Apply Now: Doctoral Fellowship Program (Round 13) 2025 – United Kingdom

The NIHR Fellowship Programme supports individuals with the potential, and on a trajectory, to become future leaders in research within the NIHR’s remit. Applications are invited from individuals within an eligible host institution sited in England, who can demonstrate a role in, or contribution to, improving health, wellbeing, health, social care or their related services.

The NIHR Fellowship Programme has been designed to support people at various points of their development to become leading researchers, from initial pre-doctoral training through to senior postdoctoral research. Four different types of Fellowship are available:

• Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
• Doctoral Fellowship
• Advanced Fellowship
• Development and Skills Enhancement Award

Themes

• Strategic Themes: The NIHR has identified broad Strategic Themes which represent key priority areas for research. Applications received under these Strategic Themes 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.
  • The strategic themes are:
    • Social care
    • Public health
    • Mental health
    • Health data science
• NIHR Themed Calls: In addition to Strategic Themes, the NIHR Fellowship Programme also participates in NIHR-wide themed calls, which are prioritised by the Chief Medical Officer/Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and advertised across all NIHR programmes.
  • There are three current themed calls:
    • Motor Neurone Disease Highlight Notice: This NIHR highlight notice invites proposals for Motor Neurone Disease research to address important health and social care questions. (NB: Please cross reference the types of research invited with the NIHR Remit for Personal Awards)
    • Brain Tumours Highlight Notice: This highlight notice indicates the continuing interest of NIHR in receiving research proposals in this area, and it encourages collaborative applications that demonstrate how they build on recent initiatives and investment in the area made by the NIHR, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and other research funders.
    • Sustainability Themed Call: NIHR has issued a cross-programme call for research into the evaluation of interventions or services to support the delivery of a more sustainable UK health and care system, including mitigating the effects of climate change on health and care delivery.

Benefits

• the salary of the award holder for the entire duration of the fellowship
• costs for the approved research project
• costs for a suitable training and development plan
• associated conference fees (up to £3000)
• Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) costs

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship you must:
  • have completed a first degree, with an expectation that this is a First Class or Upper Second-Class bachelor’s degree or equivalent. Applicants without a First Class or Upper Second-Class bachelor’s degree or equivalent must normally have a Masters degree (for non-clinical applicants)
  • have completed any relevant pre-registration training i.e. completion of FY1 (for clinical applicants)
  • have a proposed host who is an English HEI, NHS body, social care organisation, or other provider of health and/or care services
  • be intending to register for and complete a PhD.
• Please note: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are not participating in this round of the NIHR Fellowship Programme.

Assessment Criteria

• All applications for Doctoral Fellowships are assessed on the following criteria:
  • Person specification
  • Research Proposal
  • Site and Support
  • Training and Development

For more information, visit NIHR.