Chairs Report for Round 5 (2022) of HEE/NIHR ICA Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship Scheme

Introduction

The HEE/NIHR ICA Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) scheme supports aspirant practitioner academics from the health and care professions (excluding doctors and dentists) to become competitive applicants for a peer-reviewed doctoral level research training fellowship.

The PCAF scheme offers salaried time to prepare a doctoral Fellowship application and funding for personalised programmes of academic training that equip awardees with the skills and experience to access doctoral level funding.

PCAF Round 5 Competition (2022) 

The fifth PCAF scheme competition launched on 27th January 2022 and closed on 10 th March 2022. The numbers of applications received and awards made are detailed in Annex A at the end of this document along with some analysis of applications and awards made.

Observations and Advice for Prospective Applicants

The Selection Committee agreed that the Round 5 competition was highly competitive and the amount of interest in the scheme was seen as a positive reflection on the increasing support and awareness of non-medical practitioner academic careers.

The Chair and the Deputy Chair of the Selection Committee have made observations of the general strengths and weaknesses of the Round 5 applications and discussed areas that future applicants should consider to strengthen their applications. These are summarised below.

Host and Partner Organisations

The Selection Committee recognises that applicants, especially those in less research active professions or smaller Host Organisations, may have put considerable effort into developing appropriate collaborations and relationships, which may be across a wide geographical area.

If an applicant is proposing host and partner organisations which are in different geographical areas, they should demonstrate awareness of the potential difficulties of a more distant relationship and give details of how they will manage this, including how the two organisations will work together to support the applicant. Applicants and host organisations should also ensure that applicants will not lose out on local opportunities available through the practice and academic host organisations, such as extra-curricular activities, shadowing opportunities or peer support networks. Given that the funding for the PCAF is capped, awardees may also wish to consider the impact on costs of increased travel requirements.

Research and practice experience to date

Applicants must clearly describe:

• the relevant academic skills and experience they have developed to date
• the relevant clinical (or practice) skills and experience they have developed to date 
• how they will ensure the continuation of their profession practice development (their career in their stated profession) while undertaking the award 
• their plans for the continuation of their practitioner/clinical academic career post-award
• the impact this Fellowship will have on their career, justifying how the fellowship will provide a step change in their career trajectory.

In addition to supporting the Selection Committee's assessment of the applicant's practitioner academic career potential, this detail contextualises the training and development proposal and should be reflected in the justifications provided in the training and development section of the form. 

There is an opportunity for applicants to detail both their relevant practice and academic experience in the CV section of the application form (“present and previous positions”) and in response to the question “Please describe your research career to date” (which, for this scheme, would incorporate relevant practice experience). 

Applicants with limited Research Experience/ limited links with Research Groups

Prospective applicants who have little research experience and/or limited links with research groups may wish to consider an ICA Internship. ICA Internships are available annually and run for six months. They provide a range of both taught and academically supervised training opportunities that engage and expose the intern to the practitioner academic research environment, and provide them with the practical skills to undertake a research project supported by an expert practitioner academic supervisor.

The funding for ICA Internships is managed by HEE’s local teams. Any queries regarding the Internship opportunities should be directed to the appropriate local contact.

Terminology

Applicants must ensure that they use the correct terminology when describing their research involvement/experience (e.g. ''leading a trial'' or a local Pl). The Selection Committee would expect the proposed supervisory team to identify any terminology errors prior to application submission.  

Research Outputs

Applicants must ensure that publications, including conference proceedings, are suitably referenced in the application. There is guidance in the Applicant Guidance Notes detailing how to add your research outputs to date to ensure they display correctly to the Selection Committee.

Applicants with a demonstrable need to strengthen their research outputs can include this within their training and development plan.

If an applicant is not named on a paper but contributed to the research (e.g. in a trial group that was part of a large multi-centre trial), they are advised to detail this in the application so it is clear why a paper is included, what it refers to and what their role in the research was.

Training and Development Programme

The training and development programme proposed in a PCAF application should address any gaps or weaknesses that would currently prevent the applicant from submitting a competitive doctoral fellowship application.

The training proposed must be tailored around the applicant’s demonstrable training needs and should reference the research experience and training to date (see above). Applicants are also encouraged to detail how they developed the training and development programme. There are a number of tools available that can support the identification of training needs, which applicants may find useful.

Applicants should give details of the level of training they are proposing, which should generally be at Master’s level, with justification provided if not. Applicants should also give details of the time commitment and assessment/evaluation process for the training proposed.

It is possible to build in research activities (including PPI) as part of the training and development programme, if research experience is identified as a training need, although applicants should be mindful that the award itself would fund the awardee’s time only and not the research costs (except PPI).

A PCAF award will support the training and development required to make a competitive doctoral level application. A PCAF training and development plan should not propose specific training that would be required to undertake a future PhD project,such training can be undertaken as part of a doctoral Fellowship. Applicants should be prepared to give detailed justification if they are proposing in depth or advanced training in specific topics within the PCAF.

Applicants should give full consideration to identifying the most suitable training options, considering:

• delivery method
• geographical location/ distance from host organisation
• relevance and suitability of specific content.

It is not generally expected that an applicant, if successful, will make any large scale changes to their training and development programme prior to starting the award, except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. course cancellation).

PCAF Bridge applicants only – if no additional training is required, applicants can request time to develop a doctoral level application only. The reasoning behind this decision should be discussed in the application, however.

Full Masters

The completion of a formal academic qualification, such as a Master’s degree, can be supported as part of the training plan if appropriate to the developmental needs of the applicant. Applicants proposing a full Master’s must ensure that they have provided a full and clear justification as to why this is required (as opposed to e.g. Master’s
modules) and that they detail how each component of the full masters will meet the identified training needs. Applicants should ensure the Master’s they are proposing includes a suitable amount of time dedicated to research and research training.

If proposing a Master’s degree, it is possible to request a supplement to cover the Master’s course fee if over and above the £5,000 limit for training. Applicants should note that this supplement is available only if the cost for the Master’s itself is above the £5000 limit and if the applicant will have gained the Master’s degree by the end of the PCAF. Costs for any training in addition to the Master’s can not be funded through the award if this qualification exceeded the £5000 limit.

Area of research interest

Applicants need to have a clear idea of the research area in which they will be developing their practitioner academic career (and therefore their doctoral fellowship proposal). The research area will inform the proposed training plan and the proposed supervisory team.

The Selection Committee expect applicant’s clinical work/ professional practice to be in the same area as their research interest (the area in which they will be developing their doctoral research proposal). If the applicant’s current practice is not in the same area as their research interest, the applicant will need to clearly demonstrate how they will work towards such alignment to support a competitive doctoral fellowship application.

Doctoral Fellowship Development

At the end of a PCAF award, applicants should be in a position to submit a competitive doctoral fellowship application.

Applicants must clearly articulate in their application their plans for submission of a doctoral fellowship application and how the support they will receive over the course of their PCAF will be managed to facilitate this.

There are many routes to doctoral funding. In addition to the NIHR Doctoral Fellowship and HEE/NIHR ICA Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship applicants may wish to consider the opportunities available through disease-specific charities and professional bodies.

Scale and Scope

Over the course of their award, Fellows are required to complete the training and development as described in their application and to develop a doctoral fellowship application.

Applicants are advised to consider carefully the amount of training and development proposed and the feasibility of undertaking this in addition to the development of a doctoral fellowship proposal.

Supervisors and Mentor

Applicants are required to identify a primary and secondary supervisor. The choice of supervisors must be clearly justified in the application.

Applicants are advised to ensure that the information required (as detailed in the Applicant Guidance Notes) is provided in full for both supervisors.

Information to include:

• Availability of the supervisor
• Time commitment from the supervisor
• Fit of the supervisor’s expertise with the stated area of research
• Record of conversion of Master’s to PhD students.
• Doctoral supervision experience
• Plans for meetings with supervisors

The Selection Committee use this information to assess the suitability of the support proposed and without it will not be able to undertake a full assessment of your application.

Supervisors should be involved in the development and preparation of an application from a very early stage.

Applicants should note that the practitioner academic career mentor should not act as an additional supervisor. They should hold a specific role within the fellowship, to support the awardee through any challenges encountered during the development of their practitioner academic career.

Statement of support

This statement is completed by the Heads of Departments of the named health/care Organisation and the academic organisation in partnership.

The statement should detail the experience of the organisation in supporting Master’s students to progress to doctoral level research and the organisation’s support for non-medical practitioner academic careers.

The statement must describe the organisations’ commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and to developing a supportive, inclusive research culture. This is looked for by the Selection Committee as part of their assessment.

The statement must also clearly describe how the institution will support the applicant and what arrangements will be in place to ensure protected time for the Fellowship. Statements must be personalised and tailored to the applicant.

PCAF or PCAF Bridge

The primary outcome for both a “standard” PCAF and a PCAF Bridge is the submission of a competitive doctoral fellowship application. Applicants to the PCAF Bridge are expected to be demonstrably closer to doctoral level application submission, and therefore requiring less training time. In considering whether the “standard” PCAF or the PCAF Bridge is the most suitable award to apply for, applicants should consider the following:

• Research Outputs – please see above. If research outputs need strengthening, will there be sufficient time and sufficient data to do this over the course of a PCAF Bridge?

• Doctoral research question – “full” PCAF applicants should have a clear idea of the research area their doctorate will be developed around but will plan to develop this over the course of their award into a research proposal. PCAF Bridge applicants are required to already have a well-developed research question, which can be refined over the course of the PCAF Bridge award.

• Practitioner academic career progression – progression to a doctoral level fellowship should not be delayed unnecessarily through the application to a “full” PCAF when a PCAF Bridge would be suitable.

Applicants may also wish to review the Guidance Notes, Chairs Reports and other resources for the HEE/NIHR DCAF and the NIHR Doctoral Fellowship when deciding between a PCAF and a PCAF Bridge.

Patient and Public Involvement 

Useful Resource for Prospective Applicants

• The PCAF Applicant Guidance Notes are available from the ICA webpages. These provide details of the PCAF scheme, including the eligibility requirements, the funding available, the required employment arrangements and the assessment criteria used by the PCAF Selection Committee when reviewing applications. The Applicant Guidance Notes should be read in full before starting an application.
  

  Please note – Updated Guidance Notes will be published with the launch of the Round 6 competition. Applicants must ensure that they are referring to the most recent Applicant Guidance Notes when making an application.

• The HEE/NIHR ICA Programme Approved Regulatory Bodies and Regulators are available via the ICA web pages.

• The Applicants Guidance Notes for the HEE/NIHR ICA Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (DCAF) and the NIHR Doctoral Fellowship schemes are also available via the NIHR webpages. The guidance details the questions on the doctoral fellowship application form and the eligibility requirements for the schemes.

• Award holders are listed on the NIHR web pages and may be a useful resource for prospective applicants wishing to link in with other practitioner academics.

• ICA Programme Bridging Scheme supports non-medical practitioner academics to build on their previous academic training and to develop proposals for a doctoral or post-doctoral award, and to take the next step on their practitioner academic pathway. Information on the bridging support in your region is available through the Health Education England Clinical Academic Careers web pages.

Annex A 

PCAF Application and Awards Summary 

Competition Round	Eligible Applications	Recommended	Awarded
1 (2018)	145	85	40
2 (2019)	122	98	35*
3 (2020)	81	62	30
4 (2021)	75	62	33
5 (2022)	59	54	54**

*an additional 4 awards were offered subsequently due to an identified under spend.
** this includes awards funded by both HEE and DHSC.

PCAF Bridge Application and Awards Summary 

Competition Round	Eligible Applications	Recommended	Awarded
1 (2018)	N/A	N/A	N/A
2 (2019)	N/A	N/A	N/A
3 (2020)	24	20	20
4 (2021)	31	26	11
5 (2022)	20	19	19**

** this includes awards funded by both HEE and DHSC.

Round 5 PCAF Applications and Success rate by Region

Region	Applied	Recommended
East Midlands	2	2
East of England	4	4
London	27	25
North East	4	3
North West	6	5
South Central	2	1
South East Coast	0	0
South West	5	5
West Midlands	4	4
Yorkshire and the Humber	5	5
Total	59	54

Round 5 PCAF Bridge Applications and Success rate by Region

Region	Applied	Recommended
East Midlands	1	1
East of England	0	0
London	11	10
North East	1	1
North West	3	3
South Central	0	0
South East Coast	2	2
South West	0	0
West Midlands	1	1
Yorkshire and the Humber	1	1
Total	20	19

Round 5 PCAF Applications and Success rate by Sex

Region	Applied	Recommended
Male	15	13
Female	43	40
Prefer not to say	1	1
Total	59	54

Round 5 PCAF Bridge Applications and Success rate by Sex

Region	Applied	Recommended
Male	4	4
Female	16	15
Prefer not to say	0	0
Total	20	19

Round 5 PCAF - Applications and Success rate by Profession

Profession	Applied	Recommended
Dental Therapist	2	1
Dietitian	3	3
Drama Therapist	1	1
Healthcare Scientist	3	3
Midwife	6	5
Nurse	14	13
Occupational Therapist	0	0
Pharmacist	7	7
Physiotherapist	11	10
Practitioner Psychologist	0	0
Radiographer (Diagnostic)	3	2
Social Worker	2	1
Speech and Language Therapist	8	8
Total	59	54

Round 5 PCAF Bridge - Applications and Success rate by Profession

Profession	Applied	Recommended
Dental Therapist	0	0
Dietitian	0	0
Dental Therapist	0	0
Healthcare Scientist	7	7
Midwife	3	3
Nurse	1	0
Occupational Therapist	1	1
Pharmacist	1	1
Physiotherapist	3	3
Practitioner Psychologist	2	2
Radiographer (Diagnostic)	1	1
Social Worker	0	0
Speech and Language Therapist	1	1
Total	20	19