The NIHR Future-Focused Leadership Programme is a free 12-month programme which supports health and social care research leaders to enhance their leadership skills. We do this by meeting the leadership needs of current leaders within NIHR.
During this immersive programme, you will be encouraged to identify and reflect on your strengths and areas for development.
It is open to current leaders based within NIHR or delivering a national role for NIHR. You will be developing into or taking up leadership roles at a senior level and facing significant leadership challenges where support will be most needed and impactful.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for the Leaders stream you must:
- currently lead at a national level for NIHR, have demonstrable leadership influence as part of NIHR or hold an Research Professor or Senior Investigator award. For example, you might be a Chair or Co-Chair of a governance board, or leading an NIHR strategic work stream which involves different parts of NIHR or its partners
- be able to show how your leadership contribution relates to the strategic aims of NIHR
- able to identify leadership challenges from your NIHR role that you can work on as part of the programme
Key dates 2025
- April 2025 – Applications opens
- 3 June 2025 – Applications close
- June – August 2025 – Selection committee review applications
- w/c 15 September 2025 – Outcomes sent to applicants
Success framework
Throughout your time on the programme, you will explore new thinking on how to lead in the 21st century and apply this to your own areas of leadership. On the programme you will learn how to:
Lead self
You will learn how to:
- be compassionate to yourself and others
- become a resilient achiever
- demonstrate a clear vision
Lead others
You will learn how to:
- Nurture
- develops others
- empower others
- value inclusion
- Collaborate
- build rapport
- maintain relationships
- leverage expertise
- Influence
- influence with impact
- inspire others
- listen intently
- demonstrates courage
Lead beyond authority
You will learn how to:
- be strategically aware
- seize opportunities
- respond with agility
- navigate political landscapes
Programme outline
Strengths profile
On the programme, you will complete:
- a ‘Strengths profile’ detailing your realised strengths, learned behaviours, unrealised strengths and weaknesses
- a ‘360 feedback report’ mapping items within the 360 to the content of the programme. You will have:
- a record of your performance across the items before the workshops
- a follow up at the end of your year-long learning journey
The Strengths Profile and 360 are debriefed in a 90-minute 1:1 virtual coaching session with an executive coach. You will reflect on how you can use your unique combination of strengths to develop an authentic and trusted leadership approach.
Visit funding web page
(https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/future-focused-leadership-programme-leaders-stream/2025301)
