The Francis Crick Institute has opened applications for its AI/ML Clinical Fellowships, a fully funded training pathway that takes clinicians with a quantitative streak through a year of formal training in artificial intelligence and machine learning, then into a PhD or postdoctoral fellowship applying those skills to discovery research at the Crick. It is aimed at doctors, dentists and vets who want computational methods to be at the heart of their clinical academic careers.
Applications close at 12 noon UK time on 11 November 2026. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview by 5 January 2027, panel interviews are on 4 February 2027, and the programme starts in September 2027.
How the programme works
Year one: the MSc
Fellows without formal AI or machine learning training start with a full-time year on the UCL MSc in Artificial Intelligence for Biomedicine and Healthcare (AI4BH), or an approved equivalent. That means taught modules in AI, machine learning, statistics and computational methods, building coding skills and the mathematical foundations modern AI research depends on, and an MSc research project linked to Crick discovery biology. Across the year, fellows shape the research project they will go on to, working with a Crick scientist and an AI/ML specialist from the Crick or one of its partner universities. If you already have appropriate formal AI/ML training, you may be able to skip the MSc and go straight to research.
Year two onwards: the research fellowship
Which route follows depends on whether you already have a PhD.
- PhD pathway (three years, full time). For clinicians without a research PhD. You register with one of the Crick’s partner universities, follow a three-year version of the Crick PhD programme, and are supervised by a Crick primary supervisor and a partner university secondary supervisor, at least one of them an AI/ML expert, with a clinical academic mentor and a thesis committee alongside.
- Postdoctoral pathway (two years, full or part time). For clinicians who already hold a research PhD, or are close to submitting. You join a Crick research group as a Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow, supported by the group leader and an AI/ML specialist, with access to the Crick’s postdoctoral training programme and a clinical academic mentor, and work towards research independence and your own future funding.
The MSc and the PhD are both full time, so there is little room for clinical work during those years. The postdoctoral stage can be part time. Moving from the MSc into the research fellowship depends on passing the MSc and agreeing a suitable project and supervisory team.
What is funded
The fellowship covers a salary matched to your current clinical experience or stage of training (up to, but not including, consultant level), UK home tuition fees for both the MSc and the PhD, and support for research, training and travel. Fellows also get the wider Crick environment: well resourced labs, science technology platforms, large biomedical datasets, a strong seminar programme, training in areas such as grant writing and science communication, and a peer network of doctoral and postdoctoral clinical fellows.
Who can apply
- You need a medical, dental or veterinary degree and GMC, GDC or RCVS registration.
- You must have held a clinical post since qualifying, typically for at least 9 to 12 months before the fellowship starts.
- Previous wet or dry lab research experience is desirable.
- You must meet the entry requirements for the MSc and show a sufficient quantitative and computational background, whether through study of subjects such as maths, physics, engineering or statistics, or through experience of programming, data analysis or computational methods.
- For now the programme is only open to applicants eligible for UK home tuition fees. If you are not, the Crick’s Doctoral Clinical Fellows and Postdoctoral Clinical Fellows programmes are still open to you.
The maths is where most applications will stand or fall. The UCL MSc expects strong foundations in linear algebra, calculus, probability and programming, and after submitting you email your degree transcripts plus any evidence of mathematical or computational training to the Crick. If your medical degree does not show it, you can use school qualifications, relevant modules, assessed online courses or certificates, coding portfolios, data analysis or software projects, research outputs or professional experience instead. Your application may also be passed to the UCL AI4BH team for an early, non-binding view on whether you are likely to meet the MSc entry standard.
Is it relevant to dementia research?
The Crick’s research groups span biology and biomedicine, including neuroscience, so a clinician interested in neurodegeneration can look for group leaders whose work fits. Machine learning is already changing how dementia is diagnosed, imaged and studied, and clinicians who can both understand the patient and build the models are rare. If you want a feel for where the field is heading, read our piece asking whether AI might help sharpen dementia diagnosis and listen to our podcast on agentic AI and the future of dementia research. If you are weighing up a fellowship route more generally, our podcast on fellowship vs lectureship is a useful starting point.
The application
Apply through the Crick’s academic recruitment system, choosing the ‘2027 Crick AI/ML Fellowships for Clinicians’ programme, and pick your pathway: MSc plus PhD, MSc plus postdoc, or research only if you already have formal AI/ML training. The Crick can reassign you to a different pathway if it thinks another fits better.
The statement is the part to spend most time on. It has three boxes: your scientific interests and how they link to up to three Crick group leaders you would like to work with (200 words), why the fellowship matters for your clinical, research and career plans (300 words), and something about you beyond research and clinical work (100 words). Choosing group leaders is not binding, and you do not need to contact them first, though you can. You also describe each piece of research and technical experience in up to 400 words, including your exposure to maths and programming, and should leave out clinical audits and service evaluations.
You need two or three referees, and references from personal email addresses are not accepted. One must be your current or most recent clinical supervisor, at least one must be able to speak to your lab or computational research, and at least one to your clinical skills, and ideally one should be able to comment on your quantitative potential. Nobody is interviewed without two references in place. If you are shortlisted, you will also need to apply separately to the UCL MSc before the interview, and any offer depends on securing an MSc place.
Questions can go to crf-admin@crick.ac.uk.
Read the full details and apply
Visit funding web page
(https://www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-study/clinicians/ai/ml-clinical-fellows)
