New Consultant Scheme
Applications for 2026 entry now open!
Are you a recently-appointed consultant who would like to increase your research skills and experience?
Birmingham Health Partners (BHP) is pleased to launch a new scheme: the BHP New Consultant Fellowship. These post-doctoral fellowships are for qualified medical staff who have taken up their first consultant position in the past 18 months and who currently do not have time allocated within their job plans for research.
BHP’s mission is to improve the health outcomes of individuals living in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region. This mission is achieved by integrating, promoting and developing local strengths in health services through research and innovation, based on the principle that research and innovation are core requirements for delivering excellence in patient care. The New Consultants scheme is addressing the challenge of increasing the number of Chief Investigators associated with BHP.
Professor Lorraine Harper will host an information and Q&A session on the 2026 BHP postdoctoral schemes – including the New Consultant Fellowship – on Monday 27 October 2025, 11.30-12.30pm. To receive the link, email icat@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
Read our interview with current BHP New Consultant Fellow, Dr Mark Openshaw.
- A new flexible route to re-engage and develop your research interests through collaborative high quality research partnerships with established leading biomedical and health researchers within BHP, facilitated by the University of Birmingham or Aston University
- Salary funding for two programmed activities (PAs) – or 8 hours per week – of protected research time in your current job for a three year period
- Access to infrastructure and expertise associated with a range of prestigious national awards, including the NIHR Clinical Research Facility
- A bursary of up to £5k for consumables/additional training to undertake the project
Fellows will benefit from infrastructure and expertise associated with a range of prestigious awards, including the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, the NIHR/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility and NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery, as well as the UK’s only Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Research and only joint academic-NHS BHP Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation. For individuals wishing to develop a clinical trial, they will be embedded within the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit or Birmingham Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit.
The fellowships provide protected research time and funding for healthcare professionals to increase their research skills and experience.
The scheme also enables the propagation of perspectives, ideas and connections needed to underpin future translational biomedical and health research.
Applications are welcomed from those who:
- Are an NHS consultant employed by a BHP member NHS Trust (click to view list of partners)
- Have been at consultant level for no more than 18 months on 19 January 2026
- Hold a PhD or MD
We expect you will have less than one programmed activity (PA) of research time in your current job plan.
Your research partner must hold a contract of employment with the University of Birmingham or Aston University for the duration of your award.
Your research partner must have a proven track record of securing peer-reviewed research programmes from funders such as UKRI, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) or significant third sector research funders for the duration of the planned partnership.
You must include a letter of support from the research partner as part of your application.
The NHS Trust that employs you must provide a commitment to:
- Support protected research time
- Ensure that you can re-enter a full-time clinical role without any loss of career progression or status at the end of the award, if you choose to do so
You must include a letter of support from your NHS Trust employer as part of the application which:
- Confirms that you will be released for the proportion of time funded by the BHP New Consultants Scheme
- Includes clear and feasible plans for your time to be backfilled, especially for applicants from niche specialties where this will present challenges
- Guarantees that you can return to your previous full-time role at the end of the award
- Salary funding for two programmed activities (PAs) – or eight hours per week – of protected research time in your current job plan, for a three-year period. Please note that this funding is provided to your NHS employer retrospectively, covering the actual salary costs of your funded PAs.
- A £5k bursary for consumables expenditure or additional training to undertake the project. No additional support for salaries or other costs may be requested.
Applicants will need to complete the following steps:
- Complete the BHP NCF Application Form 2026 (click link to download). Word limits must be strictly observed – applications exceeding word limits will be rejected without being read. No appendices or supporting documents will be accepted
- Provide a two page CV using the BHP NCF Scheme CV Template 2026 (click link to download).
- Provide a publications list for the Applicant and Research Partner (max one side of A4 per applicant)
- Provide a two page CV of the Research Partner
- Provide a letter of support from the Research Partner
- Provide a letter of support from your current employer
- Provide any additional letters of support for the application
- Submit all of the above to icat@contacts.bham.ac.uk by Monday 19 January 2026.
For further information not covered in the above, please email Professor Lorraine Harper at icat@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
Application deadline: Monday 19 January 2026
Interviews: March or April 2026
Award Initiation Deadline of 1 September 2026