NIHR GOSH BRC and Alder Hey Surgeon Scientist Pre-doctoral Programme

The National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) GOSH Biomedical Research Centre (GOSH BRC) are pleased to announce round three of the Surgeon Scientist pre-doctoral fellowship to support the next generation of surgeon scientist within the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine field.

The NIHR GOSH BRC is a collaboration between Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (ICH). It funds early translational research focused on paediatric rare or complex diseases, which aims to translate discoveries from basic/discovery science into clinical research and through to patient and economic benefit. We were first awarded BRC status from the NIHR in 2007 and, in 2022, we secured £38 million for our fourth term until 2028. Essential to delivering the BRC’s strategy is also our newly created Paediatric Excellence Initiative, a partnership between the BRC, Alder Hey, Birmingham and Sheffield Children’s Hospitals. The initiative will enable more rapid translation of our research, help to create a network of excellence and reflects our ambition to ensure staff from a range of career stages, professions and backgrounds can influence our strategy.

In its fourth term of funding, the NIHR GOSH BRC has five strategic research themes. Alongside our themes, our Central Development Hub supports our career development academy, business development and patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities.

The NIHR GOSH BRC’s Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM) theme aims to pioneer the repair and reconstruction of tissues and organs to treat children with structural malformations, tissue and organ failure, and to improve their life expectancy and quality of life. The theme combines expertise in stem cell biology, iPSC platforms, bioengineering, and surgery to pioneer laboratory-grown organs and develop strategies for tissue and organ restoration. Our key aim is to create a pipeline of research training opportunities to develop future surgeon scientist leaders. We recently joined GOSH Charity to co-fund the Lewis Spitz Surgeon Scientist PhD Fellowship which supports surgical trainees to obtain a PhD at the Institute of Child Health under the supervision of ICH academics and GOSH surgeons.

Together with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and GOSH, the TERM theme would like to establish a surgeon scientist training programme at pre-doctoral level to provide opportunities for research training, protected research time to develop a competitive application for a doctoral fellowship, and to ultimately develop future surgeon scientist leaders. The aim is to increase capacity through training in the scientific basis of paediatric surgery, with a focus on treating children who suffer from congenital malformations and other conditions requiring surgery.

This call offers funding for trainees aspiring or already doing surgery training applied to child health to undertake a research placement at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in collaboration with the Great Ormond Street Hospital and associated partner universities.

The fellowship will provide:

• salary at CT/ST1-2 level for up to one year. We have funding for a 6-month full time position at CT/ST1-2 level, which can be spread over one year at a pro-rated FTE.
• Up to £5,000 non-pay to support research activities e.g. lab consumables, conference fees and travel costs directly associated with the research.

Start date of the fellowship will be subject to the approval of the deanery, but the earliest start date is 1st April 2026, and the latest is 1st October 2026.

The successful applicant will be employed at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and based primarily at Alder Hey Children's Hospital and the University of Liverpool, with some time being spent at GOSH and ICH.

Applicants will need to contact relevant supervisors at Alder Hey before applying. If applicants wish to be put into contact with prospective supervisor(s) they can contact Prof D Hawcutt (d.hawcutt@liverpool.ac.uk), Miss R Harwood (Rachel.Harwood@alderhey.nhs.uk) or Prof C Hedrich (chedrich@liverpool.ac.uk) who will help them to identify an appropriate supervisor.

Primary supervisors will be employed by Alder Hey who will have direct line-management responsibility for the fellow. A co-supervisor must also be identified from the joint partnership/ collaboration with GOSH and/or UCL GOS Institute of Child Health.

You will need to ensure prospective supervisors read this guidance and complete the relevant sections of this application.

We are seeking motivated surgical trainees with a passion for child health research. To be eligible, at the time of the application, applicants must:

• Hold a medical degree (MB BS or equivalent)
• Be GMC registered (or eligible) and working at ST1–2 level. Please note that candidates will be required to have a valid GMC license by the time they can start this position.
• Be on a paediatric surgical training track
• Not yet hold a PhD. Candidates who have started a PhD (or equivalent) may be considered, however please get in touch to discuss your circumstances before starting an application.

Applicants should have a clear plan to complete specialty training and be eligible for Out of Programme for Research (OOPR). Prior formal research posts (e.g. ACF) are not required, but candidates must show potential for a clinical academic career and future PhD study.

Primary supervisor will be a senior clinician/surgeon at the Alder Hey who will also have line management responsibilities for the fellow. A second co-supervisor must be identified from GOSH and/or UCL GOS Institute of Child Health to encourage collaborative nature of the proposed project.

Additional supervisors or collaborators can also be identified from either organisations as relevant to the area of the proposed research.

Applicants will be required to propose a research project, to be designed together with the prospective supervisors.

Applications must include joint partnership between Alder Hey and GOSH as a minimum and preferably an additional academic partner from either university (UCL GOS Institute of Child Health or University of Liverpool).

Projects should be aligned to GOSH BRC Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine theme and Alder Hey strategic objectives. Specific areas should include:

• Development of engineered next generation human organoid tissue models that model functional tissue properties to investigate pathophysiology of developmental malformations.
• Proof-of-concept tissue engineering studies of replacement tissues for patient treatment.
• Developing GMP-compatible replacement tissues and cells.
• Developing innovative strategies for repair and reconstruction of tissue or birth defects which apply surgical science tools (diagnostics, devices and therapeutics) to improve paediatric health outcomes).

NIHR funding does not permit support for animal research studies and therefore proposals cannot include animal research.

Following application submission, there will be several stages to the process of selecting candidates:

• After submission, applications will be reviewed by members of the BRC TERM Theme and Alder Hey Paediatric Excellence Initiative Leads, as well as junior faculty representatives.
• Shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview, which may involve one or two interview stages, and will involve senior members of the BRC and Alder Hey.
• Interview dates will be confirmed via email to shortlisted candidates.

Applications will be reviewed using the following selection criteria:

• Applicants who can demonstrate outstanding potential for development as a surgical clinical academic in paediatric translational research.
• Previous research experience and statement of research interest
• High-level interest and experience in the proposed academic field, backed up if possible by relevant publications, prizes or distinctions.
• Clarity about longer-term career aspirations and how the fellowship will provide opportunities for career development, such as motivation for pursuing PhD in the chosen field and scientific interests.
• Scientific excellence of the proposed project and relevance to the BRC TERM theme.
• Likelihood of generating preliminary data in support of a subsequent application for funding for a PhD studentship

The closing date for submission of applications is Thursday 23 October 2025, 17:00

The following documents should be submitted by email to BRC@gosh.nhs.uk by the deadline. Please include “GOSH BRC Pre-doctoral Surgeon scientist application – YOUR NAME” in the email title.

• A completed application form submitted as a word document, signed by the people indicated below (signatures may be provided as e signatures or wet-ink)
  • The candidate applying for a Fellowshi
  • The proposed primary supervisor (Alder Hey)
  • The proposed subsidiary supervisor (GOSH or UCL GOS ICH)
  • Head of department/ designated authority at Alder Hey
• A CV (2 pages max)
• A letter of support from primary supervisor (up to 2 pages).