NHS Fellowship in Clinical AI
Cohort 4 Applications (2025-26)

Workforce and geographical eligibility are not decided by the faculty of this fellowship. This is decided at a regional level by regional funding bodies, and this is not a uniform process across the UK. If you wished to apply this cohort but were ineligible, please email the fellowship faculty (gstt.aifellowship@nhs.net) so that we can identify priority areas for recruitment in future cohorts.

Healthcare leaders with expertise in clinical AI are required for successful AI adoption in the NHS. The eligible career stages have been agreed by consensus with our sponsor organisations and the digital workforce leads for eligible professions to target individuals just about to enter positions of clinical leadership and service development, and thus best placed to deliver on the transformational benefits of clinical AI.

No. Medical and dental trainees must hold a confirmed National Training Number on a specialty training programme leading to CCT in its own right for the duration of the post.

No. Prior experience of coding, programming, or AI is not an essential criterion of the Person Specification. Previous fellows have been recruited without such experience.

Applicants who believe they are borderline eligible should contact the faculty directly (gstt.aifellowship@nhs.net) to clarify before applying to avoid disappointment.

No. Current fellows and alumni are not eligible.

There are 2 stages of recruitment: shortlist and interview. In the shortlisting stage, eligible applicants are scored according to their responses on the online Application Form. The highest scoring applicants from the shortlisting stage are then invited to a remote interview. The scores from interview are used to match successful applicants to their choice of project.

Interviews are conducted remotely. The interview is a structured series of questions or problem-solving tasks designed to assess an applicant’s suitability for the fellowship per the role description document (see above: "Application Process", Step 1). The interview panel consists of fellowship faculty, AI supervisors, and regional education leads.

The interviews are planned for 22-29 January 2025. Applicants proceeding to interview will be sent a link to book their interview slot.

Interviewees are assessed according to the Essential and Desirable criteria of the role description document. Consider how to show evidence of meeting these criteria with real-world examples, particularly through participation in digital transformation projects in healthcare.

Yes. The deadline is the same as listed in the Key Dates above.

Applicants who do not have the relevant submitted Approval In Principle Form will not be shortlisted. This is because we can only make offers to applicants who have evidence of being able to take up the post. The submission portal closes automatically and late submissions are not accepted. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure this has happened.

No. Projects and hosting teams in the NHS are proposed to the faculty by AI supervisors. Successful applicants are matched to these projects competitively following the interview stage.

Applicants will rank the projects they are eligible to be matched to. The highest scoring applicant from the interview stage in each regional pool will be matched to their highest ranked project. The next highest scoring applicant is matched to their highest ranked project remaining, etc. until all posts are filled.

No. Each region’s fellows are eligible to be matched to projects within their own region only. An exception applies the case of the BSH Fellows in Clinical AI (see dedicated FAQ section).

No. You do not need to have an existing affiliation to an NHS Trust which hosts AI projects. You will hold an honorary contract or Letter of Access with the host NHS Trust for the duration of your fellowship in order to work on the project.

To be matched to a specific project, an applicant should go through the normal application process. There will be an opportunity to rank projects by preference. The applicant should rank only projects they would want to do on the fellowship year. If the applicant scores highly enough in the interview stage, they will be matched to such a project. Otherwise, if there are no projects remaining that the applicant has ranked when it comes to the matching step, they will not have a post on the fellowship.

Many fellows work on projects outside their usual specialty area on this fellowship. Clinical AI is still a growing field and clinical specialties are not equally represented in the available projects. The experience from any project will involve significant amounts of transferable knowledge and skills which will equip you to adopt clinical AI in your own career.

No. Having a lower time commitment is not suitable for the learning objectives of the programme. The educational activities and project placements are structured to deliver the learning objectives of the fellowship curriculum based on a 0.4 FTE unbanded working pattern. If your Approver cannot confirm that this time can be released, your application is not eligible and will not be shortlisted.

No. For the same reasons as above.

No. Due to the time commitments of this programme, a fellow must not have a total working pattern >1.0FTE in total.

No. Fellows typically agree with their Training Programme Director to enter less than full time training for the duration of this fellowship. The time spent on the fellowship is then added on extend the expected duration of training. The educational content of the fellowship is not expected to align sufficiently with current medical/dental curricula to count towards competencies.

Yes. The places are fully funded for eligible NHS staff.

No. The fellowship is not your Employer. Your existing Employer is reimbursed for your salary (0.4FTE for 12 months) to release your time for the fellowship post by the regional or professional sponsoring organisation for your post. The salary that the Employer is reimbursed is determined by the Employer’s quote at the start of the fellowship.

Yes. This is paid up front and then reclaimed from your Employer or regional sponsor.

Salary reimbursement for fellowship time is transferred to your new employer.

This fellowship is a time-bound opportunity that runs for 12 months between the dates specified. The educational activities and project placements hosted by AI supervisors are structured to deliver the learning objectives of the fellowship curriculum within this period. Project supervisors propose projects related to cohort dates and are not required to provide supervision beyond these dates. In general, interrupted time on the fellowship year cannot be added on beyond the end of the fellowship year. Individual situations will be considered on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the faculty.

No. The offer for a fellowship post must be accepted for that cohort’s recruitment cycle. An applicant would newly apply for the following year.

Fellows receive a certificate of completion of the fellowship issued by the faculty.

The British Society for Haematology (BSH) is sponsoring posts for BSH members (full or associate members) in Cohort 4 of the Fellowship in Clinical AI. There are 2 sponsored posts in Cohort 4, and the appointees will be designated BSH Fellows in Clinical AI. These posts are reserved exclusively for applicants who are BSH members, and will link to projects relating to Haematology.

Yes. The BSH and fellowship faculty have identified projects relevant to the specialty theme of AI in Haematology and details will be released during the recruitment cycle. These are “BSH-badged projects”, and first priority for them is reserved exclusively for BSH Fellows in Clinical AI.

No. BSH applicants also need to meet the professional eligibility criteria for workforce groups as specified in the role description document.

Yes. BSH applicants can apply from any NHS region. However, in practice, it is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that they are able to commute to their project location through the fellowship year, and this is not resourced by the BSH or by the fellowship itself. The offer for a fellowship post may be withdrawn if the potential BSH Fellow in Clinical AI is unable to demonstrate a feasible plan for commuting to their project location. Please contact the faculty ((gstt.aifellowship@nhs.net) for more specific information on geographical availability of such projects.

BSH applicants enter their BSH membership number in the application form, which will be checked against the membership registry of the BSH.

Applicants will rank the projects they are eligible to be matched to. The highest scoring BSH applicant from the interview stage will be matched to their highest ranked BSH-badged project. The next highest scoring BSH applicant is matched to their highest ranked BSH-badged project remaining, etc. until all BSH-sponsored posts are filled.

BSH applicants who are appointed as BSH Fellows in Clinical AI will exclusively be matched to BSH-badged projects. BSH applicants who also meet regional criteria can be matched to projects in that region (whether BSH-badged on not) if they miss out on a sponsored post (they are automatically re-entered into the applicant pool of that region). BSH applicants who do not meet regional criteria for any of the participating regions are only eligible to be matched to BSH-badged projects as BSH Fellows in Clinical AI.

Yes. If there are BSH-badged projects that are still available after the BSH Fellows in Clinical AI have been appointed, these can be matched to either BSH applicants or non-BSH applicants as part of the regional matching process.

BSH applicants who do not obtain one of the sponsored posts in this cohort are automatically re-entered into the applicant pool associated with their region. The applicant could be matched to a project in that region depending on their interview score. Entering the fellowship through this route will not carry the designation of BSH Fellow in Clinical AI, but will still be a fellow in clinical AI. It is possible to be matched to a BSH-badged project through this route, depending on regional availability.

No. Due to high volume of applicants, the faculty unfortunately is not able to help with this.

Please contact the faculty directly (gstt.aifellowship@nhs.net) if you require a bespoke arrangement.