NHS Research and Development North West

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HEE ICA INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME

Applications are now closed!

Are you a Nurse, Midwife, Allied Health Professional, Pharmacist or Healthcare Scientist, looking to embark on a clinical academic career and make a difference through undertaking high quality clinical research? 

Do you have the drive and ambition to be a future research leader?

If so, this programme is for you. NHS R&D North West are pleased to announce that we will be delivering the Integrated Clinical Academic Internship Programme across the North West region of NHS England.  These highly prestigious internships, funded by Health Education England, provide the first step onto a practitioner academic career pathway.

If you’re curious about the nature of research into practice or are already engaged in this in a limited way, then the Internship programme will be of interest.

How will an internship support research development within my practice?

The internship provides a dedicated period for you to consider and contribute to research capacity and research capability building within NHS services. It will:

  • provide the opportunity for you to engage in and develop a network of practitioner academics to develop, promote and evaluate research into learning, best practice and innovation both regionally and nationally
  • support the development of both your practice and research skills
  • enable you to explore research into areas prioritised within HEE’s mandate or to the education and training of the NHS workforce more widely
  • offer you an insight into the world of the practitioner academic
  • provide you with significant developmental opportunities to enable you to begin to realise your research potential.

What is involved?

The key components of the programme are:

  • 30 days’ academic research experience supported by supervision from an experienced academic.
  • Participation in a 6-day residential educational programme to increase your knowledge and understanding of research and its place in the wider health and care research community. The 6 days are made up of 3 x 2-day residentials spread out over the duration of the 6 months.
  • Participation in additional 1-day development workshops.
  • Exploration of your personal and career development goals.

Eligibility

The scheme is open to nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, social workers, pharmacists, mental health professionals, care workers and healthcare scientists who meet the following eligibility criteria. Applicants must:

  • Be employed by an NHS organisation in the North West.
  • Be a health or social care professional (non-medical) registered with one of the ICA approved regulatory bodies listed here.
  • Have no prior formal training in research or DO NOT hold a research qualification such as a Masters degree by research, PhD or professional doctorate.
  • Have clear potential for engaging in research that will be of benefit to patients and/or the public. This could include data from patients; members of the public/carers; health technology assessment; health services research; and research into clinical education and training.

Funding

A personal award of up to £4,000 is available to each intern to cover expenses for example; conferences & courses, travel expenses.  Further details regarding how this funding can be used will be given to successful applicants at the start of the programme.

Employer capacity support funding is available up to £3,000.  This is to create capacity to enable the award holder to participate in the course and is not designed to necessarily fund a like for like replacement.  It may be used for any of the following:  overtime payment, agency staff, acting-up payment.  

All applicants need to have the explicit approval of their line manager and the agreement that if no capacity support is provided, the applicant will be released to complete the course successfully. 

A fee of £1,000 will be paid to the organisation hosting the internship to cover the costs of supervision and mentorship.

Applications close on 07/03/2024 at 5pm.

Each cohort concludes with a celebration event marking the culmination of achievements.

How to apply

Applications are now open!

Please note that if you do not have a supervisor, NHS R&D NW will assist you in identifying one.

Download the application form
Download the guidance notes

Additional Details

After having read the guidance notes, if you have further questions please contact Jo-Anne Simpson, Chief Operating Officer, NHS R&D NW joanne.simpson@researchnorthwest.nhs.uk.

In addition, to inform potential applicants about the programme and the application process, we will be holding online Q&A sessions open for anyone to join who wishes to know more about the scheme and ask any questions.  These will be an hour in duration, 12pm –1pm, and held on MS Teams on the following dates:

30th January 2024
13th February 2024 

Those wishing to join these online sessions can do so here.

During each session we will also cover the use of supervisors for those who do not currently have a supervisor. We would also recommend you encourage your line manager to attend the Q&A sessions if they are not familiar with this programme.

For more information of previous cohorts please visit our archive.