Fellowships in mental health research
Fellowships are available to those with clinical or non-clinical backgrounds. They are focused on your development as a researcher and often support PhD and post-doctoral positions. They can offer a significant amount of funding that allows you to design a research project and implement it, sometimes over the course of a number of years. Fellowships are designed to support your development as an independent researcher.
The application process for these prestigious funding awards is typically detailed and competitive. A fellowship application can take a year or so to prepare - the NIHR Research Support Service is an invaluable support for guiding you through the process of an NIHR fellowship application. If you are successful with a fellowship application, you are supported in your ongoing development as a researcher in your chosen field, be that in applied health, public health, clinical settings or at the crossover of all these. But there are many other organisations beyond NIHR that offer fellowships for mental health research too. Take a look at the links below.
“The fellowship gave me four years of funding, which matched the salary that I had as a practitioner, to do my Masters and PhD.”
Martin Webber, Professor of Social Work
"If you're serious, take it seriously. Do a PhD."
Ben Hannigan, Professor of Mental Health Nursing
“If you are going to be writing a proposal you need to have a good grasp of research methodology and what is going to be of interest to the big research funders.”
Martin Webber, Professor of Social Work