Postdoctoral Clinical Research Excellence Fellowships - dermatology

Funding seeks to support the Fellow to develop and deliver on projects in translational medical research in dermatology, specially in the group of Professor Carsten Flohr. This includes studies of disease mechanisms in humans and the translation of these insights into early detection and 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.  Applications should align to the priority areas and themes summarised in Figure 1 and demonstrate clear contributions to the strategic priority areas for health research at the KHP organisations listed below. Discovery science projects and/or those involving animal models are not eligible. 

Key strategic priority areas: 

• Research that aims to reduce health inequity;
• Aim to harness combined strengths across King’s College London faculties and KHP organisations;
• Bring together multidisciplinary, cross-partner and/or cross-faculty research and expertise, which may be reflected in the supervisory team;
• Connect mental and physical health (and/or links to the NIHR Maudsley BRC).

Figure one: Priority areas for funding:

Examples of projects funded by the Centre for Translational Medicine can be found on our webpage.
 

For the duration of the fellowship, in addition to pursing their research projects, recipients will:

• Prepare for future research fellowship application(s) for submission to external funding bodies, such as a Research Council, Charity or NIHR, to support a further period of research activity eg. clinician scientist fellowship, advanced or intermediate fellowship;
• Publish their research outputs in peer-reviewed journals;
• Prepare and present their research at internal and external meetings;
• Actively participate in research meetings and public engagement activities.
   

• Doctors who have an interest to specialise in or have already started specialising in Dermatology, in particular paediatric and adolescent cutaneous medicine. 
• Researchers/scientists who are not registered health professionals are not eligible.
• Applicants should have a doctoral degree in a relevant research area, eg., PhD, MDRes.
• The aim of the fellowship is to provide protected research time embedded and supported in the optimal environment for clinical academic career progression. The successful Fellow will be based at King’s College London (fixed term contract). Clinical work will be carried out at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.  
• We welcome applications from individuals based outside King’s Health Partner organisations.
• This scheme aims to support researchers who are intending to pursue a clinical academic career i.e. maintain both clinical professional activity and research in the long-term. An outline of the plan to achieve this is required in the application.
• We welcome applications from candidates from underrepresented groups for this scheme, irrespective of gender identity, disabilities, neuro-divergence, race or ethnicity, religion, or other personal circumstances. 

• Fellow salary: Fellows will be offered a maximum salary at the year one consultant level (Post CCT) full time. 
• This fellowship will be offered at 60% FTE for research and 40% FTE for clinical work for 24 months. Applications must indicate a work plan which is achievable in the allocated time.
• Use of research platforms should be costed into the application.
• Up to £10,000 for the during of the fellowship can be requested for research running costs/consumables. As part of this fellowship, it will be expected you have a budget line for PPIE activity. This may come from the consumables budget or another source but needs to be indicated in the application.
• The Fellow will also have access to up to £1,000 per year flexible bursary eg. for travel to meetings or external training not provided by KHP organisations.

The fellowships is offered for 24 months with full salary covered at Post CCT level, year one. 

Successful applicants are expected to start the fellowship in September 2025. 

For external candidates, the supervisor should assist with costings for the application. Total salary for applied FTE over the two-year period September 2025 – September 2027 should be calculated including all on costs (not including on call costs). 

• Salary cost: For NHS salaries, the NHS Trust Research and Development (R&D) office will help determine salary costs for the duration of the project. Please request this straight away. 
• GSTT NHS Trust R&D office contacts is rdcosting@gstt.nhs.uk; 
• For King’s College London salary costings, please use Worktribe. Local King’s College London Business / School Manager or Departmental Research Support Officers can guide you to completing a Worktribe costing. The total salary cost as a stand-alone budget, internal funding. Successful candidates will be required to provide recent pay slips as evidence of their current salary.

The use of research platforms should be costed into the application.

Research running costs/consumables should be costed up to a maximum of £10,000.
 

Applications that incorporate collaboration with external NHS, University or industry partners, and co-supervisors will be considered. Successful fellows may undertake periods of training in institutions of collaborators where appropriately justified eg. where expertise, technologies or techniques are not currently available across KHP. In such cases, applicants are encouraged to outline how any new capabilities learned externally will be brought back for wider dissemination.

After an initial eligibility check, an independent representative review panel from across King’s 
Health Partners, including patient/public representation, will evaluate all applications. Applications will be ranked, and shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview where the panel will assess: 

• The research track record of the candidate;
• The training and development plan, including plans for future clinical academic career progression and leveraging external fellowship funding; 
• The quality of the research project described; 
• Contribution towards positive outcomes for patients and/or communities contribution towards enhancing health equity;
• Strength of the PPI/E plans; 
• Suitability of the supervisory team; 
• Alignment of research with the strategic research priorities across KHP organisations; 
• Relevance to the four priority research domains (Figure 1); 
• Value for money and justification of the funding requested.