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: