Academic Clinical Fellowships at the PCU

The Primary Care Unit offers a small number of Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF) posts each year. These posts are supported by Health Education England and are advertised when opportunities are open, often in October/November each year. The Fellows enter academic training which is fully integrated into their clinical training programme. The academic strand is maintained across the whole four-year period and is individually tailored to the needs of each of our Fellows.

During this, the Fellows will spend 6 months in clinical and academic general practice in the first year, followed by 18 months in hospital posts. They will then spend the equivalent of a further 9 months full time in the academic environment over the following 24 months, with the remainder in general practice.

Our ACFs usually complete the one year University of Cambridge MPhil in Primary Care Research and they receive individually tailored academic mentoring and supervision in order to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in research methods and medical education. The academic programme includes practical experience of research through an apprenticeship to an existing research team here and ACFs have opportunities to conduct and publish well defined personal research projects with a view to developing an application for a doctoral training fellowship.

Learn about some of our past and current ACFs

Blog by Dr Collette Isabel Stadler (August 2016): All risks are equal, but some risks are (apparently) more equal than others…

Search our People database for current ACFs here (select Academic Clinical Fellow in the Title column and then select individual names to see short biographies).

Further information

Specific enquiries about the Cambridge ACF scheme can be addressed to Frances Cater – pcupa@medschl.cam.ac.uk

More information is available on the National Recruitment Office for General Practice Training website.