NIHR Research Professorships (Round 15) – United Kingdom

The effective translation of research into practice remains a high priority. Research leadership gaps exist at two key stages in the innovation pathway; firstly, in translating new fundamental discoveries into improved treatments for patients/service users, and improvements in public health and care; and secondly, in evaluating promising ideas to drive into routine clinical and care practice.

In order to address this, the NIHR is making available a limited number of prestigious NIHR Research Professorships. The objective of these awards is to fund leaders in the early part of their careers to lead research and to strengthen health, public health and care research leadership at the highest academic levels.

Each award will consist of a package to support a professorship, including one doctoral and two post-doctoral appointments, research running costs, a travel fund, a leadership and development programme (including access to the NIHR Leadership Programme), the opportunity to request a sabbatical and the basic salary costs of the individual (plus indirect costs if applicable for the lead nominating body).

Up to five NIHR Research Professorships will be available in this round.

Themes

• NIHR particularly wants to encourage applications from health and care professionals outside of medicine and dentistry.
• Applications received under this Strategic Theme will still have to meet the same quality threshold required for funding but will be given priority if the number of fundable applications exceeds the maximum that can be funded.

Support Posts

• Typically, three support posts are available to accompany the Professorships.
  • Post-Doctoral post (5 years)
    • This post will be available for the full 5 year period of the Professorship and attracts a £3,000 contribution towards training and development, including conference costs. The post will be funded at 80% if employed by a HEI, as it attracts full economic costing.
    • The acceptable maximum basic salary for this post is £54,741.
  • Post-Doctoral post (3 years)
    • This post is only available for 3 years within the 5 year period of the Professorship. NIHR will only fund the salary for this post (Basic + National Insurance + Superannuation); however this will be at 100%, as this post does not attract full economic costing. The post does not attract training and development costs from NIHR.
    • The acceptable maximum basic salary for this post is £54,741.
  • Doctoral Post (3 years)
    • This post is only available for 3 years within the 5 year period of the Professorship. NIHR will only fund the salary for this post (Basic + National Insurance + Superannuation); however this will be at 100%, as this post does not attract full economic costing. The post does not attract training and development costs from NIHR.
    • PhD fees should also be included for this post; NIHR will cover individual HEI’s published PhD fees at the institution’s standard UK/home rate.
    • The acceptable maximum basic salary for this post is £40,100.

Eligibility Criteria

• The following conditions apply for nominations per HEI and NHS organisation (acting either as host or partner organisation) for the NIHR Research Professorships:
  • Where two nominees are put forward for consideration for the NIHR Research Professorship, at least one of these must be female;
  • Where only one nominee is put forward for consideration for the NIHR Research Professorship, this could be male or female.
• The NIHR is committed to actively and openly supporting and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). As part of this commitment, from Round 12 of the NIHR Research Professorship scheme, they allow host organisations to nominate up to 3 individuals to the programme provided at least 1 applicant is from an ethnic minority group. This will be in addition to the requirement of ensuring that at least 1 applicant is female if more than 1 nomination is made as described above.
• They welcome candidates with intersectional identities. For nominees with a disability, interviews will be accessible with options to take part virtually if required. For all nominees who are invited to interviews, they will ask you whether there are any adjustments that will be required for the interview process.

For more information, visit NIHR.