Researchers Find Some Wellcome Support

The Wellcome trust is a large charitable organisation founded by Sir Henry Wellcome to advance medical research. As part of this goal, we seek to encourage clinicians to carry out medical research. We endeavour to provide schemes at every stage of a clinician’s career to facilitate this (Figure 1).

Medical students

We believe that it is never too early to encourage an enquiring mind. We provide elective grants to enable students to carry out research at recognised research centres. Students apply through their medical school and if successful are given funding for no less than four weeks.

Graduate students

At any stage of their career, from medical student to newly qualified CCST, Wellcome aims to encourage and support clinicians to carry out research towards a PhD. This is usually achieved in one of two ways. Clinicians can apply for a personal research fellowship, where a grant is allocated to them for their research at a particular centre. This is the usual method of funding which most people are familiar with. The best vehicle for this is as part of an academic clinical fellowship, academic foundation programme or an MB/PhD programme.1 2 These programmes provide the researchers with time and funding so that they can develop their research question before applying for a research training fellowship.

The second method involves applying directly to a Wellcome research centre for a 3-4 year PhD programme. One of the problems of personal fellowships is that they often rely on a chance encounter between a keen student and a suitable supervisor. In a Wellcome research programme, students work at an internationally recognised centre and will have the assurance that they have the very best opportunities for their research. Students are deliberately recruited in cohorts to foster a team spirit. Successful applicants select their supervisor themselves and are encouraged to think “outside the box” when deciding their field of research. While different centres vary, most have a slightly lengthened course between three and four years and some have an initial “immersion” experience to provide students with as much exposure to different fields as possible early on.

In both scenarios, we look for people who have established at an early stage that they have an enquiring mind and have the potential to carry out research. We would be looking for people who have carried out research in special study modules or electives and gained distinctions and prizes during their degree. They would normally have graduated with honours and obtained prestigious jobs with academic institutions during their career.

Post doctoral level

There are competing priorities for clinicians at this stage. They must develop their clinical skills, in order to obtain their specialist qualifications, but at the same time remain competitive in their chosen field of research. We have a number of schemes to help researchers manage these different priorities.

For those who have carried out an MB/PhD, there is the MB/PhD post-doctoral programme. This gives the opportunity to have a graduated entry to clinical work. Fellows are funded for 100% research for a year or two and then typically 50% and 25% in subsequent years. Funding is sometimes available to pay for a research assistant to continue with research while the clinician is receiving their clinical training.

Researchers in specialist clinical training would usually apply for a clinical lecturer post. This is an NIHR funded post, described by Chris Butler in the last issue. It allows applicants to develop ideas for the next stage of their research and to acquire pilot data for their next substantial application for funds. These posts do not usually carry any money for consumables. Wellcome, through the Academy of Medical Sciences, provides grants for £30,000 to help with research costs.

Clinician scientist

The clinician scientist stage is a concept developed from a report by Sir John Savill3 for the academy of medical sciences. This report highlighted the difficulty faced by clinicians trying to gain clinical and research independence. Clinician scientist awards, which are available through a range of different funders, enable fellows to carry out up to 40% clinical work in order for them to qualify for their CCST. The award available from Wellcome is for a period of five years and includes funds for research assistants and larger items of equipment. Applicants for this stage should have already shown promise in their early research career, with at least one substantial first-authored paper in an influential journal. These awards are designed to enable clinicians to complete their higher clinical training to CCST. If clinicians only have a year to go before completion of CCST, then we have a truncated version called an intermediate fellowship. This is for a period of up to four years.

Post clinician scientist

Researchers who have graduated through the clinician scientist stage have received the very best training and will have achieved independence in both clinical and academic fields. They are usually highly sought after for tenured posts in academic departments or substantive NHS posts with ring-fenced research time. However academics who are not tenured or in NHS posts can apply for senior research fellowships. These are highly prestigious personal fellowships for five years with funds allocated for research expenses and assistants. These fellowships can be renewed for a further five years on the understanding that the department funds 50% of the applicants salary.

Academic clinicians can also apply for project or programme grants. A project grant is aimed at those at clinician scientist stage and higher and can be sought by an individual or a group of researchers. They are intended to facilitate investigation in a particular area. The larger programme grant is intended to provide independence to the academic. It enables them to pursue lines of enquiry as they occur without needing to frequently apply for more funds and is therefore intended for only the most experienced individuals with a strong track record of research success.

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Other grants

To enable researchers who have taken a career break of a few years to return to an academic career, Wellcome provide career re-entry fellowships. This is tenable for two to four years and includes funds for training and research consumables.

Flexible travel awards are available to clinicians to obtain experience or skills in fields outside their own. This may be in an emerging aspect of their own field or an interdisciplinary subject. Funds cover travel and research consumables as well as course fees if appropriate.

References and further reading

1. Dr Mark Walport “Medically- and dentally-qualified academic staff: Recommendations for training the researchers and educators of the future” Report of the Academic Careers Sub-Committee of Modernising Medical Careers and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration March 2005 available at http://www.nihrtcc.nhs.uk/intetacatrain/index_html/copy_of_Medically_and_Dentally-qualified_Academic_Staff_Report.pdf

2. Dr Geraint Fuller “Doing research in the post MMC world” ACNR 2009;9(4):33-4 available at https://www.acnr.co.uk/SO09/ACNRSO09_research.pdf

3. Sir John Savill. “The Tenured Track Clinician Scientist: a new career pathway to promote recruitment into academic medicine” March 2000 published by the Academy of medical sciences. A summary is available at http://www.academicmedicine.ac.uk/careerscademicmedicine/clinicalscientists.aspx

Details of grants are available at the Wellcome Trust website on http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/index.htm