Training and placement opportunities
The Centre for Academic Child Health has a wealth of experience in hosting a variety of placements and training opportunities, ranging from school student work experience and short-term placements for university undergraduates to student selective components and electives for medical students.
The Centre for Academic Child Health is committed to a holistic and global perspective on child health. We value students and researchers from diverse backgrounds who understand the context, culture, social and political history that underpins the lived experience of children, and who help us ensure that our research is applied and relevant for the families we wish to support.
We offer a range of opportunities for research projects for intercalated BSc, MSc and PhD studies. We host fellowships with support from a range of funders and for scientists returning to work after a career break.
Our research areas include injury prevention, chronic fatigue syndrome, nutrition in pregnancy and childhood, parental sleep and the role of social media in parenting. Many projects can be tailored to meet individual requirements. For enquiries contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
Postgraduates – PhD
If you’re planning to do a PhD, find out more about our research on the website and details of what the University of Bristol has to offer postdoctoral research students. Bristol Medical School posts details of PhD opportunities for population health sciences and translational health sciences and on FindAPhD.
Whether you have secured funding or not, you will need to make a formal application to the University of Bristol. This will require you have an agreement letter. This can be supplied during your application once you have agreed a supervisor and a project outline.
Any costs incurred as part of the programme of work will need to be determined in advance and arrangements made to cover the costs. You will be responsible for the costs of travel to and from Bristol and for accommodation. You may need to apply for the appropriate visa – guidance on this is available, including contact information if you need further advice.
You are welcome to send further details of a proposed project to see if it matches the interests of a supervisor.
Contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
Postgraduates – MSc and MRes
MSc Public Health and MSc Epidemiology research projects
We welcome students on these courses to study research projects within the Centre. These will be supervised by research staff from the Centre. Recent projects have included studies on maternal obesity as a predictor of child obesity and on the predictors of metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity.
Projects are offered from a centralised list held by the course organisers for 4-month projects running from June to September each year.
MSc Health Psychology placements
We welcome enquiries from students on the MSc Health Psychology programme at UWE Bristol who are interested in children and young people’s health and wellbeing. Students can undertake a placement at CACH as part of their Health Psychology in Action module, subject to identification of a project that meets the needs of the student and the placement host.
Potential topic areas include any current area of research at the Centre, but may include injury prevention, chronic fatigue syndrome, nutrition in pregnancy and childhood, parental sleep and the role of social media in parenting. Placements last a minimum of 50 hours and may contribute towards your dissertation. If you would like to find out more, contact the module leader at UWE or Julie Mytton at CACH.
Intercalated MRes (Health Sciences Research) projects
We welcome students for their 8-month research projects, which run from November to July. These will be supervised by research staff from the CACH. The development of your project proposal will receive support from a primary and secondary supervisor, who will also provide theoretical and practical supervision as required.
Contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
Fellowships and Returners to science
Fellowships
We are experienced in hosting fellowships from a variety of funders within the Cenre, often with additional supervision from academics elsewhere in Bristol Medical School or in the University of Bristol.
Recent fellowships in the Centre have been funded by Wellcome, Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute and NIHR, amongst others. Find out more about our research areas on the website, to see if we can help you with the development of your fellowship proposal and hosting your fellowship. Contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
Returners to science research
We welcome scientists who want to return to work after a career break for caring or health reasons. We have recently hosted scientists with funding from Daphne Jackson Trust, Wellcome Career Re-Entry and British Heart Foundation Research Career Re-Entry Fellowships. We also provide mentorship for returners in other departments of the University of Bristol. In addition, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships offer flexible working for early career scientists. We are experienced in offering support and advice to returners.
Contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
Medical students and doctors, including MB21 SSC, Intercalated BSc and Electives
You’ll be assigned to a research group lead within CACH who will supervise you in a series of academic tasks related to child health research. These could include systematic reviewing (screening, data extraction), transcription and analysis of qualitative interviews, observing data analyses from cohort studies/trials and attendance at trial management meetings, team meetings, and when available trial steering committee/data safety monitoring committee meetings.
Year 3 placements run for 6 weeks at the end of Year 3.
The extended placement time allows for a more in-depth exploration of child health research methods and a more demanding project that will extend your research skills.
Bristol Medical School offers iBSc in Global Health, Bioethics, Genomic Medicine, and Child Health Research (from 2021). Your project will typically be for 3 months focusing on a project relevant to your course culminating in a draft scientific paper or substantial thesis. You’ll be supervised by research staff from CACH who will provide theoretical and practical supervision as required.
Electives
We welcome both international and UK medical students for elective research placements for medical students. The aim of the placement is to enable students to gain experience of research in child health. You must have completed at least 3 years of your medical degree programme with a minimum of 12 months clinical training (excluding an intercalated BSc). If you are an international student you may need to apply for the appropriate visa - guidance on this is available, including contact information if you need further advice.
AF2 and Clinical research training
Academic Foundation Year 2 doctors (AF2)
Placements for AF2 run in the second year of your training. You’ll complete a 4-month research block while maintaining 1 day a week on clinical work and then you’ll have one day a week for academic work in the remaining 8 months of the year.
Academic Clinical Lecturers (ACL)
We are experienced in hosting research projects for Academic Clinical Lecturers. We will also support you in applying for senior fellowships while transitioning to an independent researcher
Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACF)
These posts are available to specialty trainees allowing 25% of your training time to be spent on academic activities (teaching or research). You’ll be given 9 months of protected academic time during the first 3 years of training. With a structured research programme and teaching experience, we can help you prepare and apply for a PhD or other higher degree.
Clinical research training
If you are considering a career as a clinical academic but would like to experience life a researcher before you decide then the Clinical Primer Scheme may be for you. This scheme is suitable for medical graduates and involves a research training period of 3–6 months with time allowed for one clinical session per week. If you work at UHBristol or at the University of Bristol with an honorary contract at UH Bristol there are other funding options available.
If you are a clinician needing support with flexible working or returning to work, please contact the Severn Deanery.
Contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
Undergraduate placements, projects and internships
If you are a university student studying in health/medical areas we can offer you a range of flexible short-term projects including summer internships available with CACH. These will be supervised by research staff from the Centre. You can expect to gain skills in areas such as literature appraisal and systematic reviewing, interview transcription, data preparation and statistical analysis, and writing academic papers and lay summaries.
Projects can be of varying lengths and can be tailored to meet individual requirements. Contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
We welcome Children’s Nursing students from UWE Bristol during your elective period when you can spend 4 weeks at CACH supervised by either Julie Mytton or Toity Deave. During the placement you will have the opportunity to observe research in progress across a range of different topic areas. Where possible you will be encouraged to contribute to projects and to prepare a short report and presentation at the end of your elective period. For further information please contact Julie Mytton.
School student placements
School student placements
Are you a school or college student aged 16+?
We can offer you a 3-day work experience placement in CACH – you’ll get to help the administrative team with some of their work and then spend your time with our researchers finding out about their work, including the studies that we run, how we collect and organise data, and what’s involved in data security and data analysis. You’ll also get an insight into how we use our results to have an impact on the health and daily lives of children and adolescents.
We are a friendly and welcoming team and there will be a wide range of workplace activities for you to experience.
'Having the opportunity to meet the Bristol research team and witness how research is developed to change peoples lives has been extremely inspirational. I cannot thank the lovely team enough for their kindness and the opportunity to experience the incredible work they are doing' - Harriet Batty work experience.
Contact cach-training-opp@bristol.ac.uk
