Biomedical and Clinical Sciences

This three-year programme is tailored specifically to the needs of talented clinicians who aspire to a career in academic medicine or clinical psychology. The course is also known as the Doctoral Training Fellowship Scheme for Clinicians.

Most graduates from this programme continue in academic research in prestigious laboratories worldwide.

Successful applicants will work towards a DPhil within one of three streams which are in basic sciences, mental and cognitive health, and translational/experimental medicine.

Applicants are strongly advised to visit the Medical Sciences Graduate School website to help them identify the most suitable course and supervisors.

You will be offered generic research training and required to meet standard University milestones for progress. All students are  formally monitored via supervisor feedback forms submitted three times per year.

1. Basic sciences

This stream aims to provide high-quality research training in basic and applied molecular science for clinical academics who aspire to a career in academic medicine. It is expected that you will carry out DPhil projects in one of the following broad areas:

• metabolism
• genomics
• haematology
• infection/immunity/inflammation
• neurobiology
• cardiovascular

Training provision is tailored to your needs, in relation to your research project and determined in consultation with supervisors, mentor and programme directors.

It is expected that you will have both basic-scientist and clinician-scientist supervisors, to bridge the gap between basic and applied research.

2. Mental and cognitive health

This stream aims to recruit clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists to the DPhil programme and place them into internationally-recognised research groups that have successfully developed new treatments, clinical assessments and rehabilitation procedures and/or novel experimental medicine approaches to psychopharmacology.

You should expect to receive core teaching in a range of skills important for clinical research in mental and cognitive health. These may include: experimental design, structured clinical interviews, cognitive testing, programming experiments MATLAB/using E-Prime/SuperLab etc, design and analysis of clinical trials, acquisition and analysis of fMRI and other imaging data.

In addition, Oxford has exceptional multimodal imaging facilities to which you should have access. If appropriate for your research, you will normally be able to join the FMRIB graduate training programme.

Throughout the DPhil course, students on this stream will have a weekly day-long placement in a unit that conducts clinical work closely related to your research programme, in order to:

• observe how research and clinical implementation can work together
• continue to develop your clinical skills

Each placement normally lasts for twelve months, during which you should have the opportunity to work in units that aim to help you observe translational work in a complementary area to your research. In this way, the programme aims to equip you with the skills you need to ensure that, when relevant, you can rapidly translate your future research findings into patient benefit.

You will be required to meet standard University milestones for progress and will be monitored formally via supervisor feedback forms submitted three times per year.

3. Translational/experimental medicine

This is a new theme, introduced to take advantage of other strengths in biomedical science. These include projects in:

• the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, which provides a unique environment where engineers and clinicians work together, focusing on novel technological approaches to healthcare problems;
• vaccinology through the Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group, where novel vaccine approaches for infection and also non-infectious targets such as cancer are developed and tested through clinical trials;
• veterinary science in collaboration with the Pirbright Institute (formerly the Institute of Animal Health) and the Royal Veterinary College in conjunction with the Jenner Institute and Wellcome-funded projects (eg in orthopaedics and in neuromuscular disease) and an interdisciplinary training initiative on Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning;
• translational and applied neurosciences including advanced neuro-imaging available through the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Building (fMRIB) and novel PET approaches with Imanova, interfacing with scientists with skills in physics and big data; 
• major non-communicable diseases through the Nuffield Department of Population Health, Clinical Trials Service Unit, and Epidemiologic Studies Unit, and the new Big Data Institute (BDI), focusing on the analysis of large, complex, heterogeneous data sets for research into the causes and consequences, prevention and treatment of disease. Ethox, also based in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, provides an environment where empirical research and ethical analyses can be combined around clinical ethics, research ethics, and global/population health ethics; and
• international health and tropical medicine, building on collaborations between Oxford investigators and its major overseas programmes with bases in Kenya, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Applicants are normally expected to be predicted or have achieved a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours (or equivalent international qualifications), as a minimum, in a relevant subject. 

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.5 out of 4.0.

If you hold non-UK qualifications and wish to check how your qualifications match these requirements, you can contact the National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom (UK NARIC).

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

• Official transcript(s)
• CV/résumé
• Research proposal and Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship application form: Up to 1,400 words
• References/letters of recommendation: Three overall, all of which must be academic

ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

Higher level

• Global Education
• Hill Foundation Scholarships