There are so many different career pathways, if you try to emulate what somebody else has done, it's not going to work for you, because we're all individuals. It's important that we learn from other people's experiences and then take our own paths. Academic primary care is a friendly world to work in. - Professor Christian Mallen, Director & NIHR Professor of General Practice, Keele University
A collaboration between the RCGP and the National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research (NIHR - SPCR), this section of the Research Engagement Hub was created to celebrate and showcase academic general practice as an exciting and varied career path.
This section offers a starting point for those interested in research to find out how academic general practice might fit into their own career; and signposts to the growing body of information and support available to those wanting to get involved in high-quality primary care research.
Case studies from GPs at four different careers stages, offers aspiring GPs the opportunity to learn about academic general practice through the experience of those who have embedded primary care research as an integral part of their work.
Training years
Dipesh Gopal
A GP in North London and researcher in cancer care at Queen Mary University, Dipesh Gopal first became interested in a career in academia after his intercalated degree as a medical student. He took the initiative to organise research, as well as improve writing skills. Despite some setbacks, Dipesh secured an NIHR In-Practice Fellowship in 2020. Dipesh is also a committee member of the Primary Academic Collaborative (PACT).
Mohammad Razai
Mohammad Razai is an NIHR In-Practice Fellow in Primary Care at the Population Health Research Institute at St George's University of London. Here, Mohammad undertakes research in cardiovascular health, physical activity trials and epidemiology. Mohammad first became interested in a career in academia in his fifth year at medical school. After his foundation years, he undertook an academic clinical fellowship in primary care.
GP registrars (formerly AiT)
Sam Finnikin
After medical school, Sam Finnikin spent some time as a general duties medical officer with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He left the army in 2011 and started his GP training as a civilian in a standard (non-academic) training position. In Sam's second year as a trainee, an academic training post was advertised locally. Sam decided to apply and was successful. Sam now holds the position of Senior Clinical Tutor at the University of Birmingham and is associate partner at Sutton Coldfield Group Practice.
Harry Ahmed
Harry Ahmed is the Senior Clinical Lecturer and Director of Cardiff Academic Fellows Scheme. His first engagement with academia was as a GP trainee in a specialty academic training post. Harry completed his PhD in March 2019 and started a Post-doctorate Fellowship in June 2020.
First5
Shoba Poduval
Shoba Poduval is a GP at the Mildmay Medical Practice in Islington, a small urban practice with around 5,000 patients. Academic research drew Shoba in towards the end of her GP training. An opportunity arose to apply for an academic training post in her last year as a trainee. However, this would have meant relocating, so Shoba decided to complete her standard GP training and look for opportunities thereafter in her First5 years.
Luke Daines
Soon after qualifying as a GP, Luke Daines undertook a year-long Academic Clinical Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. During this year, Luke prepared for a PhD, which he completed in 2020. Luke holds the position of Clinical Academic Fellow under the Chief Scientist Office (Scotland), and is a salaried GP at Craiglockhart Medical Practice, Edinburgh.
Career GP
Jane Wilcock
Jane Wilcock is a GP based in Salford. Jane became interested in academic general practice as a trainer of medical students and GP specialty trainees. She gained her research skills through supervising and marking undergraduate MRes projects. This lead to Jane starting her own research outputs, initially by writing posters for RCGP Conferences.
Christian Mallen
Christian Mallen is currently the NIHR Research Professor in General Practice and the interim Director of the Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences. He leads Keele University's Global Health Research and is also the Director of the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Training Programme for Primary Care.
Resources
The National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research (NIHR-SPCR)
The NIHR-SPCR is a partnership between nine leading academic centres for primary care research in England. The main aims are to increase the evidence base for primary care practice through high quality research and strategic leadership, and to build capacity in primary care with a well-established training programme.
The Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC)
SAPC aim to provide a clear voice, and a strong presence, for academic primary care in the complex and ever-changing primary care environment. They offer a point of reference and contact for those seeking academic solutions to the problems they face in the provision and study of primary care, and the advancement of academic primary care.
Primary Care Academic Collaborative (PACT)
PACT is a community of healthcare professionals working in GP practices across the UK who are interested in improving primary care. Anyone in primary care can be a member, no matter how little research experience or time they may be able to offer.
PACT has a core committee of 10 GP trainees and newly qualified GPs from across the UK, who support PACT members with ideas for projects that can be delivered through the PACT network.
NHS Research Scotland (NRS) - Primary Care Research
The NRS Primary Care Network is the national primary care research network operating in Scotland. The network was established in 2002 as a framework to coordinate national research activity in primary care. The overall aim of the network is to increase the amount of research relevant to patient care undertaken in a primary care setting.
Wales Centre for Primary and Emergency Care Research (PRIME)
PRIME Centre Wales is a research centre focusing on primary and emergency care, funded by Health and Care Research Wales in order to develop and coordinate research proposals and support researchers.
HSC Research and Development (R&D) - Public Health Agency Northern Ireland
HSC R&D Division has a local focus and works in partnership with other public sector organisations, charities and businesses that are involved in health and social care research across Northern Ireland.
Medical Research Council (MRC)
MRC improves the health of people in the UK – and around the world – by supporting excellent science and training the very best scientists.
WiseGP is a joint initiative between the Society of Academic Primary Care, and the Royal College of General Practitioners, championing clinical scholarship to support the knowledge work of person-centred general practice. The work is led by Joanne Reeve in partnership with colleagues from across the academic and clinical communities.
NIHR Learn is an online Learning Management System (LMS) and the platform NIHR uses to deliver their accredited learning programmes. They offer a range of courses to develop your knowledge of clinical research.
Their programmes have been developed by international leaders from the clinical research field and are available to anyone directly employed by the NHS, UK universities and other publicly funded organisations conducting and supporting clinical research.
RCGP Research Ready® - Accreditation and eLearning Module
Research Ready® is a quality assurance programme for all research-active UK GP practices. It is designed in line with the UK Research Governance Framework's legal, ethical, professional, and patient safety requirements. The programme serves to provide information, support and guidance to accredited practices in research; both to assist with meeting the requirements above, and with considering and conducting research.
Critical appraisal is a vital skill for all doctors. This RCGP course, consisting of eight short modules, provides an introduction to critical appraisal. The modules cover different types of studies and include lists of questions to ask when critically appraising various types of studies.
NIHR Research Support Service (RSS)
The RSS supports researchers at any stage of their career to develop competitive funding applications for health, public health and social care research.
Integrated Research Application System (IRAS)
IRAS is a single system for applying for the permissions and approvals for health and social care / community care research in the UK. This is an integral system for all UK academic studies.
UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research
The policy framework that sets out principles of good practice in the management and conduct of health and social care research in the UK.
Research Ethics Service
The UK wide Research Ethics Service (RES) is committed to enabling and supporting ethical research in the NHS. It protects the rights, safety, dignity and wellbeing of research participants.
They have a duty to provide an efficient and robust ethics review service that maximises UK competitiveness for health research and maximises the return from investment in the UK, while protecting participants and researchers.
The UK Caldicott Guardian Council
A Caldicott Guardian is a senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of people’s health and care information and making sure it is used properly. The UK Caldicott Guardian Council provides practical support, resources and networking opportunities for Caldicott Guardians and those fulfilling the Caldicott function within their organisations.
RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC)
The RCGP RSC is an internationally renowned source of information, analysis and interpretation of primary care data.
Established in 1957, the RSC is one of Europe's oldest general practice sentinel networks.
The RCGP collaborates with the University of Oxford and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in the running of the RSC.
The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)
CPRD Is a real-world, UK government, research service supporting retrospective and prospective public health and clinical studies. Working with GP practices and healthcare bodies across the UK, it provides anonymised healthcare data and research services that are used to improve health care delivery and inform clinical guidance.
OpenSAFELY is an open source platform designed for analysing large, sensitive NHS datasets.
For Foundation year doctors (FY1 & FY2)
Specialised Foundation Programme
The Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) provides a fabulous opportunity for foundation doctors to develop research, teaching and leadership/management skills in addition to the competences outlined in the Foundation Programme Curriculum.
Details of available Specialised Foundation Programmes within each Foundation School and the corresponding job descriptions can be found on local foundation school websites.
For GP Registrars
Academic Clinical Fellowships (across the four nations of the UK)
The Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACF) is a clinical training post in medicine that incorporate academic training. ACFs operate slightly differently across the four nations of the UK.
In England the NIHR ACF Programme offers specialist training to those who can demonstrate that they have outstanding potential development as a clinical academic. Programmes can range from between 2 and 4 years with 12 months protected academic time.
For fully qualified GPs
NIHR In-Practice Fellowship (IPF)
The NIHR IPF offers academic training to fully qualified General Practitioners, General Dental Practitioners and Community Dentists, who are in NHS practice in England. This is to enable a cohort of health and care professionals to access research training and development, facilitating the advancement of their research careers.
Applicants may have received little formal academic training at the point of application but should be able to demonstrate commitment to a career as a clinical academic in primary care and have outstanding potential for development as a future clinical academic leader.
The academic component of the training period should include preparation of an application for a competitive, peer-reviewed research training fellowship leading to the award of a higher degree such as a NIHR Doctoral Fellowship. Check eligibility criteria here.
Other opportunities
RCGP Research Grants
The Scientific Foundation Board (SFB) was established in 1976 as a charitable funding body of the College. It awards grants for research projects whose findings will be of direct relevance to the care of patients in the general practice setting.
The College annually allocates over £100,000 of funding to research grants. We work collaboratively to maximise the impact of these awards.
Wellcome Trust Discovery Research Schemes
The Wellcome Trust's discovery research schemes enable researchers to do bold and creative discovery research that has the potential to improve human life, health and wellbeing.
The schemes are designed to give researchers more freedom, time and resource to pursue their ideas and build a better research culture.
The Claire Wand Fund is a charitable fund that makes grants to GPs to fund further education and for the provision of scholarships, including travelling scholarships.
The fund welcomes applications twice a year, at least three weeks prior to the April and October trustee meetings.
The Alternative Guide Online (AGO) is the most popular funding resource in the world for current and prospective postgraduate students studying at UK universities. If you are looking for funding for PhD, Masters, and PGCE study, the AGO can help.
UKRI Medical Research Council - Funding Finder
UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - Funding Finder
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