MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentships

To be eligible, the Administering Institution must be a recognised Scottish University or Research Institution in which the clinical PhD student will be matriculated and which will award the PhD degree.

There is no requirement or restriction on the subject or nature of the research, provided it addresses a question relevant to human health – the causation, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of illness or the development of medical or surgical appliances – and is clinical or patient focused.

The Administering Institution must provide

• a minimum of two suitably qualified Supervisors (the Principal and Second Supervisors);
• expertise, facilities and resources to support clinical or patient focused research;
• an approved academic PhD programme of study, including training and transferable skills development; and
• appropriate facilities to successfully complete the research.

A Principal Supervisor can only hold one active MRS funded PhD Studentship at one time (an MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentship or an MRS PhD Studentship), though they can apply as Principal Supervisor for a subsequent MRS funded Clinical PhD Studentship to commence after the completion date of their current PhD Studentship. A Principal Supervisor can be Second Supervisor on another MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentship and/or MRS PhD Studentship. Supervisors can be a Second (or additional) Supervisor on more than one MRS funded Clinical PhD Studentship and/or PhD Studentship.

The Principal Supervisor must have identified a student to be appointed to the Clinical PhD Studentship, if awarded. The proposed student’s details must be entered in the Application Form. The proposed Clinical PhD student must have been awarded their undergraduate medical or dentistry degree and must have completed their foundation training. It is expected that the proposed student will be at an early stage of their clinical medical, surgical or dentistry career and will be undertaking their specialist training, but applications with a proposed student who is at a later stage of their career are welcome. Please note there is a maximum PhD Student Clinical Salary that will be awarded (see MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentship Guidance Notes, Section 11).

Applications which include a proposed student who has current affiliation with RCPSG are particularly welcome, though this is not a requirement. Successful students who are affiliated to RCPSG are welcome to take part in the activities of RCPSG.

The MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentship Guidance Notes and Standard Conditions, to which applicants and awardees must agree, can be downloaded here.

Applications must be made using the prescribed forms (Clinical PhD Studentship Application Form and Clinical PhD Studentship Appendix Form, if applicable).

Please download the forms:

• Clinical PhD Studentship Application Form
• Clinical PhD Studentship Appendix Form

Once all parts of the Application Form are complete, the application (including any consent letters from collaborators, see the Guidance Notes) must be submitted as a single pdf file.

The Application Form must EITHER be printed, signed, scanned (including the Appendix Form, if applicable) and saved as a single pdf OR the Word document can be converted to a pdf, the Appendix Form (if applicable) and letters of consent from collaborators (if applicable) should then be inserted into the pdf and the pdf electronically signed. The final single pdf should be emailed as an attachment to applications@medicalresearchscotland.org

The closing date for the 2024 call is 12 noon, Thursday 21 November 2024.

Expert peer reviewers including members of RCPSG Scholarship Committee and MRS Trustees will review the applications.

The Board of Trustees of MRS and members of RCPSG Scholarship Committee will use the peer reviewers’ assessment of the applications when making the final award decisions.

Reviewers’ and Trustees’ scientific and medical expertise may lie in a different specialism to that of your proposed research, which should be taken into consideration when completing the proposal: it is important to make the application understandable to scientifically literate but non-specialist reviewers.

MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentships provide the following funding (paid at pro-rata rates):

• Clinical PhD Student’s Salary: Basic personal salary (not out-of-hours bands) for the appointed student (including superannuation and national insurance), with increments, based on an appropriate point for the appointed student on the relevant pay scale. See https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/junior-doctors-pay-scales/pay-scales-for-junior-doctors-in-scotland for pay scales for junior doctors in Scotland. Request for salaries should be based on actual costs at the time of submitting the application, increases for inflation should not be included. The maximum salary an MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentship will be award is SpR9 (Speciality Registrar 9), even if the appointed student will progress above this level during the Studentship or has a higher salary when starting their Clinical PhD Studentship
• Fees are paid at Home UK rate for three years. MRS will pay the Administering Institution the published Home rate for university tuition fees for the first year and reasonable increases annually thereafter. Should fee increases be above 5% per annum, notification of and full justification for the increase must be submitted to MRS. If a non-Home fee-paying student is to be appointed to the Studentship, MRS must be provided with evidence, prior to their appointment, that the student is able to finance the fee top-up required to the international/EU fee rate for the full duration of the Studentship.
• Research Expenses: Up to £30,000. Research Expenses include the cost of laboratory reagents and other reasonable expenses required to complete the proposed research, including animal housing expenses, if applicable. Computers, IT equipment and software expenses are not covered, except in the case of specialist equipment fundamental to successful completion of the proposed research, in which case, clear justification for the IT equipment must be included with invoices submitted for payment. Research expenses cannot be used to pay costs relating to the protection of intellectual property.
• Travel Allowance: £2,250 over the three-year Clinical PhD Studentship to cover justified travel expenses incurred in relation to attending conferences/scientific meetings of particular relevance to the student’s Clinical PhD Studentship – all costs can be claimed including registration fees, travel, accommodation and subsistence.
• Virement: no transfer of funds between Research and Travel Expenses is permitted.
• Open Access Publication Costs: MRS and RCPSG encourage open access publication of the results of the research they fund and they have funds available for this. Application for open access publication costs can be made to: applications@medicalresearchscotland.org. If funding is approved, full reference details (in the format at Scientific Publications) and an electronic copy of the publication must be provided before open access publication costs will be reimbursed.

Principal Supervisors will be notified by email of the outcome of their application and whether or not they have received funding for an MRS-RCPSG Clinical PhD Studentship. We anticipate email notification will be sent by the end of February 2025.

The Principal Supervisor is responsible for notifying the other parties to the application of the outcome of the application.

If your application is successful, the Principal Supervisor will be sent an Acceptance Form. The Principal Supervisor, Administering Institution Signatory and the proposed student must sign the Acceptance Form, agreeing to the conditions of the award and the Principal Supervisor must return a pdf version of the signed Acceptance Form, as an attachment, to applications@medicalresearchscotland.org.

Prior to submitting the application, the Principal Supervisor must have identified a student to be appointed to the Clinical PhD Studentship, if awarded. The proposed student’s details must be entered in the Application Form.

If the application is successful, the Administering Institution is responsible for entering into any contractual agreement with the student. MRS and RCPSG does not have any contractual arrangement with the student and the award is made to the Administering Institution with the Principal Supervisor as the named grant holder.

The Administering Institution must notify MRS once the student has accepted the Clinical PhD Studentship position.

Clinical PhD Students will also receive career development support through a series of bespoke Researcher Development Events organised by MRS. These take place at least annually and student attendance is compulsory.

Throughout the term of the PhD Studentship, students and supervisors must submit reports on the progress being made. Reports are required at least annually. Funds will not be released for the next year of the Clinical PhD Studentship until a progress report is received for the preceding year and the report is reviewed as satisfactory by MRS and RCPSG. Annual reports will be due before the anniversary of the Studentships to enable them to be review and assessed in advance of the next annual payment of funds from MRS.

Report forms will be available to download from here in due course.

The following reports are required.

• Set-up Report                         Due 3 months after start date
• Year 1 Annual Report            Due 10 months after start date
• Year 2 Annual Report            Due 22 months after start date
• Final Report                            Due 39 months after start date
• Post Completion Report        Due 48 months after start date

At the start of each year of the Clinical PhD Studentship, the Administering Institution must advise MRS of the full cost of the Clinical PhD Student’s salary for the current year of the Clinical PhD Studentship (see “Funding” section above). MRS will pay the annual student fees and salary to the Administering Institution, provided the previous year’s annual report has been scored as satisfactory by the MRS and RCPSG.

Other costs must be met initially by the Administering Institution, which should submit fully itemised quarterly invoices in arrears to MRS for Research Expenses, open access publication costs (if approved) and claims from the Travel Allowance for expenses for attendance at conferences/scientific meetings for reimbursement. Invoices must include the award reference number, the claim period and a fully identifiable description of the items being claimed.

All claims from the Travel Allowance component of the award must be accompanied by a Travel Allowance Claim Form which should include an explanation of the purpose and relevance of the travel to the PhD Studentship.

Requests for open access publication costs should be made to: applications@medicalresearchscotland.org. Full reference details (in the format at Scientific Publications) and an electronic copy of the open access publication must be provided before MRS will pay open access costs

Payment of Research Expenses and Travel Expenses cannot be made in advance.