Health Education East Midlands & University of Leicester NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow IN General Practice (ST1) JOB DESCRIPTION Applications are invited from talented and enthusiastic doctors in training who seek a career combining research, teaching and the care of patients. Only applicants who can demonstrate that they have outstanding potential for development as a clinical academic will be considered. Candidates will be selected on academic merit, notwithstanding the necessity for successful candidates to demonstrate appropriate clinical competence, training and progression. General Information The Academic Clinical Fellowship is one phase of the Integrated Academic Training Pathway recommended in the report "Medically and Dentally qualified academic staff: 'Recommendations for training the researchers and educators of the future' (the Walport Report). This report recommended key initiatives that integrate the development of academic skills with each of the key stages of a clinician’s career. Academic Clinical Fellowships are the first of these initiatives and represent an early substantive phase of integrated academic and clinical training. Within the programme fellows should develop skills allowing them to compete successfully for funding to study for a higher degree (MD/PhD). The training programme has been designed to provide high quality academic training for entrants who can demonstrate that they have outstanding potential for development as a clinical academic. This post is designed to provide seamless clinical training to the award of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in General Practice, subject to satisfactorily meeting clinical requirements for ARCP. The academic clinical fellow component of training will last for four years. Trainees will undertake four years of clinical and academic training, with the academic component comprising 25% of the total training time. Academic training time will be ‘protected’. During this period trainees will have the opportunity to develop generic research skills in subjects such as statistics, ethics, epidemiology, lab-based research, clinical trial design, grant writing and should aim to gain pilot data to allow them to successfully obtain an externally funded PhD or MD Studentship. Trainees who do not hold a higher degree will be required to undertake the MRes in Clinical Sciences and consideration will be given to suitable alternative training for those who have a higher degree. Clinical training in General Practice will progress alongside academic training. Candidates should also achieve the appropriate clinical competencies and demonstrate satisfactory performance in local intraining assessments. Page 1 of 3 Informal Enquiries Informal enquiries are welcome and may be made to Professor Andy Wilson ([email protected]) and Professor Kamlesh Khunti ([email protected] ). Further details regarding research at the University of Leicester is available http://www2.le.ac.uk/colleges/medbiopsych/research/clinical-academic-training/acf-projectsummaries at Further details regarding the General Practice training programme can be found at Health Education East Midlands: https://www.eastmidlandsdeanery.nhs.uk/page.php?area_id=1 Page 2 of 3 University of Leicester College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology Pro-Vice-Chancellor & Head of College: Professor David Wynford-Thomas FMedSci The College was established in 2009 following a reorganisation of the University into four Colleges. The former Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Biological Sciences and School of Psychology were integrated into one College. This has enabled the development of a more strategic vision to research planning. The College’s mission is to pursue the highest standards of research, education and training in biomedical and related subjects, and to apply this knowledge and expertise to enhance the quality of life and economic prosperity of populations, both locally and in the wider world. Its considerable academic resources mean that it is already widely recognised for the international impact of its research and the quality of its undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. This is reflected in the high proportion of academic staff regarded as international in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and the consistently high ratings achieved in the National Student Survey. This is an exciting time to join a dynamic new academic enterprise and contribute to its development. The new College is creating the academic and physical environment to enable scientists and clinicians to work together across traditional boundaries to address some of the key outstanding questions in biomedical research and to engage with increasing effectiveness with commercial and public bodies. The College brings together 10 departments: Biochemistry, Biology, Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine, Cardiovascular Sciences, Cell Physiology and Pharmacology, Genetics, Health Sciences, Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, Medical and Social Care Education and Psychology. In addition the University hosts the MRC Toxicology Unit, with which there is close collaboration. Building on existing strengths, multi-disciplinary research themes are being developed to exploit synergies between basic science, clinical medicine and psychology within the College. The themes are in the fields of genome science; molecular & cellular bioscience; cancer; cardiovascular sciences; respiratory science; microbial science; neuroscience and behaviour; and population science and a further theme is exploring the research which underpins teaching & learning. The themes aim to foster collaborations by transcending traditional departmental & specialty boundaries to aid the development of young researchers and to assist in the identification of strategic goals. (http://www2.le.ac.uk/colleges/medbiopsych/research) In doing so the College works closely in collaboration with the Deanery and its partner NHS Trusts to develop a generation of future clinical researchers with a breadth of skills and approaches across a range of clinical and interdisciplinary projects. The College has approximately 295 academic staff and 718 research, administrative and other staff, with a total of approximately 2,350 fte undergraduate students and 850 postgraduates. It has an annual turnover of £64M. Page 3 of 3