Fancy a career in research?

Ever dreamt of writing your own research proposal? Can you see yourself carrying out innovative research in a lab or with real people? Fancy seeing your name in a peer reviewed journal? Think you can handle presenting your ideas at national (or even international!) conferences?

If you have, you might be considering applying for an Academic Foundation Programme.

If you think this sounds like you, check out the person specification to find out what the selectors will be looking for in your application.

The 2009 Academic Foundation recruitment process is underway!

Localised recruitment for places on academic foundation programmes has been taking place since the 19th May (academic programmes recruit separately from the national foundation recruitment process). Deadlines vary from between Schools so check out the location that you are most interested in on the Foundation Programme Office website.

What does an academic career path look like?

Academic foundation programmes were introduced to encourage doctors in training to consider an area of work that had typically only attracted doctors much later in their careers.

It is now possible to undertake academic training in your foundation years, either through an academic foundation programme or an academic rotation in the standard foundation programme. Either way, you can get exposure to the world of research early on in your career and start to notch up some publications and conferences before embarking on specialty training.

After F2 there are opportunities to apply for Academic Clinical Fellowships which prepare you for a higher degree (such as a PhD) or a postdoctoral research post if you already have a PhD. Time is still set aside for you to gain the necessary clinical competencies for specialty grade posts but you will also be advancing your academic training at the same time.

Once you have achieved that all important higher degree and notched up some research experience you can re-enter clinical specialty training until you have sufficient clinical experience to apply for a coveted Clinical Lectureship!

For more information on the post-foundation academic research opportunities available, visit the National Coordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development Programme website.