Centre for Translational Medicine

Pre-doctoral Clinical Research Excellence Fellowships (p-CREFs) - Call for supervisors – 2025 cohort

Overview

Expressions of interest are invited from potential supervisors for the second round of the Pre-doctoral Clinical Research Excellence Fellowships (P-CREFs) delivered by KHP Centre for Translational Medicine (CTM). This scheme offers one-year full time pump-prime funding to allow protected research time and training for health professionals in the earlier aspects of translational research. Development of external funding applications to support a PhD is expected during the fellowship, and securing further research funding represents a key success metric of the fellowships.

These fellowships are open to all registered health professionals. This includes nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, healthcare scientists, psychologists and all other registered professions allied to healthcare. Our ambition is to broaden the health professions represented amongst CTM funded fellows, and therefore we are specifically ringfencing fellowships for non-medical professionals. 

Supervision will be provided by a supervisory team comprising of scientists and/or clinical researchers with a proven track record of translational research, and previous experience of successful supervision of personal fellowship-holders.

Supervisors must be employed by one of the organisations of King’s Health Partners (KHP), and fellows should be embedded in a vibrant academic environment which will support their clinical academic progress. We strongly encourage non-medical health professionals to join the supervisory pool. Successful applicants will have access to a programme of research training and career development through King’s Clinical Academic Training Office (KCATO) and other entities across the KHP organisations. This will include mentoring, research skills training, professional development and grant/publication writing support.

Strategic fit

Potential supervisors should be able to offer opportunities for fellows to develop and work on projects in translational medical research, particularly studies of disease mechanisms in humans and the translation of these insights into early interventions.

This includes use of diagnostics and devices, patient-reported outcome measures, and the development of proof of concepts, such as through early phase clinical studies of new treatments and development of advanced therapies (see figure one below). Fellows’ research projects must align to the priority areas and themes and demonstrate clear contributions to the strategic priority areas for health research at the KHP organisations, including how the research will seek to reduce health inequity.

Pre-clinical research projects (e.g. animal models) are not eligible. Projects that aim to harness combined strengths across King's College London faculties and KHP organisations are particularly encouraged.

Supervisory pool identification

Staff who are interested in supervising a pre-doctoral fellow through this scheme must complete a short online form to outline their broad research interests and the opportunities fellows would have to work with them. These will be published on our website, to help potential candidates to identify supervisors with whom they could work up a project. 

Prospective supervisors will be asked to indicate which professional group(s) their research would to be suited to and would support a fellowship application from:

• nurses;
• midwives;
• allied health professionals;
• healthcare scientists;
• pharmacists;
• clinical psychologists;
• doctors;
• dentists;
• other. 

Candidates can work with supervisors to devise a project that best aligns with their mutual interest and experience. If you wish to submit a specific project for potential students please email a 200 word plain English summary of the project which we can share.

Supervisor eligibility

• Supervisors must be research-active staff employed by one of the KHP organisations. 
• At the point of application, fellows should identify a primary and second supervisor as a minimum. At least one supervisor must be a KCL employee or hold an adjunct appointment.
• Supervisors should have a track record of successful supervision of health professional researchers and supporting them to obtain external competitive fellowship funding.
• Postdoctoral researchers without fellowship supervision experience can apply, providing they have experience of supervising shorter projects (e.g. BSc/MSc) and are supported by a more experienced co-supervisor. Co-supervisors are expected to meet the criteria listed above. Details of the co-supervisor must be supplied at the time of application.
• At least one supervisor must be a registered health professional/clinical academic
• Supervisors can only apply to be the primary supervisor on one fellowship application but can be the secondary or third supervisor on other applications. 

Supervisors who submitted expressions of interest for the CTM p-CREF in the first round are not required to complete the EOI form again. Guidance to re-confirm supervisory interest for this scheme has been sent separately. 

Key Dates

Supervisor Expressions of Interest (EOIs) open – September 2024
Supervisor EOI submissions close – end of September 2024
Fellow Applications open – October 2024
Fellow Applications close – Mid December 2024
Interviews – February 2025
Fellowships start – September 2025, or earlier where applicable.

How to apply

To indicate your interest in hosting a pre-doctoral fellow though this scheme, please complete the form.

Please note that if you already filled in the EOI for the 2024 round and wish to remain on the list you would have been emailed in August 2024. Please refer to that email for next steps. 

The full application form and guidance for the fellowship applications will be launched in October 2024.

If you have any further questions, please contact the Centre for Translational Medicine translationalmedicine@kcl.ac.uk.
 

Can I supervise more than one person?

Yes, supervisors can be a first supervisor on only one application, however they can also be a second or third supervisor on other applications.

Does a supervisor have to be one listed on your website, or can it be one we have identified ourselves? How could potential supervisors apply to be listed for the programme in 2025?         

We are running a broad call for supervisors across KHP in order to help candidates identify supervisors who are willing to host a fellow in 2025/26. However, eligible supervisors who did not submit an expression of interest will be considered. They should contact the Centre to request to be added to the supervisory pool, by completing the relevant registration form.

Can supervisors specify the professional groups their projects would be suited to?

Yes, supervisors can select the professional group(s) that their research would be suited to, and who they would support a fellowship application from by completing the relevant registration form.

What is offered through the scheme?

Funding under this scheme provides:

• A salary for fellows up to a maximum of £85,000 including on-costs, according to the level of experience;
• A consumables budget of £5000;
• A bursary of up to £1000 towards meeting/conference/advanced training course fees and associated travel and subsistence.

Who is eligible to apply for the fellowships?

• Health professionals (registered with a UK health professional body) are eligible to apply, including, nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, healthcare scientists, psychologists and other registered professions allied to healthcare.
• Researchers/scientists who are not registered health professionals are not eligible.
• Applicants need to have been practicing in their clinical role work in the last 12 months within the UK
• In addition to professional registration, applicants should hold the appropriate professional qualifications for their speciality, including an undergraduate honours degree (first or second class) or equivalent, or a postgraduate certificate at Distinction.
• The aim of the fellowships is to provide protected research time embedded and supported in the optimal environment for clinical academic career progression. Fellows should be based wherever is best for the type of research activity, optimal research supervision/ mentoring, support structures/professional development, requirements for professional registration and validation etc.
• This scheme aims to support researchers who are intending to pursue a clinical academic career – i.e. maintain both clinical practice and research in the long-term. An outline of the plan to achieve this is required in the application.

This call provided funding for the essential, often ‘hard to fund’ infrastructure to deliver high quality translational research.

Ten areas of activity have received awards, underpinning areas of clinical and academic excellence with emerging strengths and cross-cutting themes of data and diagnostics, to address the needs of patients and communities, and reduce health inequalities. 

The Clinical Research Excellence Fellowships scheme offers up to 24 months (full-time) protected research time for health professionals at the postdoctoral stage of clinical academic training. The scheme is open to any postdoctoral health professional working, or planning to work, in the area of translational medical research.

The first cohort of successful fellows was announced in March 2024. KHP has featured fellows Dr Alice Beardmore-Gray, Dr Ryan McNally, and Dr Thomas Day in KHPeople profiles. And they appear in the video to the right that introduces the Centre for Translational Medicine.

This call will open again in Winter 2024.

This scheme offers one year pump-prime funding to allow protected research time and training for health professionals working in translational medicine. Development of external funding applications to support a doctorate is expected during the year, and securing further research funding represents a key success metric of the fellowships.

Applications for this call have now closed and we announced the first successful cohort in July 2024.

This call will open again in October 2024. Expressions of interest for supervisors for Pre-doctoral clinical excellence fellows is currently live – please see above. 

This funding call aims to stimulate, accelerate and enhance translational medicine research across King’s Health Partners. Specifically, the funding will support the creation of pilot data, enabling substantive awards to be secured from external sources.

Applications for the call have now closed and we announced the successful projects in May 2024.

This call will open again in Spring 2025.