Preparing to apply for an ACF
Preparing to apply for an ACF
You will find almost all the information that you need to apply for your ACF on the NIHR's 2025 ACF recruitment page which will go live when recruitment opens in October. Until then, you can refer back to the 2024 recruitment page. You can also try Googling for more localised information that may be available from individual deaneries and universities.
The earlier you start thinking about and planning your application the better! Once the application window opens in October you will have around a month to prepare and submit your application - this isn't much time! Ideally you want to have made a start thinking and preparing at least 6-12 months ahead of the applications opening.
The ACF posts (specialties, institutions) available in each round won't be officially released until the application window opens in October. However, often the same specialties are advertised at a particular institution year after year, so it is worth looking on the NIHR website at what posts were advertised in previous years (e.g. 2024 posts). You can also Google to find details for the integrated academic training team at each university to contact them (e.g. Birmingham specialty contacts). They may not be able to definitively say whether a particular specialty will be advertised in the next round, but hopefully they can give some indication of likelihood.
I think that to decide what you want to be doing in your ACF and where, it's first helpful to work out at a high-level what you want to get out of the ACF.
Firstly, it's crucial to note that completing an ACF is not essential to developing a clinical-academic career. There are lots of routes in to clinical research and many people become successful clinical-academics who have not done an ACF.
If you're not sure whether you'd like to be a clinical-academic
For many early career doctors, an ACF will be their first opportunity to have a dedicated (paid!) academic time. You are hopefully excited about starting your specialty training, so you may not be sure whether you want to take time away from clinical work for research. An ACF is an opportunity to find out if you enjoy research blocks and combining your clinical and research work - and whether you relish the challenges that come with a dual role (there are both opportunities and trade-offs!).
Most medical students and foundation doctors have been exposed to a relatively limited scope of research opportunities. An ACF gices the opportunity to try out lots of different 'types' of research (laboratory research, clinical trials, mixed methods, etc) to work out which you enjoy and want to pursue further.
This will help you work out whether you'd like to take the next big step in clinical academia, which is a PhD, or whether you'd prefer to return to full-time clinical training.
If you've decided you want to be a clinical-academic
The first big step one your journey to a senior clinical-academic post will be a higher degree, probably a PhD. The ACF is designed to help you to prepare for this by giving you the space to find and then fund the right PhD opportunity.
A PhD is typically a 3-year commitment. Key to your success will be working with an excellent team that supports and pushes you forward. Both your supervisors and the wider team (environment) are important. Depending on your interests, personality, learning and work styles, different teams might suit you better. In fact, it's much more important to find the team that's the best fit for your PhD, than to secure a PhD at a very prestigious institution but find yourself in the "wrong team". Most ACFs offer an opportunity to work with a range of teams, so you may have an opportunity to work out which team suits you best.
An ACF is also an opportunity to have 'bitesize' involvement in a few different projects across different topics and methodologies. This can help you to find those topics that you are most passionate about which you want to spend three years on doing a PhD!
Once you've found the team you want to work with and the project you want to develop, you'll be able to start the hard work (many months!) of developing a PhD fellowship application, ideally for a major funder like the NIHR. This is where the protected time of an ACF comes in most useful - it's much more difficult to develop a high-quality fellowship application when you're in full-time clinical work.
Consider what research topics you are interested in - in broad terms without getting bogged down in fine detail. For example, if you are a budding surgical researcher, are you interested in cancer surgery, emergency surgery, global surgery, or perioperative care (accepting there is overlap between these topics)?
Consider what research methodologies you are interested in - again think broadly. For example, are you interested in basic and translational science, routine (big) data, RCTs, qualitative methodologies, economic evaluations, or something else? It's ok to note down a few different areas if you'd like to get experience in several different methodologies, but try to narrow things down if you can.
Consider how far you are willing to go for the "ideal" ACF. This is a very personal decision - some people may be willing to relocate all the way across the country, whereas this may not be possible or preferable for other people. Working out where you're willing to work will save you time searching through posts you are not likely to be interested in.
Remember that in specialties with sub-specialties (e.g. general surgery) you might want to think about how your future research fits with any clinical sub-specialty preference you have. For example, it probably is not worth applying for an ACF in a transplant research unit if you're set on breast surgery! On the otherhand some units (like us in Birmingham) may offer cross-cutting (specialty agnostic) research themes that are equally relevant whether you want to be a breast or a hepatobiliary surgeon; for example, around sustainable surgery, peri-operative care, or waiting list backlogs.
Identify available posts in your chosen specialty at the applicable level (some posts are advertised at ST1 or ST4 only, some across a range of ST levels). A full list of posts will appear on ORIEL when recruitment opens in October, as well as on the NIHR website. Hopefully from your previous research you already have a good idea of what posts that you might be interested in are likely to be advertised.
Once you have found posts that look suitable, download the job descriptions from the ORIEL website and read through these carefully to find out what research opportunities are available.
Zero in on the posts that look most interesting and start to read through websites of the academic units where the ACF is based and web pages for ACF programme leads and other key researchers.
Note whether each post is aligned to a NIHR IAT Priority Research Theme - if so, is there any information in the job description around the expectations for how your research should address that theme?
For each post you research, jot down the broad topics and methodologies that look to be the key strengths of the host academic unit.
Imagine a Venn diagram of topic, methodology, and location. Which posts have strengths that overlap between what you want to be doing and where you'd like to be? It's unlikely you will find a perfect match, but work out what your 3-5 nearest matches are.
For this shortlist you should now do a deep dive to find out more about the academic teams and the work they do. Search for their recent publications on PubMed. Have a look at their current grants, e.g. from NIHR, MRC, or Wellcome.
Look for and contact (e.g. on LinkedIn, Twitter, personal networks) current and past ACFs from the academic units on your shortlist to ask about their experiences, what value the ACF gave them, and what they did after the ACF.
Based on everything you have researched, rank your shortlist as best as you are able from your most to least favoured choice.
It is now a good idea to contact the academic leads at perhaps your top couple of choices to ask to meet them - in-person if feasible. The purpose of a meeting is to introduce yourself, find out more about the academic unit and its strengths, and to market yourself! You will learn a lot that you can reflect back in your actual interview demonstrating your understanding of the academic unit and its priorities.
By making the effort to contact and meet the academic lead, you are demonstrating that you are serious about your application -and that you will be a serious and successful ACF. Hopefully, the academic leads will be very friendly and happy to chat - but don't let this give yourself a false sense of security! Treat any meeting as an interview - because how you present yourself will form the basis of their impression of you.
It is not a good use of time or resource to meet with academic leads at ten different units, but it is definitely woethwhile to make this effort for your top two or perhaps three preferences. If you are considering several posts, be careful not to over commit in case you choose to go with another option!
Once the application window opens, start working on your applications for the five or so ACF posts you have shortlisted for yourself. It is definitely worth having backups in case you aren't successful with your top one or two choices, but it isn't a good use of time applying to posts that you know you won't take up if you were offered them - instead invest the time you have in optimising your applications for those posts you are genuinely interested in.
Personalise each application to the specific post you are applying for - focus on demonstrating how your interests match to that specific programme and why it's the best for you.
Spend time lots of time on drafting and re-drafting the white space answers for each of your applications. Ask friends and mentors for feedback on drafts.