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Pre-doctoral, Doctoral (PhD) and Post-doctoral awards

Pre-doctoral, doctoral (PhD) and post-doctoral awards

Undertaking clinical research requires training like any other discipline. You may have had an opportunity to do a small research project as part of your degree. Further research, especially if you want to lead your own research in the future, will require you to have a PhD.

Clinical PhD's are available for any clinical discipline, and the NIHR trainee coordinating centre runs various schemes:  NIHR Trainee Coordinating Centre

Some larger charities also fund doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships for clinicians and/or basic scientists.

There are local and some national opportunities for you to gain research experience before you decide to do a PhD. For example:

  • University of Bristol runs "clinical primer schemes" via the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute.
  • NIHR runs a pre-doctoral fellowship designed to train you in some aspects of research, and enable you to prepare a full grant application.
  • UHBristol Research Capability Funding can also sometimes be used to gain experience in research. 

You need to register at a University in order to obtain a PhD. If you are unsure who to contact then speak to the Grants Manager at UHBristol in the first instance, Elinor.Griffiths@uhbw.nhs.uk.