If you have any queries with your application, and/or accessibility requirements, please contact NIHR ARC EoE’s Academic Career Development Coordinator, Alice Wreford (E: a.wreford@uea.ac.uk).
Please note, the office will close for the Christmas period, thus queries received about the fellowship after December 20th 2024 will go unanswered.
Frequently asked questions follow:
Q. I would like to apply for the fellowship but not sure about my research idea, what should I do?
A. Academic career development coordinator, Alice Wreford (E:a.wreford@uea.ac.uk), is available to discuss project ideas, and support you to find an appropriate academic supervisor. Project ideas do not need to be well formed when you begin discussions with academic professionals. We encourage a collaborative development of research project ideas.
We also recommend you have a look on the ARC East of England website at the research themes page to see current ongoing projects.
Q. Who can apply for ARC fellowships?
A. The fellowship is aimed at all clinicians, health and social care practitioners, and managers across the East of England. It is for those who would like to work at the interface of research and practice, develop an understanding of the research environment, and develop skills in research methodology, service redesign, change management and implementing evidence-based improvements into practice.
The Fellowship is for those with limited academic experience, to support you to develop your research skills. Thus, the Fellowship programme is aimed at predoctoral (not inc clinical qualifications) candidates.
Q. How much funding is available?
A. Fellows are funded for 1 day per week according to their paygrade, however the maximum funding that the ARC can offer is £12,500 per fellow per year.
Q. What if my salary exceeds the maximum amount?
A. Any applicant interested in applying for a Fellowship must ensure that any funding gap to backfill their one day a week research time, will be covered by their employing organisation. For this, the applicant must provide a statement from their organisation confirming this agreement. This is included in the application form.
Q. I work part-time, can I undertake this fellowship in my own time?
A. We stipulate that the funding is awarded to your employing organisation (as it cannot be paid to individuals). So you could work on this in your own time but we wouldn’t be able to award the funding to you individually.
Q. I work part-time and cannot reduce my hours any more. What should I do?
A. Talk with your employer. There have been previous examples where organisations have extended their part-time employees contract for an additional day a week which was then taken as study leave, as it wasn’t possible to arrange a replacement for the post. This could potentially be a solution, so that your employer can claim the £12,500, and the difference, worked in your own time.
Q. Do I need to apply for ethics before starting my fellowship?
A. No, but because the Fellowship is only one year, and the initial part of the teaching programme are dedicated on the discussing ways to consider projects that don’t require a national ethical approval that can take up time.
Your nominated supervisor will be able to advise you on this process.
Q. Is there an option for virtual attendance for the workshops?
A. We are trialing a new format for the fellowship teaching sessions for the 2025 cohort, which is based on feedback from previous fellows. As such, the sessions have been arranged to be a combination of face-to-face and online sessions. The F2F sessions have time for informal interaction and discussion with the other fellows on the programme which is part of the learning and support process.
Q. Can I have an extension to the deadline?
A. Unfortunately we cannot provide any extensions as we are set to a strict schedule. We also have our own deadlines to fulfil.
Q. I work at a University, can I apply for this fellowship?
A. Yes! We are trialling accepting applications from those based in a HEI.
The Fellowship is open to those currently in an academic post who hold an honorary contract with an organisation that provides health or care services, e.g., an NHS Trust, a Local Authority. Their project needs to be aligned with the current health and care priorities. For example, a university lecturer employed at an university in the East of England, who holds an honorary contract with a NHS Trust (one day/week), and aspires to undertake a research fellowship at their NHS setting, addressing one of our regional health priorities, would be eligible to apply for the ARC Fellowship.
Q. I am a practitioner and a PhD student. Can I apply for the Fellowship?
A. Unfortunately if you are doing a PhD you are not be eligible for the ARC research fellowship. The ARC Fellowship is a non-academic fellowship primarily for those working in health and social care and who may have no other routes to learn and do research or become a researcher practitioner.
Q. Does this fellowship offer academic credits on completion?
A. No, the fellowship is not an accredited course for degree/diploma purposes so there are no transferable credits.
Q. I don’t live in the East of England can I still apply?
A. No. The ARC East of England remit is to cover the East of England region. You should look for opportunities in your local ARC.
Q. Does the ARC East of England offer any alternative funding for projects?
A. The ARC EoE is an infrastructure grant so we do not offer funds for projects. For those, you should check the NIHR research funding pages.
However, there are other awards available for individual research development that may cover some research costs, offered by our ARC or other regional organisations. We are keen to promote those. We would recommend that you sign up for our ARC newsletter and join one of our Research Development Opportunities events, which will be disseminated via the newsletter.
Q. Can I do a systematic review?
A. Yes, in particular if it aligns with our research priorities.
Q. Can I amend my backfill request once I start?
A. No, we budget for what you tell us and can’t change this in the year. Please also make sure that the system to invoice the ARC has been thought out and agreed with your organisation before starting the fellowship.