Frequently Asked Questions

 

Programme Information

 

  • Five fellowships are available each year, for five years, funded by Wellcome. A small number of additional fellowships and pre-doctoral scholarships may be made available subject to funding.

  • The duration of each PhD fellowship will be 3 years FTE, including dedicated time for maintaining clinical skills.

  • In the first year, we will accept application to start in either October 2023 or February 2024.

  • All PhD students are initially registered on an MPhil programme and transfer to PhD after successfully completing an ‘upgrade’ to PhD. Further details on the pathway of the PhD can be found in the relevant academic regulations (see page 173 onwards).

  • This programme is only for students enrolling on an MPhil/PhD; professional doctorates and MD(Res) are not eligible for support through these programmes.

  • The programme is designed to deliver research training. The clinical component will only be to maintain clinical skills, rather than to support further clinical training.

  • The fellows will be employed at King’s College London and they will be offered appropriate salary in line with their current clinical roles.

  • The fellows are employed by King’s College London and receive a full-time salary and are therefore not expected to continue other contracts of employment. However, within the fellowship time is allocated for fellows to maintain their clinical skills through clinical work (0.2 day per week). Fellows are supported to continue their attachments with their Trusts e.g. through honorary contracts. Fellows will be expected to agree arrangements for their continued clinical links with their Trust, alternative clinical placements can be also arranged at King’s Health Partners if required.

Fellow Recruitment

 

  • See the ‘How to Apply’ page.

  • Applying to this programme is a three-stage process, please refer to the current timeline on our 'Funding, Eligibility & How to apply' page.

  • Stage One

    Stage One consisting of informing us of your qualifications and relevant experience, your motivation for applying and your future career plans via an online application form. See the ‘How to Apply’ webpage for more information and to access the application form.

    Key Criteria for selection at Stage One are:

    • Aiming to pursue a research career.

    • Show a clear understanding of how research will progress knowledge within the field of mental health.

    • Research experience and potential: demonstrated, for example, through undergraduate or postgraduate research project experience or training, informal placements, workplace roles, or academic training positions for health professionals.

    Stage Two & Three

    • Successful applicants from Stage One will be invited to identify supervisors from the supervisory pool and develop a project and training plan for submission.

    • An application (similar to a Fellowship application) will be submitted.

    • Each of these items will be peer-reviewed.

    • Successful applicants will thenbe invited to an interview with the selection panel in which they will do a short presentation to the panel about their project. Panellist will ask question about the project and other questions based on the Stage Two selection criteria (please see the “Selection Criteria” section on the ‘How to Apply’ webpage.

  • Candidates are advised that there is also a downloadable MS word template of the application available via the website (‘How to Apply’ which we encourage candidates to use to draft their responses before starting the online application form.

    The online form is programmed to retain information for 24hours after you edit a response. If you are experiencing issues with the form, we recommend clearing the cookies and cache data on your device before relaunching the online application form. It might be beneficial to change browsers – we recommend using Google Chrome. If the problem persists, please get in touch with us at kcato@kcl.ac.uk.

  • Projects only need to focus on one of the following three pillars, though they can link to more than one.

    1. Translational Neuroscience;

    2. Data and digital technologies;

    3. Society, policy and mental health.

  • No. Successful applicants from Stage One will contact supervisors to work on a project and training plan for Stage Two of the application process.

    Please click here for a list of supervisors and their areas of interest.

  • We welcome projects based on different empirical methods that fall within the three themes of the programme, and fit the expertise of our supervisor pool. Please note that we cannot accept purely theoretical projects for this programme.

  • Applicants who are shortlisted at Stage One of the application process will need to contact a supervisor from our supervisor pool based on their area of interest. They will then work with the supervisor to design and write-up a project proposal and training plan for Stage Two of the application process. Other members of the supervisory team should be discussed with the first supervisor and can be outside of the supervisory pool.

  • We’ve collated some example questions and topics that can help you to learn more about potential supervisors and help you decide whether they are a good match for you:

    Research and experience

    • What are your research interests? Do they marry with the candidates?

    • What do they think a health professional will bring to the project, above what a scientist/social scientist might bring? How will their professional background enhance the research?

    • What is their expectation regarding publications during the PhD? Would they write their own papers/publications?

    • How many students have they supervised through to completion? Are there any more health professionals in the group/dept?

    • Where have their students gone after their PhDs? What support is there for subsequent fellowship applications?

    Working together and support

    • What is your supervisory style? How might that change over time? How often do you meet with your students?

    • Who else would provide help and support for the candidate? E.g. someone to give hands-on training (for lab techniques, methods of data analysis etc)?

    • Who might be the second supervisor?

    • How many other students/postdocs do they supervise?

    • What is the culture like in the research group? Informal/formal, do people socialise? Are there strict working hours? How flexible is the culture?

    • How might the supervisor expect the candidate to balance any clinical work (if applicable) with their research? (the programme allows for 0.2FTE of clinical time to maintain skills)

    • How often do we meet and are the meetings (and other facilities access) in-person? Please make sure you tell about where you’re based and whether you need to work remotely for any part of the project.

  • The first supervisor for your project should be selected among the approved supervisor pool.

    Second supervisors can be selected from outside the pool so long as they are eligible to supervise within their faculty in King’s (e.g. have completed their training/refresher and fulfil any other requirements for PhD supervision).

    Both of your supervisors can be from the supervisor pool, but this is not required.

    External supervisors may be involved in the fellows’ supervisory teams as third supervisors or collaborators, pending approval from the leadership team.

  • The panel will look at the “fit” between the candidate and their supervisory team. We encourage a supervisory team which spans disciplines and departments. If a candidate applied with two senior supervisors with similar background from the same department, we would require a compelling justification and this may be questioned during the interview. The panel would reserve the right to make an award conditional on a change in the supervisory team.

  • Please provide two academic, employment or professional references other than your project supervisor(s). Please ask your referees to send the completed form available on our website to kcato@kcl.ac.uk by the Stage 2 application deadline. Please note that we are not going to request references for you and are unable to accept late references.

  • Please see the ‘Selection Criteria’ section of the ‘How to Apply’ webpage to learn about what is being assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

  • The interview will be a 40-minute panel interview including a 5-minute presentation with 3-5 slides and 30 minutes Q&A and a chance for the candiate to ask questions to the panel. The presentation should be about the project you have developed with your supervisory team.

    The panel will consist of 2-5 members from the leadership team or academic members of staff and a service user representative.

  • We will consider interviews on a case-by-case, but ideally, they would be held in person at King’s Denmark Hill Campus, London.

  • Successful candidates are able to demonstrate intellectual drive and ownership of the project. They are expected to have a strong understanding of the project and be familiar with the relevant literature. Given the short time within which to gain this understanding and ownership, candidates are strongly advised to dedicate time to preparing for the interview. Some of the ways to prepare could include:

    • spending time prior to the interview in the laboratory where the project will be based and/or with the team in which the project is based

    • conducting some initial experiments or analysing data

    • learning the basic principles underlying the techniques they will use

    • attending lab meetings or journal clubs

    • discussing the project with the wider team

    • having mock interviews with colleagues both familiar with the project area, and with others in other disciplines

    Strong candidates are able to demonstrate to the panel how they have worked with the supervisor to ensure the project is robust and deliverable. Candidates are expected to be aware of the limitations of the proposed project and the risks, and have plans in place to mitigate the risks. Candidates may be asked about specific experimental approaches, and should be prepared to describe details of their plans for the first few months of the fellowship. Whilst the supervisory team is primarily responsible for helping the candidate prepare to defend the project at the interview, candidates also benefit from discussing the project widely with other clinical and non-clinical academic colleagues. Demonstrating that the project has been strengthened through input and perspective from both clinical and non-clinical colleagues is encouraged.

    This fellowship programme is aimed at health professionals who strive to become future clinical academic leaders. Strong candidates have thought about their career path after the PhD, are aware of the challenges of clinical academic careers and can articulate how they plan to continue as clinical academics in the medium and long term.

  • Wellcome website has further information on the costs that can be claimed, and the funding available will be per fellow will be: £50,000 in research costs, £2,500 travel and training funding each, and additional funding for a limited number of fellows whose project involves experimental medicine, human imaging (£10,000) or animal research (£13,000). Please provide information on costings in the Resources section of the Stage 2 application form.

  • We have provided spaces for two each, but please feel free to add as many as needed in the relevant sections.

  • There is no fixed number of applications that proceed to each stage of the fellowship competition as this will depend on the number and quality of applications received each year.

    We usually receive 100-125 applications at Stage 1, of which 20-25 will proceed to Stage 2 to develop a full proposal. We aim to interview 12-17 candidates at Stage 3.

Eligibility & Programme Requirements

 

  • Please refer to the ‘Eligibility’ and ‘Selection criteria’ sections on the ‘How to Apply’ page.

  • Alongside a health and/or social care qualification and registration, we would expect applicants to hold a first degree and ideally some further training and/or experience in healthcare or related research.

  • No. This programme is designed to support healthcare professionals seeking to combine a clinical and academic career. Fellows seeking to undertake a PhD who are not health professionals will not be considered for the Programme. Please see other King’s PhD studentships available at this link.

  • Applicants need to be a registered health professional with evidence of recent practice and must intend on developing a clinical academic research career.

    Medics must have progressed through FYs and have registered on a specialty training programme.

  • This programme is intended to support healthcare professionals seeking to combine a clinical and academic career. A recent period of absence from clinical work due to study/work in academia is acceptable provided that the applicant fulfills all the eligibility criteria. We would expect you to clearly articulate your plan to maintain clinical skills and develop as a health professional researcher during the Stage One application, particularly if the period of absence exceeds one year.

  • It depends on your profession. The programme is open to non-medical health professionals who are fully qualified and not in training programmes. For doctors we can only fund trainees, with the exception of general practitioners.

  • We require all fellows to regularly be on site at King’s College London campuses so that they can attend mandatory training, cohort activities that take place throughout the year. This means fellows should be based in London or within commutable distance.

    We also advise to discuss this with your supervisor especially where project requires access to facilities such as databases and labs to ensure feasibility of he project and sufficient support from your supervisor. Remote working may be acceptable at times depending on the project undertaken (e.g. lab-based versus computational).

  • You need to be registered with a UK professional body at the time of the Stage 1 application deadline.

    Individuals employed by King’s College London are not permitted to work outside of the UK due to tax requirements. As Fellows will be employed by King’s and will receive a salary, they will need to be based in the UK.

  • Fellows must meet all eligibility criteria, including having a registration from a UK/Republic of Ireland professional body at the time of application.

    The fellowship covers UK home fees only, which means that the difference between the home and international fee must be provided from other sources, such as self-funding. For further information on fee status classification, please refer to the UKCISA guidance.

    We have a limited number of fee waivers available for international students to cover the difference between home and international fees.

  • Yes. Fellows will be permitted to do up to 0.2 FTE clinical work to maintain their clinical skills. In exceptional cases a maximum of 2 days a week can be granted, but the candidate would need to demonstrate that this level of clinical activity was necessary for their future clinical career development (e.g. for surgeons maintaining technical skills). Funding for this is included within the budget envelope of the programme. Fellows will be registered on the MPhil/PhD programme full-time.

  • Fellows may take their PhD fellowship part-time only if this is their normal working pattern, including part-time working arrangements due to return from maternity leave, caring responsibilities etc. However, they are not permitted to undertake their fellowship part-time and continue working in their clinical job part-time, nor continue their clinical training.

    For medics, the PhD programme must be taken as an “out of programme experience” (OOPE), approved by the relevant bodies if required e.g. Deaneries.

  • This programme will only be built around 3-year PhD fellowships.

  • PhD fellowships can be undertaken part-time but should be the only source of salary support; fellows must not have two jobs. The part-time fellowship will be 0.5 FTE and last for six years.