The Predoctoral Award is designed to advance your health and social care research career at masters level. The scheme supports early career researchers to undertake a masters degree, or a bespoke training and development plan comprising masters-level training, and provides protected time to help you develop a competitive PhD application.
The Predoctoral Award is available to:
- registered health and care professionals (HCPs) working in NHS settings, excluding doctors and dentists
- anyone working in a local authority, or an associated setting
- fully qualified general practitioners, general dental practitioners, community dentists and registered HCPs working in primary care settings
- applicants seeking to develop as a methodologist in one of the applicable methodological areas.
Within your application, you must state clearly which of the categories above applies to you. Please indicate this in the ‘contextual factors’ section of the application form.
What is available through a Predoctoral Award?
The Predoctoral Award provides funding for:
- your full salary, including the employer’s contribution to National Insurance and superannuation
- time to prepare your application for a PhD award
- if you are an aspiring methodologist, you may also use the award to help develop a methodology career in roles relevant to health and social care research
- Either a full masters fees at the UK rate or £5000 per full-time year for a tailored masters-level training
- £1000 for working with people and communities, previously known as patient and public involvement, and research inclusion
- £1000 supervisory fees
- £1000 conference fees and associated travel and subsistence
How much can you apply for?
If you are a healthcare professional, primary care professional or you work in a local authority setting, you can apply for a 12-month, full-time award. If you are looking to hold the award full-time, you can request up to 20% paid clinical and practice time within the award.
If you are a methodologist, you can apply for up to 24 months of full-time funding.
If you already have a relevant masters degree, you can apply for a shorter-duration Predoctoral Award. Funding will be provided on a pro-rata basis, depending on the length of your award.
For a 6-month full-time award, you can apply for:
- £2500 bespoke masters-level training
- £500 working with people and communities, previously known as patient and public involvement and research inclusion
- £500 supervisory fees
- £500 conference fees
How to work out the duration of your award
You can undertake the Predoctoral Award on a part-time basis of between 30% and 100% full-time equivalent (FTE) up to a maximum of 4 years. Find out more about how to calculate your award duration.
You will be able to start on the 1st of the month from September 2026 to March 2027.
Partnership awards
Partnership awards are funding opportunities offered jointly by the NIHR and our charity partners. Charities offering a partnership award for the Predoctoral Award Cohort 2 are:
Motor Neurone Disease Association
Research Area: The Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association funds cutting-edge MND research. We facilitate ground-breaking international research collaboration. We recognise that health and social care professionals supporting people living with and affected by MND have a unique understanding of the condition and the challenges of providing best care. And we want to fund research proposals that improve the care of people living with and affected by MND.
With our doctoral fellowship offer we want to attract and develop health and social care professionals, aiming to steer their careers into MND research.
Our post-doctoral fellowship will support health and social care professionals already holding a PhD who wish to develop their skills and specialisms further.
Contact Details:
Name: Sophie Nyberg
Role: Programmes and Partnerships Manager
Tel: +44 1604 611782
Email: sophie.nyberg@mndassociation.org
Website: https://www.mndassociation.org/research/for-researchers/apply-for-funding
Visit funding web page
(https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding/predoctoral-award-cohort-2/2026343)
