NIHR GOSH BRC Research Hospital Internship for Wider Health Care Professionals 2026

The National Institute for Health and Care Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) Research Hospital Internships aim to support nurses, allied health professionals, clinical scientists, and other associate clinical non-medical professionals to develop a research proposal and apply for a pre-doctoral or doctoral fellowships.

The deadline for applications is July 08 2026, 5.00 pm.

Funding for this round of internships is provided by the GOSH BRC as part of the Career Development Academy and GOSH Children’s Charity. This scheme will be led by the Research Hospitals Clinical Academic Careers Lead, Graeme O’Connor, with support provided by the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health (ORCHID) and wider BRC clinical academics. ORCHID’s clinical academic faculty is focused on research capacity building through providing structured support to nurses, allied health professionals, clinical scientists and any other associate clinical, non-medical professional across the Trust in line with the GOSH Research Hospital Strategy. The BRC Research Hospital Internships has an exemplary track record of supporting individuals through fellowship application for a range of awards including NIHR pre-doctoral fellowships and PhDs.

Funding for this round is available to support up to seven interns (depending on budget available). Proposals should address one of the two aims which will determine the most appropriate source of funding:

1. Awards supported by the BRC will align with the broad remit of the BRC, which is to support translational research for children and young people.
2. Awards supported by GOSH Charity will not necessarily have a translational focus but will address ambitions set out in the Trust’s wider research hospital strategy and have an impact on the care and treatment provided to children and young people.

We welcome enquiries from applicants at all stages of research expertise and training. Therefore, your research plan can be in the very early stages with identification of a need for future study, through to a developed research proposal, planned methods, supervision team and collaborators. Dependent on applications, we aim to award internships for pre-PhD and PhD career stage.

The expected outputs of these internships are the submission of competitive fellowship applications.

The internship provides:

• Up to six months of funded time on current salary to allow an individual to spend a day a week of protected time to work up a research idea ready for fellowship application within the following six months (six months of 0.2 WTE). This can either be funded as one day salary support, whereby the clinical department would need to agree to backfill the position, or as an extra day of funded employment for those that are not currently full time.
• Bespoke support and training from the clinical academic careers lead, Graeme O’Connor, access to the GOSH BRC Junior Faculty Bitesize Educational Seminar Series and ORCHID.
• Regular face-to-face/virtual sessions during fellowships on key aspects of successful applications, which the applicant will be expected to attend and engage with.
• Peer support from fellow interns and over 20 clinical academics from a wide range of health care professions working at GOSH.
• Use of hospital software packages such as R statistics, NVIVO, online databases, quiet space, book library and other resources.
• Review of fellowship applications from senior researchers.
• Interview practice with a large, varied panel
• Up to £500 of funding to conduct patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities necessary to enhance the external fellowship application. Please review guidance on PPIE costs you may request on the GOSH BRC PPIE website and NIHR PPIE website.
• If you have any questions or need any guidance on this, please contact our PPIE Lead at research.ppi@gosh.nhs.uk.

• You must be a nurse, allied health professional, healthcare scientist, pharmacist or any other associate clinical non-medical professional. 
• You must be able to start the internship on Monday 26 October 2026. You need to have a substantive contract or a minimum of a further 12 months contract remaining from internship start date with GOSH, ICH or our partner site hospitals (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital or Sheffield Children’s Hospital) and must be planning to have your current employer (either GOSH, ICH, Sheffield, Birmingham or Alder Hey Children’s Hospitals) as your host NHS Trust on your fellowship application.
• You must have written agreement from your line manager to support backfill of 0.2 WTE for up to six months (assessed by signature on application form and confirmed by a member of the GOSH BRC team).
• Staff who are currently part time and propose increasing their hours by 0.2 WTE to undertake the internship will also require agreement from their line manager.
• Approval from line manager and departmental head to support your fellowship or funding application going forward.
• All applicants must state on their application form, which award they are planning to submit to at the end of the internship period. Applicants may apply for any source of funding, for example NIHR personal fellowships, Wellcome Trust, NIHR RfPB, developmental awards or from condition specific organisations and charities-that reflect the focus of their planned research.
• Applicants do not need to have had prior links with the BRC to be eligible to apply.
• Your proposed area of research must be aligned with the remit of the GOSH BRC and/or your Trust’s research strategy:
• GOSH’s Research Hospital strategy.
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
• Brimingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital
• Sheffield Children’s Hospital
• For applicants applying for a PhD that involves qualitative research or mixed methods, you must have an appropriate named supervisor who has experience within these type of methodology.

An open event to discuss the internship programme and answer any questions will be held virtually on Wednesday 10 June 2026 1:00 pm and Friday 19 June 2026. If you would like to join one of these events, please contact Dr Graeme O'Connor below to confirm. The session will be recorded.

NIHR GOSH BRC Research Hospital Internship Webinar 1

Time: Wednesday 10 June 2026 01:00 PM London

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89959190668?pwd=J1lGeRdHPJM9nKtpG7h8GSbRdb8qSB.1

Meeting ID: 899 5919 0668

Passcode: 936989

NIHR GOSH BRC Research Hospital Internship Webinar 2

Time: Friday 19 June 2026 12:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87485057059?pwd=gq1RaWxRhHzg03AaTzHYxc6lC5jIjE.1

Meeting ID: 874 8505 7059

Passcode: 221821

If you would like to hear more about the scheme, please contact Graeme O'Connor (Graeme.O'Connor@gosh.nhs.uk).

1. If you'd like to apply, please read through the Guidance Notes and Application Form.
2. The deadline to apply is Wednesday July 08 2026, 5:00 pm. Applicants must send a completed application form (as a word document) and a copy of their CV to brc@gosh.nhs.uk.
3. Please contact Graeme O'Connor (graeme.o'connor@gosh.nhs.uk) if you have any questions about the scheme.