Top Tips - NIHR Fellowships tips
Five top tips
Tip 1: demonstrate impact
Fellowships, like other NIHR-funded projects, have to fall within the remit of the NIHR. This means that they have to be people-based applied health or social care research projects with the potential to have impact on the needs of the public within five years of completion.
Tip 2: demonstrate commitment and potential
The NIHR fellowships are personal research training awards. They require various levels of experience and research outputs, but the panels are all looking for evidence of a candidate’s commitment to a research career and their potential to inspire others and become a future leader.
Tip 3: embed public involvement
As with other NIHR funding streams, the fellowships take public involvement very seriously. It is important not only to think about involvement but also to weave it through your application: it must not be added as an afterthought! Our RDS Hub administers a small Public Involvement Development award that can be used to enable early public involvement activity in the design process and which may serve to strength your bid substantially.
Tip 4: seek peer review
Remember the plain English summary is the first thing that the panel will be reading. You need to make sure that it is well written and concisely conveys your ideas. Something that is being advised more and more is to have your application peer reviewed, be it by supervisors, senior academics, mentors, colleagues or the RSS. Constructive feedback will only prove to strengthen your application and get you thinking about the issues that your project faces from a different perspective. If you can address flaws before submitting to the panel, you will be giving your application the best chance of success.
Tip 5: do your research
Look at past funded fellowships and feedback documents. Of course, it always helps to know your audience. The NIHR Academy website holds lists of previous award holders, panel members and funded topics. Watch the Academy webinars on NIHRtv. There is also a collection of chaired reports from the panels, which list general feedback on common mistakes made in applications.
Seven key areas
P – Person:
Where are you in your research career? Your CV, outputs and network/collaborations will all create a story and need to show your journey towards a research career. Sometimes you may need to do some additional work to make yourself fellowship-ready! Remember that outputs are not exclusively journal publications: they can be posters, conference presentations and other engagement activities.
P – Project:
As with other funding streams, you will need to demonstrate a need for the research and show that the methodology suggested will answer the question. It is vital that your goal is achievable within the timeframe. Evaluation is also an important part of the project.
P – Place:
Pick the right place for you. Ask: Is this a leading centre for my type of work? Do they have experience of successful NIHR fellows?
You need somewhere that has a good name, but that also shows commitment to helping researchers develop their career.
T- Training:
The fellowships are research training awards and, as such, training plays a vital role in the application. The training must be at the appropriate level and can vary from training in a specific skill or method that will help you with your research project to management and leadership training that will enable you to inspire others. The timing of the training is also really important and should be scheduled before you need the ‘new skill’ in the project. It is also encouraged that candidates think outside the box and search for appropriate external sources of training, rather than stick to what is offered by their host institute.
S – Supervision:
Don’t choose your supervisor or mentors as an afterthought: you have to work together over a long period and they need to have the time to support you. Your supervisors/mentors will support you with the methodology you have chosen to use and if applicable, your clinical role. It is possible to have more than one supervisor and they can be from different locations. However, each must bring something unique to the table that will help support you in your journey.
I – Impact:
You will need to demonstrate the impact this fellowship will have. This could be for patients and the public, the NHS, policy and most importantly on YOU.
To evaluate impact you can utilise an impact framework, the NIHR have produced a comprehensive toolkit which can help you to plan for impact at the start of a fellowship – which will help you to outline how you will engage with research users to deliver impact from your research.
I – Research inclusion:
NIHR Inclusion guidance emphasises that every person eligible to take part in research should be offered the same opportunity of taking part in that research. Inclusion needs to be embedded within your fellowship application, it could be an important training aspect for you so consider including courses in this area.
There are several Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) toolkits available to support you, take a look at the NIHR RSS EDI Toolkit for more information
Fellowships are about the development of a person
Applications need to show how gaining the award will have an impact on you and take you to the next step of being a research leader. Writing an application takes time, so get in touch with our RSS Hub as soon as possible to talk over which fellowship would suit you best and get the ball rolling. For those who are invited to interview, our RSS Hub can provide a practice interview experience so that you are fully prepared! Our panel will put you through the rigours of an interview and ask the tough questions that you might be faced with on the day.
Author: Rachel Evley Created March 2018 Last Updated: December 2024