NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic (ICA) Programme

National Health Service England (NHSE) South West are delighted to offer an expanded research internship programme for health and care professionals and practitioners (HCPs) for Autumn 2024. These personal development awards are part of extra funding from the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) to help HCPs become skilled researchers and research leaders as part of the NIHR research career funding programme. 

The expanded internship award is for registered health and care professionals/practitioners in the following circumstances:

• in clinical or practitioner roles with little or no research experience to champion research and/or undertake activities to support and embed the application of research evidence in practice
• in research delivery roles who want to use an internship to extend their research delivery skills, improve research delivery and engagement, and/or gain experience in wider aspects of the research process
• in Enhanced or Advanced Practitioners roles who want to develop the research pillar of their role and/or to develop team research culture and confidence
• aspiring to be clinical or practitioner academics who want to develop their research knowledge and skills to lay foundations for preparing to apply for a funding award such as the Pre-doctoral/Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF/DCAF) and Pre-doctoral/Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (PLAF/DLAF).

The award can be used build a plan for personal research development for advancing a research positive culture, embedding research into practice, building organisational leadership capacity for research, advancing specialism of research delivery or clinical/practitioner academic development. This award is unlikely to suit those who have completed research masters or doctoral degrees.

Further information about the expanded internship programme is available in the guidance notes. The guidance notes for the award includes information about how to apply for this award and a link to the online application form. The closing date and time for submission of the online application form is 6pm, Wednesday 18^th December 2024.

There will be a webinar about the Research Internship opportunity on Thursday 7^th November 2024, 12.30-1.30pm. Register your interest to attend and get the Microsoft Teams link for the webinar via this link https://forms.office.com/e/2uvysmuN0q or QR code.

There are key contacts in HEIs across the region that you can contact for advice and support:

• Bournemouth University: Prof Jane Murphy (jmurphy@bournemouth.ac.uk)
• Health Sciences University, Bournemouth: Dr Michelle Holmes (mholmes@aecc.ac.uk)
• Plymouth Marjon University: Prof Gary Shum (gshum@marjon.ac.uk)
• University of Bath: Dr Tim Rennie (twr32@bath.ac.uk)
• University of Exeter: Dr Sophie Gould (S.L.Gould@exeter.ac.uk)
• University of Gloucestershire: Dr Liz Berragan (lberragan@glos.ac.uk)
• University of Plymouth: Dr Lisa Bunn (lisa.bunn@plymouth.ac.uk)
• UWE Bristol: Assoc Prof. Mary Cramp (mary.cramp@uwe.ac.uk)

For any queries about the award, please contact SW.ICAP@nihr.ac.uk.

Internships are short duration awards for individuals with little or no research experience. They deliver a range of taught and academically supervised components that engage and expose the award holder to a research environment. Interns develop the practical skills required to undertake a research project or to develop a project idea, supported by an expert supervisor.

The award covers salary costs for the days undertaking the Internship and away from their health or care role.

ICA Internships are managed by local HEE teams.  Further details of the scheme and contact details for your local team are available from the HEE-NIHR Clinical Academic Career web pages. 

The HEE/NIHR ICA Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) scheme offers salaried time to develop a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake funded academic training that will equip awardees with the skills and experience to access doctoral level funding.

Eligibility: The PCAF is open to early career researchers who are committed to a practitioner academic career; combining research with continued practice and professional development. Applicants must hold registration with one of the HEE/NIHR ICA Programme approved regulatory bodies, or have plans in place to hold the required registration by the proposed award start date.

Funding: includes salary costs to support the time undertaking the fellowship, training and development costs and research development support costs.

Timeline: Competition open for applications from the end of January until mid-March, with the fellowship to commence between September to March (the following year). View the current funding opportunities.  

Full scheme details can be found in the PCAF Applicant Guidance Notes.  

NIHR webinars:  

• ‘Find out how to develop a competitive PCAF application’
• ‘Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship webinar’
• ‘Tips for applying for an NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellowship’

The Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (DCAF) scheme funds registered healthcare professionals to undertake a PhD by research and, concurrently, to undertake further professional development and practice.

The DCAF is a three year award (up to six years part time), approximately 80% of which will be spent working academically over the course of the fellowship. The remaining 20% of fellowship hours will be spent devoted to practice and professional development. 

Eligibility: This scheme is open to all clinical professionals (excluding doctors and dentists)/ Applicants must hold registration with one of the HEE/NIHR ICA Programme approved regulatory bodies, or have plans in place to hold the required registration by the proposed award start date. See a comprehensive list of eligibility criteria.

Funding: includes salary costs, PhD tuition fees, the costs of an appropriate research project, and the costs of tailored clinical and academic training programmes.

Timeline: competition opens for applications twice a year, in March and September. View the current funding opportunities.

Full scheme details can be found in the DCAF Applicant Guidance Notes. 

The HEE/NIHR ICA Advanced Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (ACAF) supports post-doctoral researchers  to develop their academic career  whilst developing their health or care career.

ACAFs can be between 2 and 5 years in duration if taken up full time or can be taken up part-time between 50% and 100% WTE. Individuals are eligible to be awarded up to two ACAFs sequentially, not normally totalling more than 8 years WTE of funding. Between 20% and 40% of the award time must be dedicated to development of the awardee’s clinical service or practice role, which will be funded through the Fellowship.

Eligibility: Applicants will need to have been awarded, or be will soon be awarded a PhD, and be ready to, or have already begun establishing themselves as an independent researcher. Applicants for an ACAF must hold registration with one of the ICA approved regulatory bodies or have plans in place to hold the required registration by the proposed award start date. See the full eligibility criteria.

Funding: includes lead Applicant’s salary costs, the costs of an appropriate research project, and the costs of a tailored academic and professional development programme.

Timeline: competition opens for applications twice a year, in March and September. View the current funding opportunities.

Full scheme details can be found in the ACAF Applicant Guidance Notes.