The Academy is delighted to welcome a new set of principles that will support the career development of research active clinicians.
Academic clinicians are positioned at the interface between medicine and research, where they act as a bridge between the two, an ideal position to advance patient care, medical knowledge and inspire innovation.
Despite the overwhelmingly positive impact research-active clinicians have on patient care, there are still many challenges facing clinicians who juggle clinical work and research.
To address these challenges the Academy has collaborated with other key players in the medical research community to outline best practice and help ensure clinical researchers are supported in their career.
The project, led by the Wellcome Trust, has now produced key principles and obligations that set out what should be expected of those responsible for clinical training, trainees and funders across the UK.
The main agreed principles focus on:
• a flexible approach to integrating clinical and academic training
• protection of the rights of clinical academics with continuous employment, and
• leadership development, coaching, mentorship and career guidance.
These principles and obligations will have UK-wide impact. Partners will collectively evaluate the impact of this work on an ongoing basis and will include the principles in the terms and conditions of their relevant grants..
The Academy contributed to the development of the principles and obligations in partnership with a number of other organisations:
• Wellcome Trust
• British Heart Foundation
• Cancer Research UK
• Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans of the United Kingdom (COPMeD)
• Health Education England
• Integrated Academic Training Advisory Committee (InterACt)
• Medical Research Council
• Medical Schools Council
• National Institute of Health Research
The British Medical Association and the British Dental Association were also consulted on, and support, the principles.
Read the full document, UK clinical academic training in medicine and dentistry: principles and obligations.
More information about the other ways the Academy of Medical Sciences supports clinical researchers can be found here.