HEALTH EDUCATION ENGLAND THAMES VALLEY – ACADEMIC CLINICAL FELLOWSHIP IN UROLOGY
(ST1 or ST2)
Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) posts are awarded by the NIHR to University/NHS Trust/Deanery partnerships nationally through a formula mechanism and by competition. These posts form part of the NIHR Integrated Training Pathway, further details of which can be found on the NIHR website
HEE Thames Valley, in partnership with the University of Oxford, has established an Academic School, the Oxford University Clinical Academic Graduate School (OUCAGS) ( All academic trainees become a member of the School and through it have access to a wide range of clinical academic training and funding opportunities as well as mentorship.
The objectives of the ACF programme are to combine specialist training with research training and to identify an area of academic and clinical interest in which a doctoral fellowship application or postdoctoral funding application (if a doctorate is already held) is prepared. All ACF posts are allocated an NTN (a).
Academic Programme Director for Surgery: Professor Paul Johnson
Clinical Programme Director for Core Surgical Training: Mr James Gilbert
Clinical Programme Director for Urology: Mr Tom Leslie
Head, Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and Urological Research: Professor Freddie Hamdy
Please note: in addition to the academic interviews, candidates will be required to attend and pass a clinical interview for the specialty in which they wish to train, unless they already hold an NTN in that specialty. Offers made will therefore be conditional upon meeting the required standard in the clinical interview. Please check the FAQs ( Applicant NIHR ACF FAQs.pdf) on the HETV website for more information.
About Health Education England Thames Valley
We are the Local Education and Training Board (LETB) for Thames Valley covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Our vision is to ensure the delivery of effective workforce planning and excellent education and training to develop a highly capable, flexible and motivated workforce that delivers improvements in health for the population of Thames Valley.Thames Valley LETB is responsible for the training of around 2000 Foundation and Specialty trainees.
Health Education England Thames Valley is a relatively small organisation with a defined geographical area which serves as a single unit of application. In the majority of cases successful candidates will be asked to preference their choice of location for either one or two years. Some programmes will require successful candidates to indicate a location and specialty. Future placements will usually be based on individual training and educational needs. Please note that applications are to the Health Education England Thames Valley as a whole. This may mean that you may be allocated to any geographic location within the deanery depending on training needs.
The Core Surgery Training Programme
The Core Surgery ACF programme is a three year programme, usually starting at ST1 or ST2 level. It comprises a 75% : 25% split of clinical and protected research time. The programme is tailored to the different needs of trainees, with some undertaking 3 years of Core Surgery Training (especially if trainees choose a 6 month block of research in addition to the regular protected days per week), others undertaking 2 years of Core Training before undertaking their DPhil / PhD programme, and others undertaking 2 years of Core Training and 1 year of Speciality training at ST3 level. During this time, the trainee's work will be monitored for satisfactory progress and subject to annual reviews in the form of ARCPs. Progression on the programme will be dependent upon these reviews.
The posts on this rotation have been approved for Specialist Training by the Joint Surgical Colleges. Each post has been carefully selected to ensure that both the Clinical and Academic competencies for each ACF can be achieved.
Trust / Hospitals and LocationsOxford University Hospitals NHS Trust / Churchill Hospital, Oxford
Horton Hospital, Banbury
John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust / Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury
Wycombe General Hospital, High Wycombe
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust / Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading
Frimley Park NHS Foundation Trust / Wexham Park Hospital
Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust / Milton Keynes General Hospital
Rotation Information
The Academic Clinical Fellowship Programme is based upon a 2 - 3 year rotation consisting of six posts in a variety of surgical disciplines based in Oxford and Wycombe. Each post has been carefully selected to ensure that both the Clinical and Academic competencies for each ACF can be achieved.
The successful applicant will be appointed to one of the following ACF programmes. This will be confirmed by both the Academic Training Programme Director and Core Surgery Training Programme Director on appointment. The ACF Programme has 3 years of funding, but in line with other Core Training posts, the Core Surgical competencies can be achieved in 2 years. The first year placement will be confirmed on appointment.
Example Rotation:
Rotation / ACF1A / ACF1B / ACF2A / ACF2B / ACF3A / ACF3B21 / GS
(OXF) / PAED (OXF) / GS (BUCKS) / GS
(OXF) / To be confirmed / To be confirmed
22 / GS
(OXF) / PAED (OXF) / GS (BUCKS) / GS
(OXF) / To be confirmed / To be confirmed
23 / PAED (OXF) / GS
(OXF) / GS
(OXF) / GS (BUCKS) / To be confirmed / To be confirmed
24 / PAED (OXF) / GS
(OXF) / GS
(OXF) / GS (BUCKS) / To be confirmed / To be confirmed
Duties of Post
The exact duties of each post on the Core Surgery Training Rotation vary. Further information is available from the individual departments.
Trust Information
Please follow the links above for all Trust information.
Teaching
There is a monthly regional training programme for all core trainees. All core trainees are normally afforded protected time to attend this.
Research
Research is a key component of each ACF post. All Core Surgery ACFs are guaranteed the equivalent of 25% per week of protected research time. This is usually given on a weekly basis, but a few projects lend themselves better to blocks of research time. The Oxford Medical Sciences Division within the University of Oxford is a major centre for clinical research in the UK, having achieved a top score in both the HEFCE research assessment exercises. The annual grant income from external sources for the Medical Sciences Division is over £120 million and the person appointed to the post would be expected to have an interest in teaching and research. The Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences combines cutting edge laboratory based research and clinical research and was awarded 5* status in the last Research Assessment Exercise (
A wide range of Research projects are available within the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, in the subspecialties of Urology (to which this particular post is attached), Transplantation, Vascular Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, and Evidence-based surgery (see There are also many other research opportunities within the Medical Sciences Division that are relevant to Surgery in general, and projects will be tailored to the interests of the successful candidate. All research projects are closely supervised, and ACFs are given plenty of opportunities to learn new research techniques in a supportive environment. Urological research encompasses benign and malignant diseases. The benign research programme focuses on urolithiasis (kidney stones) and we have active collaborations with several groupsworking on genetics (Oxford Centre for Diabetes and Endocrine Medicine), proteomics & metabolomics (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Physiology), epidemiology (Richard Doll building) and biomedical engineering (Institute of Biomedical Engineering). Theurological cancer research programme includes prostate, bladder and renal cancer projects. Laboratory projects are undertaken in the most suitable research Institutes within Oxford, where NDS has established a number of platforms with joint appointments, including the Ludwig Cancer Institute, the Botnar Institute ofMusculoskeletal Medicine, the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Genetics, the Gray Institute for Radiobiology and Oncology, the Oxford Centre for Diabetes and Endocrine Medicine. Each ACF will have a clinical academic and basic science supervisor for laboratory based research. For further enquiries about research possibilities, candidates can contact Professor FC Hamdy, Head of NDS and Professor of Urology: In addition, all Oxford ACFs have free access to the Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma in Health Research and are strongly encouraged to participate. Each surgical ACF is a full member of the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and will be provided with an Academic Mentor for the duration of their appointment (Professor Paul Johnson).
The ACF will be supported in preparing applications to continue their research either for Research Training Fellowships or Post-doctoral funding if they already hold a PhD. Support and mentorship will be provided to pursue an academic career for successful candidates, in order to secure University Lectureships, Intermediate post-doctoral fellowships and clinician scientist awards. In the event that academic career progression is unsuccessful and clinical competences are met, the ACFwill continue in the advertised specialty clinical training programme in accordance with the NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowships: Entry, Eligibility and Exit points for Appointments made in 2018.
General information on the LETB’s management of Specialty Training programmes, including issues such as taking time out of programme and dealing with concerns or complaints, is available at and in the national ‘Gold guide’ to Specialty Training at Please ensure that you inform Health Education Thames Valley of any changes to your contact details.
For Further Information, please contact:
Professor Paul Johnson - email:
Or
Ms Jane Bishop - email: .
3 October 2017