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Over the past five years, the BRC Experimental Academy (BRC EMA), delivered by the Academic Careers Office (ACO) at UCL, has supported over 2,600 early career researchers – offering training and mentorship in leadership, resilience and building research capacity and culture across UCL and UCLH. In the next few years the ACO will expand the education and training support it offers to research teams and clinical research practitioners, so that staff across all health-related disciplines can benefit.
The ACO’s ADAPT portfolio of programmes build resilience by focussing on wellbeing and practical coping strategies, helping researchers become better equipped to handles the highs and lows of a research career. Training and coaching will also aim to destigmatise failure and increase diversity among researchers by creating a more inclusive environment. Our leadership programme supports the next generation of clinical academic leaders to lead with authenticity and resilience.
The ACO will expand training in digital and data science, in support of UCLH’s role as a Research Hospital, and the teams will seek out new partners to deliver innovative initiatives. The well-established Clinician Coders programme has already trained hundreds of healthcare professionals in the basics of computer programming.
In partnership with the Translational Research office, the ACO also delivers the ACCELERATE portfolio of translational training skills, including a variety of training activities raging form pitching ideas, leaning the basics of translational research and a team challenge to solve a real-life translational research challenge.
The ACO leads the UCL-wide Integrated Academic Training (IAT) Programme, which has recently been awarded by NIHR with 51 clinical academic training fellowships for medics and dentists to train as the next generation of clinical academics, alongside UCLH and other UCL NHS partners. That’s an investment of £13M over the next two years (2024-2025) and will allow us to continue delivering and evolving our IAT programme. UCL is proud to have one of the largest cohorts of NIHR clinical academic trainees in the UK and this award continues to place UCL as one of the leaders in the country. The IAT programme strengthens UCL’s commitment to addressing some of the world’s most pressing health challenges alongside our clinical partners and enhancing the lives of people in the UK and around the world.
Head of the Academic Careers Office Felipe Fouto said: “This is just some of the work we will be doing over the coming years which we are incredibly excited about. We endeavour to be continue evolving our programmes so that we are at the forefront of capacity development and lead new trends in healthcare research.”
Visit the ACO webpages for more information on the work of the ACO and its programmes and training courses.
Read more about the work of our clinical academics, supported through the ACO: