NIHR Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship Scheme Applicant Guidance Notes - January 2022

Introduction

The NIHR is pleased to announce the launch of the second annual NIHR Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (PLAF) competition. The PLAF scheme has been designed to support the academic ambitions of individuals wishing to develop as health and/or social care researchers whilst remaining employed, or at least engaged, within local authorities or local authority supporting services.

This document provides full details of this scheme and the 2022 competition, describing the means by which applications for PLAFs should be submitted, and detailing how they will be assessed.

Background

Following successful pilots of the PLAF and Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (DLAF) competitions in 2021, the NIHR Academy secured Department of Health and Social Care funding that, through its developing Local Authority Academic Fellowship (LAAF) Programme, will continue to support local authorities and local authority supporting services to become more research active.

A growing body of evidence indicates that research active organisations deliver better services and outputs than those that are not. The LAAF Programme will increase the capacity for local authority settings to generate and support research by offering research training fellowships to individuals who intend to build careers within them.

The LAAF Programme will again invite applications for PLAFs and DLAFs in 2022, and may also offer complementary post-doctoral funding opportunities in the future. By offering this tiered suite of similarly focussed funding opportunities to individuals embedded within local authority settings, the LAAF programme will contribute to the development of a credible ‘practitioner academic’ career pathway within local authorities and local authority supporting services.

The importance of Practitioner Academics

Self-sustaining research activity within service providing or policy making organisations is dependent on the employment of practitioner academics. These individuals divide their time between university affiliated research and practice or policy roles.

Some practitioner academic roles, such as that undertaken by the medical Consultant Professor, are well established and understood, but many others are still emerging. As the benefits of a research active workforce become increasingly appreciated, practitioner academic roles are becoming more widespread, and initiatives such as the LAAF Programme aim to accelerate this movement further.

The research questions formulated by practitioner academics are informed by experience and the reality of the practice or policy roles they undertake. As active researchers in fields of relevance to their own continued practice, practitioner academics are also well positioned to critically appraise and utilise research findings in the development of evidence based practice and service redesign. As such, practitioner academics are uniquely placed to make invaluable contributions to the development and maintenance of optimum and adaptive services.

Investment in a practitioner academic career infrastructure has the potential to transform services, inspire staff to develop and innovate, attract and retain talent in a competitive market, and to address quality, governance and safety issues. Such developments benefit individual staff members and their organisations, and can ultimately play a role in accelerating improvements in services provision for users and the public.

The aim of the LAAF Programme, then, is to facilitate the realisation of these benefits for all concerned.

The NIHR Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship Scheme

The NIHR PLAF scheme supports early career researchers employed within local authorities or local authority supporting services to become competitive applicants for fully funded PhD study (a doctoral fellowship).

As well as offering salaried time to prepare an application for a doctoral fellowship, a PLAF will also fund a personalised programme of academic training that will equip the awardee with the skills and experience to make it competitive.

Applicants for a PLAF may:

• have little formal academic training/research experience
• have completed some Masters level training or
• have completed a Masters level qualification or
• require Masters level training/ a full Masters

All applicants for LAAF Programme funding must be able to demonstrate their commitment to a career as a practitioner academic, combining continued employment within a local authority type setting with related health and/or social care research and, ultimately, research leadership.

PLAF awards will only be granted to individuals who aspire to conduct applied research that pertains to health and/or social care, and that would meet the NIHR remit for personal awards.

Prior experience of audit, evaluation or quality improvement programmes might all be used to evidence an applicant’s evaluative/questioning mindset.

The Structure of a Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship

Two distinct funding offers are available through the PLAF scheme, allowing applicants to choose the level of support most appropriate to their individual requirements:

• Funding to support the submission of a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake a programme of academic training at Masters level (“standard” PLAF);
• Funding to support submission of a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake a small amount of academic training at Masters level (PLAF Bridge).

1. Funding to support the submission of a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake a programme of academic training at Masters level (“standard” PLAF)

Scope of Funding

• Salary costs to cover the time undertaking the Fellowship (including the employer's contribution to National Insurance and Superannuation)
• Up to £5,000 towards Masters level training and associated travel and subsistence
• Up to £1,000 for conference/meeting fees and associated travel and subsistence
• Research development support (supervision and Public Involvement and Engagement) up to £1,000

Applicants are permitted to propose the undertaking of a full Masters course as a component of the fellowship, but this must be a Research Methods Masters, or at the very least a Masters with a strong (and taught) research methods component.

If applicants are proposing the completion of a full Masters course as part of their training and development, it is possible to request a supplement to cover the Masters course fee if over and above the £5,000 limit. A full justification for the additional costs must be provided.

The NIHR expects all awardees to be charged for training at UK Home Student rates, irrespective of background.

Award Uptake Options

• Full time for 12 months (5 days per week)
• Part-time over 24 months (2.5 days per week, 0.5 WTE)
• Part-time over 30 months (2 days per week, 0.4 WTE)

2. Funding to support submission of a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake a small amount of academic training at Masters level (PLAF Bridge).

Scope of Funding

• salary costs to cover the time undertaking the Fellowship (including the employer's contribution to National Insurance and Superannuation)
• up to £400 for formal courses and associated travel and subsistence
• up to £500 for conference / meeting fees and associated travel and subsistence
• Research development support (supervision and Public Involvement and Engagement) up to £500

Award Uptake Options

• 4 days per week for 6 months (0.8 WTE)
• 2 days per week for 12 months (0.4 WTE)

Please note - in these guidance notes, ‘PLAF’ refers to both funding options (‘standard’ PLAF and PLAF Bridge) unless otherwise specified.

Eligibility Requirements for the Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship Scheme

1) Applicants must hold a contract of employment in England with either a:

• local authority
• provider of local authority commissioned services
• nonprofit organisation (such as a charity) that provides services on behalf of a local authority, or that otherwise supports a local authority in meeting its objectives.

Fixed term contracts of any duration are acceptable, however, honorary contracts or bank work cannot be accepted.  

2) NHS employed individuals and individuals employed by a predominately NHS commissioned organisation may apply if they work within a service commissioned by a Local Authority and they lack the requisite professional status to make an application for a HEE/NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic (ICA) Programme Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF).

If employed by an NHS (or predominately NHS commissioned) organisation, prospective applicants should refer to the list of regulatory bodies whose registrants are eligible to apply for an award through the analogous HEE/NIHR ICA Programme.

Registrants to any of these bodies, and individuals whose professional status confers eligibility for registration with one of these bodies (e.g. an FPH registered Public Health trainee) are not eligible to apply for a PLAF IF employed by an NHS organisation or predominately NHS commissioned organisation, and should instead consider an application for a PCAF

3) Applicants cannot hold registration with the General Dental Council as a dentist, or with the General Medical Council as a doctor.

4) Applicants must be intending to continue working in their current sector over the course of PLAF, either (if full-time) through the professional development time included in the award (please see “Professional Skills Development” below) or through continuation of their current role outside of the award time.

5) Applicants cannot have registered for, or have completed, a PhD in a relevant subject area or have registered for an MPhil with the expectation that this will progress to a PhD.

Prospective applicants who have completed either a Masters, an MPhil or an academic training position, and wish to use the Fellowship to develop a proposal for a Doctoral Fellowship are eligible to apply, providing that the additional research training is justified and appropriate (please see “the PLAF Training and Development Programme” details below).

6) Applicants who have previously held an HEE/NIHR Masters in Clinical Research Studentship are eligible for the “PLAF Bridge” only. Previous recipients of HEE Integrated Clinical Academic Programme Internships, if otherwise eligible, are welcome to apply for either level of support.

It is not permitted to apply for a PLAF and a HEE/NIHR ICA Programme PCAF in the same calendar year. The latest of the two applications to be made will not be accepted.

It is not permitted to make concurrent applications for a PLAF and an NIHR LAAF Programme Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (DLAF), a doctoral fellowship offered through the HEE/NIHR ICA Programme or an NIHR Fellowship Programme Doctoral Fellowship (DF). Once a PLAF application is made, the outcome of that application must be determined before any further applications are made for NIHR Academy administered personal research training awards.

Prospective applicants unsure of their eligibility should contact the NIHR at academy-awards@nihr.ac.uk before embarking on the application process.

Fellowships cannot be deferred without the consent of the NIHR.

Assessment of Applications

Following the submission deadline, the NIHR will check applications for completeness and eligibility, and distribute eligible applications to the members of the PLAF Selection Committee.

The selection committee will assess all eligible applications using the Assessment Criteria below.

ICA PLAF Assessment Criteria

• the suitability and commitment of the applicant to a career as a practitioner academic
• the appropriateness of the award to the experience and trajectory of the applicant
• the scope for the described field of academic interest to prove relevant to, and provide benefit to, the local authority setting in which the applicant plans to work
• the quality and appropriateness of the proposed academic training plan (specifically to doctoral fellowship application development)
• the quality and appropriateness of the proposed Public Involvement and Engagement in the development of the PhD project
• the appropriateness of the proposed academic supervision
• the appropriateness of the proposed academic environment
• the track record of the host university in supporting individuals with existing practitioner/policy roles to develop practitioner academic careers
• the appropriateness of the proposed career mentorship
• the extent to which the local authority / local authority supporting partner will support the applicant to pursue and develop a practitioner academic career
• the arrangements for ensuring protected time for each of the fellowship’s requisite components

In addition, references will be used by the PLAF Selection Committee to support their assessment of the application and the suitability and commitment of the applicant to a career as a local authority setting based practitioner academic.

Expectations on Completion of a Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship

At the end of a PLAF, Fellows should be able to demonstrate development as a practitioner academic and be in a position to make a competitive application for a peer-reviewed PhD Fellowship. Evidence of the following will be sought by the NIHR through report monitoring:

• Completion of the Training and Development Programme as detailed in the application
• Preparation of an application for a competitive, peer-reviewed doctoral level research training fellowship
• Increased research skills
• Development of research interests
• Development of networks that span the boundary between research activity and practitioners/policy makers, as well as links with individual ‘boundary spanners’

Important Areas for Consideration when Developing a Pre-doctoral Local Authority Fellowship Application

Getting support

It is recommended that applicants seek support and guidance on developing their application from the outset. Please refer to ‘Additional Supporting Information’ at the end of this document for the details of organisations that offer such support.

Choosing the appropriate PLAF option

The amount of previous formal academic training and research experience an applicant has undertaken to date should be the primary factor in determining which PLAF funding option (‘standard’ PLAF or PLAF Bridge) is the most appropriate. Applicants who already have research experience and/or research training at a sufficient level to prepare them to undertake a PhD (research doctorate) but who require the time and support to develop a competitive doctoral level application, would be advised to choose the PLAF Bridge option. Applicants who have undertaken limited formal academic training to date and who need to undertake a full Masters or a number of Masters level module may be better suited to the ‘standard’ PLAF. 

Applicants that have previously completed a Masters qualification are advised to review the level of academic training and research experience that this qualification provided.  If there was a large research component to the course, further academic training may not be necessary at this level. Holding a Masters level qualification per se, however, does not preclude undertaking a ‘standard’ PLAF if further academic training is required. 

Applicants are advised to discuss their previous academic training and experience with their proposed academic supervisors, and to work with them to determine their likely pre-doctoral training needs. Please see below for further guidance regarding the Training and Development Programme proposed in a PLAF application.

Applicants are also advised to consider a timeline for making a doctoral level submission.  Completion of a PLAF should not inadvertently delay the progression of any awardee’s academic career.

Area of research interest

Applicants are not expected to possess a fully developed proposal for PhD study at the point of application (this being an output of the award itself), but they are required to have identified a likely research question, and, ideally, to have conceived strategies for tackling it so as to usefully inform and direct a preparatory training plan and preparatory Public Involvement and Engagement (PI&E) plan.

Bridge applicants are expected to have a more refined plan for PhD study than are ‘standard’ applicants.

Competitive applications will have a clearly articulated plan for future research running through the PLAF and into a doctoral fellowship application.

The research plan should inform the proposed preparatory training plan, the proposed PI&E plan and the proposed supervisory team, and is used by the Selection Committee to assess the suitability of each.

The research area is expected to align with the applicant’s existing role/career. If not, the applicant will need to clearly demonstrate how they will work towards such alignment, and so develop a career with mutually complementary and cohesive academic and practice/policy elements.

It is accepted that, as academic training progresses and research experience develops, research ideas and interests may change. If the PLAF is funded, awardees will not be held to their stated area of interest when making applications to the NIHR for doctoral funding.

Research career to date

It is not necessarily expected that applicants at the pre-doctoral level will have extensive research experience to date, but applicants are advised to describe all relevant academic and professional experience (including audit, evaluation and quality improvement programmes) and any research activities that they have been involved in.

Academic training

At the end of a PLAF award, Fellows should be in a position to make a competitive application for a PhD Fellowship. When developing the academic training programme for the PLAF, it is advisable for applicants to consider their previous formal academic training experience and their previous research experience (research career to date) and to identify the areas in which they would currently be less competitive if submitting a doctoral fellowship application. 

The proposed training must be tailored around the applicant’s demonstrable training needs. A justification of how the proposed training will support the applicant’s development as a practitioner academic and as a competitive doctoral fellowship applicant must be provided.

The training may include, but is not limited to:

• full Masters course (Please note - Applicants are permitted to propose the undertaking of a full Masters course as a component of the fellowship, but this must be a Research Methods Masters, or at the very least a Masters with a strong (and taught) research methods component.)
• formal courses (including Masters modules)
• training in specialist skills and research methodologies
• placements with other research groups or centres
• leadership training
• conference attendance
• research visits
• Public Involvement and Engagement
• dissemination of relevant research
• research experience (Preliminary research in support of the subsequent doctoral level proposal (e.g. a systematic review or small feasibility study) may be included. Research costs cannot be funded through this award, however, and the primary academic supervisor is responsible for ensuring that a PLAF awardee secures all necessary regulatory approvals before undertaking any research included in the PLAF training and development programme.)
• other training and development
• preparation of an application for a competitive, peer-reviewed doctoral level research training fellowship.

Applicants that do not already hold a degree will need to undertake a full Masters if they wish to be eligible for an NIHR administered doctoral level fellowship.

Public Involvement and Engagement

The NIHR expects appropriate and relevant involvement of service users, carers, the public and other key stakeholders in the development and conduct of the research it supports.

Information and resources to assist prospective applicants can be found on the NIHR website (a detailed definition of public involvement in research, and briefing notes for researchers on how to involve the public).

In addition, the NIHR has contributed to a Toolkit for Increasing Participation of Black Asian & Minority Ethnic Groups in Health & Social Care Research, and has produced a further resource on Public Involvement in Social Care Research
Although no longer updated, the INVOLVE website also serves as a repository of useful information and resources. INVOLVE was funded by the NIHR to support active public involvement and engagement in NHS, public health and social care research.

Applicants may wish consider seeking input from elected members at their associated local authorities, these individuals being representatives for their communities by definition.  

Professional Skills Development

Aspiring practitioner academics need to develop as professionals and as academics in parallel if they are to become a future practitioner academic leader. PLAF award holders may wish to continue to develop their professional skills through their current role, outside of award time, and are welcome to include details of this in their application. In addition, however, all applicants can request paid professional skills development time as part of the award. Up to 20% professional skills development time can be requested.

If applicants request professional development time through the PLAF, they must be able to demonstrate how they will develop their skills over the period of the Fellowship, taking into consideration their current skill set.  The professional development plan must be demonstrably appropriate to the applicant’s level of seniority and support their development as a practitioner academic.  Senior professionals may choose to propose activities that will ensure the maintenance rather than the development of their professional skills set.

Given that the scheme supports aspiring practitioner academics, it is expected that any applicants that will not be continuing in their professional role outside of the Fellowship time (e.g. proposing a full time PLAF) would request professional development time. A justification would be expected if these applicants do not propose any professional skills development time as part of the PLAF.

Supervision and Mentorship

PLAF applicants are required to identify a primary academic supervisor for their fellowship, as well as to identify a separate career mentor:

Primary Academic Supervisor

The primary academic supervisor will support the award holder to develop their doctoral fellowship proposal and to undertake the training proposed in their application.

Careful consideration should be given to the choice of primary academic supervisor and a clear justification for the individual proposed should be provided in the application.

Careful thought should be given to:

• record of conversion of Masters to PhD students
• experience as a PhD supervisor
• experience in the research area of interest/ relevant methodologies;
• ease of maintaining contact with your supervisor/ availability of the supervisor
• suitability for continuation as the PhD supervisor (if the award is successful) or ability of the supervisor to help find the best PhD supervision.

The Primary Academic Supervisor must hold a position at the named academic organisation (see below).

Career Mentor

Applicants are required to identify an individual who will provide practitioner academic career mentorship over the course of the award. This individual does not need to be employed by one of the organisations named in the application (the Host or Partner Organisation) and need not share a professional background with the applicant.

Mentors should be academically senior to the applicant and be able to go beyond the academic guidance afforded by the named supervisors, using sector knowledge and experience to support the awardee through any challenges encountered during the development of their practitioner academic career including:

• navigating between the academic and local authority sectors
• managing the competing demands inherent in a multifaceted role.

Given that support is already being provided from the named supervisor(s), it is not expected that the same individual will be named as both a supervisor and career mentor. The Primary Academic Supervisor might, however, support the applicant to identify a suitable mentor.

Applicants should describe how the proposed arrangements would support their development as a practitioner academic and provide an initial assessment of the time that will be allocated to the mentorship process.

References

Applicants are required to provide details of two referees who will be able to comment on their suitability for an NIHR PLAF. The referees must be individuals that can evidence the academic potential of the applicant, who have experience of them in a research capacity. 

Referees must not be fulfilling a Supervisor or Career Mentor role for the applicant.

Each referee is required to complete a reference as part of the application form. The reference must be completed before the application can be submitted. Applicants will not be able to view the references, however, they will be able to check whether a reference has been completed via the “validation summary” section of the application form.

The references are used by the PLAF Selection Committee to support their assessment of the suitability and commitment of the applicant to a career as a practitioner academic. 

Please note – applicants are advised to approach prospective referees early in the application process to ensure that their referees have sufficient time to write a thorough reference and to submit it using the online application system, before the application needs to be submitted.

The Host Organisation and Partner Organisation

The Host Organisation

The PLAF is a NIHR personal research training award.  As such, Fellowship proposals are written and submitted directly by the prospective award holder. The NIHR cannot, however, contract with the Fellow directly and, therefore, all applicants require the support of a Host Organisation. 

Any organisation wishing to host a PLAF must be able to provide the applicant with a contract of employment for the hours and duration of the award.  The Host Organisation may or may not be the applicant’s current employer.

Examples of the contracts are available to download from the NIHR website.

The Host Organisation for a PLAF must be based in England and can be a:

1. local authority
2. provider of local authority commissioned services
3. nonprofit organisation (such as a charity) that provides services on behalf of a local authority, or that otherwise supports a local authority in meeting its objectives
4. Higher Education Institution (HEI) - the named HEI for a PLAF must be an English University or University College and employ the proposed primary academic supervisor.

The Partner Organisation

PLAF award holders, who are developing practitioner academic careers, require support from a local authority/local authority supporting organisation and a HEI, which will work together to support their Fellowship and their developing practitioner academic career.

If the proposed Host Organisation is not an English university or university college. (i.e. of type 1, 2 or 3 above), then the Partner Organisation must be an English university or university college.

If the proposed Host Organisation is an English university or university college, then the Partner Organisation must be an English:

1. local authority
2. provider of local authority commissioned services; or a
3. nonprofit organisation (such as a charity) that provides services on behalf of a local authority, or that otherwise supports a local authority in meeting its objectives

Please note that if the applicant proposes a HEI host then they may need to arrange an honorary contract with the Partner organisation for the hours and duration of the award.

The Partnership

The Host Organisation and Partner Organisation are expected to show a commitment towards the objectives of the scheme. Both organisations must ensure that the award holder is not expected to undertake any additional roles or work that would erode the time available to undertake the approved training and development as detailed in the PLAF application.