fellowships
– The person
– The project
– The ‘place’
• Grants
– The project / programme
– The people
– The ‘place (s)’
“The thing I enjoy so much is that
my work has direct application to
people…”
MRC/Academy of Medical
Sciences Clinician Scientist
MRC Fellowship Schemes
Features:
– No age limits
– Return from a career break
– Awards can be held part time
– Support for maternity/sick leave
– Procedures are designed to minimise discrimination
MRC fellowships enable outstanding individuals to undertake
challenging projects in excellent research and training environments.
Range of MRC fellowships
Senior
Non-Clinical
Career
Development
Award
Yrs Post PhD
-1
CRTF
1
2
Clinical
Lectureship
3
4
5
Clinician Scientist
6
7
8
Senior Clinical
Lectureship
Population Health Science
Biomed informatics, Biostats, Economics of Health
Methodology Development
9
10
11
Senior Clinical
12
MRC Clinical Research Fellows
•
Potential research leaders of the future
-
•
Outstanding candidates (potential not just project))
Vision (appropriate to their career stage)
Synergy between clinical & research training
Development through excellent research
– Intellectually demanding
– Using advanced methods, skills & technologies
– Access to essential research facilities & resources
•
Development in an excellent environment
–
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–
–
•
Inspirational leadership & supervision
High quality and impact science
Engagement in research translation
Access to national & international excellence
Great mentorship
Enabling career choices and advancement
– As clinician and researcher
Opportunities for Clinical Scientists
INTEGRATED ACADEMIC TRAINING PATH
Medical
School
Foundation
Programme
Intercalated
BSc
Academic
Position
Specialist Training
Academic
Clinical
Fellowship
Academic
Status
MB
CCT
Academic
Foundation Year
Clinical
Training
1
2
Clinical
Lectureship
3
4
5
MB/PhD
F1
Graduate
Entry
Training
F2
MRC
Personal
Fellowship
Other
fellowships
(Wellcome Trust,
etc.)
Clinical
Research
Training
Fellowship
3-4 years
Clinician
Scientist
Fellowship
up to 4
years
Senior Lecturer
Further specialty/
sub-specialty
training
Senior Clinical
Fellowship
The timings of personal fellowships are indicative – there is flexibility according to individual career progression
Clinical Fellowships class of ‘91
Clinical Research Training Fellowships
•At pre-doctoral/ entry level for clinically qualified to undertake specialised or further
research training in clinical or bio-medical sciences within the UK.
•Combining research with clinical training
2 clinical sessions/week (3 for surgeons)
12 month abeyance of award for concentrated training
•Personal salary
•Research expenses - £15K p.a. plus animal costs
•Overseas training allowance
•2 rounds p.a. (Jan & Sept) approx 50 fellowships offered per year
•Research overseas (1yr)/ 2nd UK Centre/UK Industrial Training
•Opportunities to be co-funded by Royal Colleges or charities related to the field of study
•Average cost around £200k
Opportunities for Clinical Scientists
INTEGRATED ACADEMIC TRAINING PATH
Medical
School
Foundation
Programme
Intercalated
BSc
Academic
Position
Specialist Training
Academic
Clinical
Fellowship
Academic
Status
MB
CCT
Academic
Foundation Year
Clinical
Training
1
2
Clinical
Lectureship
3
4
5
MB/PhD
F1
Graduate
Entry
Training
F2
MRC
Personal
Fellowship
Other
fellowships
(Wellcome Trust,
etc.)
Clinical
Research
Training
Fellowship
3-4 years
Clinician
Scientist
Fellowship
up to 4
years
Senior Lecturer
Further specialty/
sub-specialty
training
Senior Clinical
Fellowship
The timings of personal fellowships are indicative – there is flexibility according to individual career progression
Clinician Scientist Fellowship
•
The MRC’s Clinician Scientist Fellowships aim to develop outstanding medically and
other clinically qualified professionals who have gained a PhD/DPhil to establish
themselves as independent researchers.
•
They will demonstrate a rigorous and insightful approach to research, and the ability to
relate their research to clinical medicine and to the improvement of health.
•
They will have a clear sense of how they wish to develop their careers as clinicians and
scientists and show the potential to become research and/or clinical leaders in the
future.
•
The proposed project and centre will provide valuable training
experience and the applicant will gain generic and transferable skills
Opportunities for Clinical Scientists
INTEGRATED ACADEMIC TRAINING PATH
Medical
School
Foundation
Programme
Intercalated
BSc
Academic
Position
Specialist Training
Academic
Clinical
Fellowship
Academic
Status
MB
CCT
Academic
Foundation Year
Clinical
Training
1
2
Clinical
Lectureship
3
4
5
MB/PhD
F1
Graduate
Entry
Training
F2
MRC
Personal
Fellowship
Other
fellowships
(Wellcome Trust,
etc.)
Clinical
Research
Training
Fellowship
3-4 years
Clinician
Scientist
Fellowship
up to 4
years
Senior Lecturer
Further specialty/
sub-specialty
training
Senior Clinical
Fellowship
The timings of personal fellowships are indicative – there is flexibility according to individual career progression
Senior Clinical Fellowships
•
The MRC’s senior clinical fellowships aim to develop outstanding medically and other
clinically qualified professionals such that they become research leaders.
•
They will have a strong track record of challenging, original and productive research; of
effective collaboration; and of training in robust research methods and technologies.
•
They will demonstrate scientific vision, insight and originality; the ability to relate their
proposed research to clinical medicine and the potential to lead other scientists.
•
It is expected that applicants’ clinical work helps to inform and strengthen their research
work.
•
There is not the same expectation to move centres.
Other funding: Types of grants
•
•
•
Standard “response mode” Grants
– Research grants
– New investigator research grants
– Programme grants
Awards to promote collaboration
– Between HEIs (Partnership grants)
– With industry (MRC Industry Collaboration
Awards)
Short awards for personal development
– Discipline hopping
– People exchange
Being successful
Understand the funder
– Science: remit and opportunities
– Administrative: Forms; CV; page length & number; finance & signatures.
Be bold
– Ambitious, original… and NOT boring
Plan well & be realistic
– You will be over-optimistic! A complex study will roll out more slowly than you
think.
– Agreements and authorisations will take time.
– Not everything will work. Clarify dependencies and risks, and plan
contingencies
15
Being successful
Discuss and learn
– Draw on experienced colleagues, mentors, research Board members,
funding officials & patient groups
– Learn from “failure” and feedback (<25% of applications may be funded)
Present clearly: person, project, place
– Be specific: what you aim to achieve, why and how
– You will need to inform and persuade a diverse audience
– Explain and justify
• research question / hypothesis
• design / strategy
• delivery (methods, collaborations, management);
• ethics
• resources
16
Our website www.mrc.ac.uk should be your first port of call
Clinical Fellowship deadlines
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Clinical Research Training Fellowship (Round 2)
Call opens: 04 December 2012
Submissions by 4pm: 15 January 2013
Short listing: May 2013
Interviews: 20 - 21 June 2013
Take up dates: August 2013 to January 2014
Clinician Scientist Fellowship
Call opens: 26 February 2013
Submissions by 4pm: 09 April 2013
Short listing: September 2013
Interviews: 19 -21 November 2013
Take up dates: January to June 2014
Senior Clinical Fellowship
Call opens: 26 February 2013
Submissions by 4pm: 09 April 2013
Short listing: September 2013
Interviews: 19 -21 November 2013
Take up dates: January to June 2014
Thank you
Harriet.warburton@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
MRC & NIHR: Delivering research with
health, societal and economic impacts
Discovery & Exploratory Research
Application & Delivery Research
Health Departments’ lead
MRC lead
Genetics/genomics
Pharmacogenomics
Structural biology
Animal/human models
Imaging
Regenerative medicine
Systems medicine
Global health
Ageing: lifecourse
Stem cells
Infections
Population science
Programmes in
Experimental
HTA Trials
medicine
Methodology
EME Trials
(Late stage III)
Global health
Applied research
Research for Patient Benefit
Service Delivery and
Organisation
Stratified medicine
Public health
E-health
NIHR (England)
CSO (Scotland)
WORD (Wales)
HSCNI (Northern Ireland)