King's College London

Joining forces with leading institutions across the capital, King’s is a partner in the newly established London Launchpad Regional Accounts for Clinical Researchers (RACR), a collaborative program designed to support postdoctoral clinical academics as they navigate challenging career transition points.

Clinical academics (registered health and care professionals who carry out research alongside their clinical work) play a vital role in delivering innovation in healthcare settings and improving patient care. However, they often face barriers to sustaining a research career, and their numbers are in decline. The MRC’s Regional Accounts for Clinical Researchers (RACR) scheme targets support to key, and often complex, career transition points. These include the move from PhD to postdoc, and the transition to becoming an independent researcher.

The London Launchpad RACR brings together King’s, Kingston University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London South Bank University, Queen Mary University of London, and University College London. Led by University College London, the successful funding bid has secured an initial £700,000, which will be used over the next two years to provide flexible support to postdoctoral clinical academics who are either navigating a career transition or looking to return to research after a break. King’s partnering NHS Trusts (Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital, and South London and Maudsley) will help facilitate this support.

The bid to form the London Launchpad RACR was led by Professor Emma Morris, University College London. Professor Morris said: “The London Launchpad RACR is built on established academic and clinical partnerships, serving three quarters of Greater London.

Our strength is our size, breadth and diversity. Partners range from established Russell Group Universities, Modern London Universities recognised for addressing inequalities and driving NMAHP (nurses, midwives and allied health professionals) academic careers, primary care and mental health trusts, specialist secondary care acute trusts and Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs). We aim to support clinicians from across the NHS workforce including medics, surgeons, and NMAHPs.

Our specific mission is to address the decline in numbers of academic clinicians undertaking discovery research across the NHS workforce in a range of disciplines, thereby strengthening London’s capacity to deliver world leading health research and benefit patients across diverse communities. Within our partners we have a large, untapped pool of outstanding clinicians who currently lack opportunities to stay in research.

We will leverage existing infrastructure in our universities, NHS Trusts, and NIHR BRCs with additional support from leading health-related charities. We will share resources and experience across the Launchpad by developing and evaluating a system-level approach. We aim to create a pan-London ‘Front Door’ for research opportunities.”

King’s part of the funding application was led by Professor Philip Newsome, Director of the King’s Health Partners Centre for Translational Medicine and the Roger Williams Institute of Liver Studies, with support from Professor Rina Dutta and Dr Sam Irving, Deputy Director and Associate Director of King’s Clinical Academic Training Office (KCATO), respectively.

Professor Newsome said: “We lose too many clinical academics at predictable points in their careers: the move into a postdoctoral training phase, the step to independence, and the return from a career break. The London Launchpad RACR allows us to act precisely where the pipeline is most fragile, and doing so in partnership with our NHS Trusts and leading London institutions is what will make this investment endure.”

RACR’s aims closely align with KCATO’s ambitions to support clinical academics at every stage of their careers. Among its existing programmes, KCATO organises a Return to Research group for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (NMAHPs+) who are looking to get back into research after a break – a model that the RACR funding will further strengthen. Professor Dutta said: “We are delighted to have secured this RACR funding with our London partners. Already two of our Return to Research group have secured NIHR research awards. These are exactly the type of individuals who will benefit from RACR funding to build momentum and enable them to progress in research. By investing in talent at crucial career progression points, King’s and our partnering NHS Trusts are securing the future of clinical research by building a sustainable, inclusive pipeline of clinical academics across all health and care professions.”

Overall, the MRC RACR funding will help research-active health and care professionals maintain momentum and progress their clinical academic careers. By investing in talent at crucial career progression points, King’s and our partnering NHS Trusts are securing the future of clinical research by building a sustainable, inclusive pipeline of clinical academics across all health and care professions. “The London Launchpad is effectively a statement of intent: To remove barriers, to level the playing field, to increase access, to share learning, and to create more opportunities for all clinicians seeking a research-focused career,” Professor Morris said. “We believe we can only achieve this by working in partnership.”