Pre-doctoral Research Career Fellowships for Healthcare Professionals 2026
The NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is making funds available to support the career development of healthcare professionals, such as nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, pharmacists, psychologists, clinical scientists and medical practitioners who are employed by OUH and/or the University of Oxford. These fellowships are aimed at any healthcare professional who is early in their research journey and would like to explore a research career by having some protected research time. Applicants must be working clinically or in a research capacity with one of the 15 BRC research themes.
Case Study
Sri Sabapathy
Trauma Physiotherapist, Trauma Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital.
“This funding has given me protected time to conduct a systematic review on how anxiety and depression affects patients with orthopaedic trauma. The funding will also support patient partnership initiatives and a qualitative research methods course.”
Click to read more case studies.
Funds available
The funding is usually used to provide salary costs for up to one year part-time, up to 0.5FTE. Additional funds may be available to cover specific research-related fees such as publication costs and training fees.
The award supports masters-level research training up to a full master’s degree, if required, or provides the opportunity for you to gain additional bespoke research training and development. All the training you propose in your application should support the development of a competitive PhD application to help you advance your research career.
Application
You will need to have identified a research project, and your application needs to be supported by your line manager and by a colleague in one of the 15 BRC themes, who will act as your research mentor.
Please discuss expected salary costs with your line manager and/or finance business partner. Costs stated on the application should be the employer total cost. Note that we will not fund overheads.
Closing date for applications is 12pm on Wednesday 17 December 2025
Complete the application form: NIHR Oxford BRC Pre-Doctoral awards application form
Conditions associated with the award
You will be expected to remain in touch with the BRC Academic Career Development Manager (Aderonke.Lagoke@ouh.nhs.uk) during the funding period. Any resulting publications must give credit to the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. You will be expected to submit a report at the end of the funding period signed by your line manager on your training pathway.
If your role changes during the period of the award, you will need to notify us and either return your award or confirm with us that your new role still fits within the eligibility criteria for the funding scheme.
How your application will be assessed
Guidance on what makes a good application:
Case Studies
Here the 2019 fellowship recipients discuss what this support means to them.
Martha Batting
Physiotherapy Department, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre
“I am delighted to have been awarded a preparatory fellowship by the Oxford BRC. The funding will enable me to pilot the feasibility of a backwards walking programme for patients following hip or knee replacement.
“Backwards walking may help patients take a protective backwards step to reduce the risk of falls. It is also known to improve muscle strength and balance. This preparatory fellowship is the ideal platform for me to perform a pilot study and further improve my research skills before applying for further research and academic funding.”
Colin Forde
Trauma Outpatient Department, John Radcliffe Hospital
“I am delighted to work with the NIHR Oxford BRC to continue my research into the best physiotherapy management of patients after a kneecap dislocation.
“During my preparatory fellowship, I will write up an existing project that assessed the feasibility of implementing an intense exercise intervention for adults after a kneecap dislocation, and complete a systematic review of the lower limb muscle strength outcomes after this injury.
“This preparatory fellowship will also enable me to undertake training in qualitative research methodology and to work with patient partners to support the development of an application to the NIHR Doctoral Fellowship Programme.”
Sri Sabapathy
Trauma Physiotherapist, Trauma Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital
“I received my basic and orthopaedic specialty physiotherapy training in India. After being involved in clinical and teaching responsibilities, I pursued an MSc in a Medical Rehab research degree in Canada.
“I currently work as an inpatient Trauma Physiotherapist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. I am grateful for the preparatory fellowship that I have received from the NIHR Oxford BRC.
“This funding will give me protected time to conduct a systematic review on how anxiety and depression affects patients with orthopaedic trauma. The funding will also support patient partnership initiatives and a qualitative research methods course. I will be supervised by researchers at the Physiotherapy Research Unit, headed by Prof Karen Barker.”
Laura Wood
Optometrist, Oxford Eye Hospital
“In my current role as a research optometrist I see patients with inherited retinal diseases on gene therapy clinical trials. Clinical trials to prevent these sight-threatening conditions require reliable, sensitive measures of vision, known as endpoints, to indicate their effectiveness.
“One such endpoint is visual acuity, a measure of central vision.Low luminance visual acuity involves measuring central vision in low light. In macular degeneration, this has been shown as a good predictor of subsequent visual acuity loss.
“Currently there is no reported application in inherited retinal diseases and little appears to be known about the visual function the test represents. My research fellowship project involves reviewing and validating this low luminance visual acuity test as a clinical trial endpoint for inherited retinal diseases.”