Training & Career Development:
MRC Clinical Fellowships and Awards
Dr Paul Colville-Nash
Programme Manager, Medical Research Council
Academic Opportunities for Junior Doctors
Imperial College, London
17th November 2011
MRC mission
• Encourage and support high-quality
research with the aim of improving
human health
• Produce skilled researchers
• Advance and disseminate knowledge
and technology to improve the quality
of life and economic competitiveness in
the UK [and worldwide]
• Promote dialogue with the public about
medical research
MRC funding
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
Research Changes Lives
MRC Strategic Plan 2009-2014
Over the next five years the MRC aims to support medical
research which increases the pace of the transition to better
health. We will achieve this through:
• Strategic Aim One: Picking research that delivers
• Strategic Aim Two: Research to people
• Strategic Aim Three: Going global
• Strategic Aim Four: Supporting scientists
Delivering MRC strategy
MRC Fellowship Priorities
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New frontiers
• Stratified medicine
• Regenerative medicine
• Systems medicine
Living a long and healthy life
• Mental health & wellbeing
• Lifestyle behaviours and health
Global and population health
• E-health
• Infections
Safeguarding the UK skills base
• Industry CASE PhD
• Industry Collaborative Postdoc
Fellowships
•
Integration of biological & engineering
technologies
•
Development & application of innovative
maths & stats methods
•
Innovative methods at the interface of
preclinical & clinical medicine and in
population health sciences
•
Postdocs developing careers at the
academic-industry interface
MRC & NIHR: Delivering research with
societal and economic impact to benefit
patients & the public
Discovery & Exploratory Research
Application & Delivery Research
MRC lead
Genetics/genomics
Pharmacogenomics
Structural biology
Animal/human models
Imaging
Regenerative medicine
Systems medicine
Global health
Ageing: lifecourse
Stem cells
Infections
Population science
Health Departments’ lead
Programmes in
Experimental
HTA Trials
medicine
EME Trials
(Late stage III)
Methodology
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)
MRC’s positioning in research training &
careers
Our strategic focus
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Research leaders of tomorrow
Strategic skills gaps
At key stages of a career
Our brand
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Excellence - of the individual, research & training
Responsive
• Strategic partnerships (industry, OSCHR, charities) – Healthy
relationships
• Adding value to the development of early career scientists
Our positioning
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Different to other RCs
• Shared interests: Roberts agenda; interdisciplinary capacity building
• Differences: Clinical research & emphasis on postdoc training & careers
Partnerships
• NIHR fellowships: enabling and applied research
• MRC, NIHR, Wellcome Trust, medical charities: coordination &
leadership
Remembering that potential fellows have choices!
MRC Clinical Research Fellows
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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
• 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
Research Fellowships
Extraordinary opportunities
An MRC fellowship enables you to do
something truly out of the ordinary…
Great outcomes
MRC postdoc Clinical Fellows report
• More collaborations per award…
• More instances of further funding…
• More impact on policy
Citation analyses
• Clinical Fellows’ papers more cited than ‘expected’
Career destinations
• Class of 1991: 17% are Fellows of the AMS (11/61)
Patrick Maxwell’s RTF class of ‘91
Our website www.mrc.ac.uk should be
your first port of call
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 Research Training
Fellowships
Early career entry for those with minimal previous lab
experience
•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)
•Research overseas (1yr)/ 2nd UK Centre/UK Industrial Training
•Exceptionally, will provide post-doctoral “catch-up” time
Jointly Funded Clinical Research
Training Fellowship
Charities
• Alzheimers Society
• Asthma UK
• British Association of Dermatologists, British Skin Foundation
• British Infection Society
• British Lung Foundation, Mick Knight Mesothelioma Fund
• Chronic Granulomatous Disorder Research Trust
• Cystic Fibrosis Trust
• Kidney Research UK
• Fight For Sight
• MND Association Lady Edith Wolfson Fellowships
• Multiple Sclerosis Society
• Novo Nordisk UK Diabetes Research Foundation
• Pancreatic Cancer UK
• Prostate Cancer Charity
• Stroke Association
• Target Ovarian
• Ulverscroft Vision Research Group
Royal
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Colleges
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Royal College of Ophthalmologists John Lee Fellowship
Royal College of Physicians Dinwoodie Trust
Royal College of Radiologists
Royal College of Surgeons of England and Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh
Welsh Assembly Clinical Research Training Fellowships
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
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.
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It is expected that applicants’ clinical work helps to inform and
strengthen their research work.
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There is not the same expectation to move centres.
Common reasons why proposals fail
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Not clear what impact the research will have (“so what…?”)
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“Worthy” “solid” (but dull)
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More of the same, duplicative, unambitious
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No clear hypothesis or important question
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Unfocused. Overambitious – too much, no clear plan
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Methodology insufficiently detailed, limitations not appreciated
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Lack of preliminary data / appropriate experience
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Modest publication record (for experienced researchers)
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Inadequate knowledge and expertise
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Lack of collaborators, supervision & mentorship
17
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
slower than you think.
• Agreements and authorisations will take time.
• Not everything will work. Clarify dependencies, risks and
plan contingencies
18
Being successful
Discuss and learn
• Draw on experienced colleagues, mentors, research Board
members, funding officials & patient groups
• Learn from “failure” and feedback (<25% of proposals 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
19
Remember…
Your application will only be as strong as its weakest link
Design
Need & Potential
for Impact
Deliverability
Ethics
Resources
Overview: Applying for Your Grant
1. Plan your options vis-à-vis
published Fellowship competitions &
dates
• Advertised 1 or 2x pa
2. Identify remit/scope, eligibility,
criteria, process & dates.
3. Develop proposal well ahead: take
advice
4. Applications forms = web-based
5. Submission through web, CD or
internet.
• Sign off = critical
6. Admin check by funder.
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3-5 expert referees assigned.
Referees write report & score
Shortlisting by referees’
scores
• 25-50% declined
Panel Meeting
• Two(+) designated Panel
members present the
proposal
• Discussion
• Scoring
• Ranking
Outcome within days
MRC Fellowships for Clinical
Researchers 2009/10
3
Senior Clinical Fellows
Clinical
Training /
SCL
10
Clinical Scientist Fellows
50 awards
Clinical
Training /
CL
(+8 Clin
Pharm/Path)
Clinical Research Training
Fellowships
Clinical
Training /
ACF
Years post PhD
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Thank you!
Contacts
•General Enquiries
MRCPolicyandOps@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
•Scientific queries via Programme Managers
Details on MRC web-site under each Research
Board
(http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Ourresearch/Boardpanelsgroups/index.htm)