The British Heart Foundation’s Clinical Senior Research Fellowship is for established clinician scientists who already run an independent group and want to grow it, typically people who’ve recently been made, or are heading towards, professor. It runs for up to five years, and the next deadline is 13 January 2027.
The BHF funds research into heart and circulatory diseases, and that remit takes in the vascular side of brain health, including stroke, small vessel disease and vascular dementia.
Who can apply
You must hold your CCT, in any specialty, with research inside the BHF’s cardiovascular remit. Applicants are usually established postdoctoral investigators, often after an intermediate fellowship, with several first or last author papers, a record of grant income and experience of supervising junior researchers.
There are a few conditions to check early:
- Your host institution must underwrite 50% of your salary, and you must hold, or be moving to, a post there.
- You can’t have held a tenured post at the host for more than two years.
- If you hold or have held a senior research fellowship, you may not be eligible, so talk to the BHF first.
International applicants and people returning from a career break of more than six months are welcome.
What it covers
The BHF pays 50% of your salary at the equivalent NHS banding, on a 10 PA job plan as standard. On top of that, it can fund up to two associated posts, consumables and equipment, a discretionary fund matched by your host up to £5,000 in total, up to £5,000 for travel, up to £1,000 towards caring costs, and support for overseas visits of more than six months. Your host must commit to a tenured post or equivalent when the fellowship ends.
Deadlines and decisions
The next deadline is 13 January 2027 at 17:00, by which point the application must be fully submitted after sign-off from your Head of Department and Administrative Authority, so build in time for that. Miss it and your application rolls over to the following round, which closes on 16 June 2027. Shortlisted candidates are interviewed, and the Clinical Fellowships Committee decides after external review.
How to apply
Start with an informal discussion with the BHF Fellowships team, sending a two-page CV, a one-page project description and an estimated cost to fellowships@bhf.org.uk. Applications go through the BHF’s online system at researchgrants.bhf.org.uk. The case for support is a single PDF in Arial 12, and the BHF rejects applications in any other font size before they’re considered, so check the formatting rules in the scheme guidance carefully. For a view of what happens once an application reaches committee, read our blog Getting a Grant Funded: A View from the Panel.
Read the full details and apply
Visit funding web page
(https://www.bhf.org.uk/for-professionals/information-for-researchers/what-we-fund/clinical-senior-research-fellowship)