ACF in Special Care Dentistry (Sheffield)

The University of Sheffield, in partnership with the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Charles Clifford Dental Hospital and the Department of Community and Special Care Dentistry) and Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber (Sheffield locality) wish to offer an Academic Clinical Fellowship in Special Care Dentistry

Applications are now invited for an Academic Clinical Fellowship in Special Care Dentistry (ACF) ST1 level in Sheffield from August 2022.

The following posts are available: One post in Special Care Dentistry (ACF) ST1 level

Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) are 3-year fixed-term national training posts.  They attract an NTN(A) and trainees undertake 75 % clinical and 25% academic training over the term of the post.  They are employed by the NHS Trust (in this case Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and have an honorary contract with the University of Sheffield. ACF trainees undergo training in the generic skills required for a clinical academic: scientific methods, statistics, research governance, critical appraisal of research publication, grant writing etc through postgraduate taught modules provided by the University of Sheffield and for which some funding is provided by NIHR.  Academic Clinical Fellows may join with the well-established Sheffield medical ACF programme within the Graduate School of the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health:

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/faculty/medicine-dentistry-health/graduateschool/clinical-academic/acf

Trainees do not necessarily complete the whole Masters Programme in Research Methods; they can choose the modules most relevant to them, and also choose from the continuing development programme. The major part of the academic placement will be the preparation of scientific research proposal for a PhD project, funding for which will be sought from an external body such as the NIHR, MRC or the Wellcome Trust. Generally the preparation of the proposal is based on preliminary experimental data gathered while on the research placement. Trainees are also eligible for a £1,000 bursary per year to support research training activity (e.g. to attend academic conferences).

ACF trainees are expected to complete and submit an external funding application for a research fellowship to enable them to complete a higher degree (PhD) following the completion of their ACF fixed-term post, which would be completed as Out-of-Programme-Research (OOPR).

All Academic Clinical Fellowships are run-through posts, regardless of specialty.  A trainee entering an ACF post would therefore be guaranteed continued training to CCST in Special Care Dentistry, as long as they progress satisfactorily (in both clinical and academic domains) through their training.

Please note:  All applicants who do not already hold a National Training Number (NTN) or Deanery Reference Number (DRN) in the GMC specialty to which they are applying for will be required to undertake the national clinical recruitment process and attend an assessment/interview for that GMC specialty as appropriate.

The full Job Description for this post is available to download from the right of this page.

NIHR have produced some Frequently Asked Questions for applicants. You are advised to read this document in full before submitting your application.

Further sources of information

• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
• Yorkshire and the Humber Academic Training webpages
• University of Sheffield

Details of the recruitment process are provided below.