Postgraduate Fellowships

Our Postgraduate Fellowships (formerly called Junior Research Training Fellowships) enable outstanding graduates to obtain a postgraduate research qualification (MPhil or PhD), giving them the required skills to ultimately undertake an independent career in stroke research.

The Stroke Association supports Fellows who plan to conduct stroke research into clinical and applied health, including social care research. This includes research that is conducted to answer specific questions relating to day-to-day practice in health services or community settings, and which has the potential to have an impact on the health or well-being of people affected by stroke. A clear trajectory to patient benefit is essential.

We welcome applications from allied health professionals and nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, and other applied researchers including but not limited to: implementation scientists, health economists, digital health and computer scientists.

The Stroke Association will not fund basic or pre-clinical research through this wholly-funded Postgraduate Fellowship scheme. This does not apply to our joint Clinical Fellowship programmes with the Medical Research Council (MRC) or Association of British Neurologists (ABN), which are open to research across the whole pathway.

Our fellowships will be awarded to named candidates and we require the host department to provide appropriate supervision and a research training programme suitable to equip the fellow for a career in stroke research and to enable them to obtain a postgraduate qualification.

Please contact the Research Office via research@stroke.org.uk if you are unsure of, or have any queries regarding, your eligibility for this award.

Duration
Three years full-time.

Fellowships may be taken up on a part-time, pro-rata basis but the minimum working hours would be equivalent to 0.6 WTE.

If your university only allows 4 year PhDs, you are permitted to apply for this funding scheme. You can either apply before you begin the 4 year PhD or when you are in the first year of your PhD, applying for funding for the last 3 years of funding. In either case, the funding cap for the Stroke Association award is £115,000.

Adjudication
Postgraduate Fellowships are awarded on the recommendation of a panel made up of members of the Stroke Association’s Research Awards Pool, using the system of expert peer review and a candidate interview.

You’ll be informed two weeks before whether you have been shortlisted for interview.

Amount
In most circumstances, the funding will be £115,000 across 3 years (£38,333 per year) subject to the fellow making satisfactory progress. Awards will be made initially as £38,333 a year for two years, with a discretionary extension of £38,333 for the third year.

Deadline
All applications must be submitted via our online portal by 5pm on 30 January 2024. Late submissions will not be considered.

Eligibility
Awards are available only at Universities, NHS Trusts, Statutory Social Care Organisations or other Research Institutions within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Physicians and similar medical professionals are not eligible to apply for a Postgraduate Fellowship and should apply for a Clinical Research Training Fellowship, which will be awarded jointly by the Stroke Association and MRC. Please see the MRC website or email the Research team for further details of this.

Fellows must have at least two supervisors: one lead supervisor who bears overall responsibility for the training and the research project, and a second supervisor who may be less active in supervision and support. Additional supervisors are not mandatory but are permitted.

Applicants will be asked to give details of whether they have involved their local Research Design Service (RDS) or Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) in the development of the research proposal, including details of any discussions they have had with the RDS/CTU, improvements to the proposal as a result of the advice offered and their ongoing involvement in the project. Please note: for clinical trial applications, the involvement of a CTU is mandatory and applicants will need to outline their lead supervisor’s track record in running clinical studies and the expected role of the supervisor in ensuring the study will recruit to target and stay on track.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)
It is desirable for applicants to have involved people affected by stroke in the planning and development stages of their funding application, and to continue to do so should their application be successful. This involvement should be meaningful, and people affected by stroke should have a real opportunity to contribute to your research.

Find out more about how we can help you to involve people affected by stroke in your work.

Apply
Please read our Guidance document and Conditions of Award before beginning an application: