Welcome to Academic Clinical Fellowship recruitment at NHS England – East of England. 

Applications are invited from talented and enthusiastic doctors in training who seek a career combining research, teaching and the care of patients. The Academic Clinical Fellowship provides integrated academic and clinical training. Within the programme, Fellows should develop skills allowing them to compete successfully for funding to study for a higher research degree (MD/PhD). Only applicants who can demonstrate that they have outstanding potential for development as a clinical academic will be considered for this programme. These integrated academic training programmes will be associated with the award of a relevant NTN (a). 

 

A number of these posts are in direct competition with each other. Please refer to the tables below.. 

 

Further information on University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia, and Anglia Ruskin University is available below:

 

• NIHR ACF Recruitment FAQ’s 
• NIHR ACF Academic Person Specification 
• Structured Reference Form 
• Shortlisting Scoresheet 
• NIHR ACF Interview Evaluation Forms 

If you are interested in applying to be a clinical lecturer, information is available on the NIHR Website.  

 

 

For applications at ST1/IMT1/CT1 level  please ensure you check  the guidance carefully to confirm the appropriate method to demonstrate your foundation competence.  If you are required to submit a Certificate of Readiness to Enter Specialty Training (CREST) form with your application and do not do so then you will not be offered another opportunity to upload it and your application will not proceed to the next stage of the process. More Information can be found on the Foundation Competences webpage linked for you

 

Clinical Benchmarking:

Applicants without a Deanery Reference Number (DRN) or National Training Number (NTN) in the GMC core/specialty training programme and level to which they are applying must be found appointable at the core/speciality training interviews in the 2026 Recruitment Round 1/Round 2 (where applicable). Click here for the timeline.

If no national recruitment is available at the core/specialty training programme and level to which they are applying, applicants without a DRN/NTN are ineligible. Please click here for more information.

If you do not submit an application to the specialty by the closing date then, you will not be eligible to proceed any further in the process.

 

Supporting documentation:

Applicants with an NTN based outside of the region to which they are applying must provide a ‘Support for Reapplication to Continue Training in Another Region’ form.

Applicants who have previously relinquished a specialty training programme must provide a ‘Support for Reapplication to a Specialty Training Programme’ form

Applicants with an NTN based inside of the region to which they are applying must provide their most recent ARCP.

Applicants who are in a dual training programme, must provide both ARCP's demonstrating satisfactory progression.

 

Changes to Shortlisting (including shortlisting for Disability Confident Scheme (DCS)) for 2026:

“To ensure all Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) applicants shortlisted are competitive and at an appropriate level for interview, in line with legal guidance, MDRS and the NIHR have agreed to introduce a shortlisting threshold:

All ACF applicants complete an application form with a total score of 28. The form comprises 9 questions, including specific questions for academic experience and academic potential. The shortlisting threshold for all DCS candidates applying for ACF posts will be 11 (39% of the total score).

In addition, ll applicants (i.e. those applying via DCS or not) will need to score at least 2 in the questions for ‘Academic experience’ and ‘Academic potential’ (please see Appendix 5) to be shortlisted. As per the question guidance in Appendix 5, these questions are subjective and scoring is not determined by the presence or absence of criteria such as degrees or publications.

All DCS candidates that score 11 or more out of a total score of 28 with 2 or more in the specific question ‘Academic experience’ and ‘Academic potential’ will be invited to interview.

ACF recruitment panels are able to set a higher shortlisting threshold for non-DCS candidates to manage interview capacity accordingly.”.