These posts enable both medical and dental trainees to apply for a clinician-scientist advanced fellowship from the Medical Research Council, Wellcome, National Institute Health Research or a national research charity. Trainees successful in securing clinical lecturer position are very high achieving trainees who have demonstrated their commitment to developing themselves into an academic clinician.
To apply you must have submitted a PhD or MD thesis and be in a higher training programme. The posts are funded by the NIHR and as the trainee has won their funding in national competition, they are supernumerary. NIHR CLs have 50 per cent of their time spent in research and 50 per cent in clinical training. This is the higher level of integrated academic training. The NIHR CL lasts up to a maximum of four years but sometimes trainees obtain their certificate completion of training (CCT) and become a consultant (or gain a clinician scientist award) prior to completion of the clinical lecturer post.
More information about the Integrated Academic Pathway can be found in this guide.