NIHR PhD Doctoral Award

The Doctoral Award is a 3-year funding opportunity designed to support the career development of all health and social care professionals through PhD research.

The award supports research in any scientific discipline or sector that contributes to improving health, including public health and social care, within the NIHR’s funding remit.

For clinicians, practitioners, and local authority applicants, 20% of the award can be dedicated to clinical or practice time.

A single Doctoral Award

This award has replaced the:

• Doctoral Fellowship

• Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship

• Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship

It merges the former fellowships into a single, streamlined scheme to enhance accessibility and simplify the application process.

What is available through a Doctoral Award?

The Doctoral Award provides comprehensive funding to support you in undertaking a PhD by research.

Funding covers:

• the full salary of the award holder for the entire duration of the fellowship at the requested FTE
• costs for the approved research project
• associated conference fees
• costs for a suitable training and development plan which will lead to further professional development.
• working with people and communities costs

If your application is successful, we will review your budget in line with the funding committee’s recommendations and conditions to ensure value for money and alignment with NIHR requirements.

Further details on eligible costs and limits for this scheme can be found on the Doctoral Award page. For guidance on how to cost your application please see our finance guidance.

Eligibility

To apply, you must:

• hold a 1st class or 2:1 bachelor’s degree or equivalent
  • if you do not meet this requirement, you must normally have a masters degree
• your proposed contracting organisation must be an English recognised Higher Education Institution (HEI), NHS body, local authority, social care organisation, or another provider of health or care services in England
  • if you are applying to the Addictions Healthcare Goals programme partnership award, your proposed organisation must be an equivalent UK-wide contracting organisation
    • if you plan to undertake clinical/practice time as part of your award, or your host organisation is not a HEI, a partner organisation must be listed in the application. For more information, read our choosing a contracting organisation page
    • if applying for an Addictions Healthcare Goals Programme partnership award, you must have an equivalent UK-wide contracting organisation in the devolved nations
• you should have some prior research experience or research training
• if you are already registered for a PhD, or MPhil with transfer to PhD, you must not have been registered for more than 12 months full-time (100% FTE) by the time the award starts
• your proposed research must be within the NIHR remit

Devolved nation applications

Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are not participating in Cohort 2, however, applicants from the devolved nations may apply for the Addictions Healthcare Goals programme partnership award.

Award duration and part-time options

The award is 3 years in duration which you can undertake on a full-time or part-time basis between 50% and 100% Full Time Equivalent (FTE).

Partnership awards

Partnership awards are funding opportunities offered jointly by the NIHR and our charity partners. Charities offering a partnership award for the Doctoral Award (Cohort 2) are:

Motor Neurone Disease Association

Visit funding web page
(https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/doctoral-award-cohort-2/2025445)