2025 NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowships in Dentistry

The NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) is a clinical specialty training post in dentistry that incorporates academic training. NIHR ACFs are also available to General Dental Practitioners. The NIHR has allocated funding for 23 ACFs for recruitment in 2025/26, through the Integrated Academic Training (IAT) Programme.

As an NIHR ACF you will have access to Masters-level research training to develop academic skills and spend 25% of your time in research or educationalist training. The NIHR ACF is a 3 year fellowship with a flexible entry level tailored to the career stage of the applicant.

Full details, including the eligibility criteria for the NIHR ACF, are available in the 2025 Academic Clinical Fellowship (Dental) Guidance Document.

The 2025 ACFs are available from the 30th September 2024, with award starting dates between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026.

Candidates for NIHR ACFs apply via the online application system Oriel, not to the NIHR, because recruitment is managed by NHS England (NHSE) Local Offices.

Please use the dentistry academic contacts if you wish to discuss a potential application with a particular partnership.