Frequently Asked Questions

ICAT-2 (for cohorts appointed between 2022-2026) is open to trainees in all specialties in human medicine, surgery, veterinary medicine and dentistry. Eligibility criteria can be found on the Fellowship Call page.

No. As ICAT is an integrated research training programme, we can only accept clinical trainees who have not yet achieved CSCST/CCT.

The ICAT Programme is designed as an integrated training programme, with the first structured year normally accredited for training (with 80/20 clinical/academic split), and 3 full-time PhD research years (some of which may be prospectively accredited for training, depending on your specialty).

You should have at least one year of training remaining when you start an ICAT fellowship (there are different criteria for GP trainees, please see FAQ below). ICAT Fellows may have between 0-3 years of higher specialist training (HST) remaining at the time of PhD completion. CSCST/CCT cannot be awarded until the end of your ICAT fellowship.

If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact the Programme Managers in advance for advice, and please also discuss your potential application with the Dean of your postgraduate clinical training body.

No, ICAT does not part-fund existing research.

If you are in your final year of BST and are applying for higher specialist training (HST) you can apply to ICAT. If you are offered an ICAT fellowship, acceptance of the fellowship is conditional on you gaining a place on HST and on approval from your postgraduate clinical training body. We advise you to notify the HST scheme of your application to ICAT in advance.

Your referees should be in a position to assess and comment on your academic abilities and potential, as requested in the reference form. It is not required that they have directly supervised your research, although this clearly puts them in a good position to assess your potential for this programme.

You do not need a Master’s or intercalated degree to apply to ICAT; some applicants do hold them, but not all.

The ICAT application and interviews are solely based on the excellence of the applicant and you are scored on your educational, research and clinical experience and achievements.

Unfortunately we cannot offer extensions to the deadline for applications or references; this is in the interest of fairness to all candidates and to facilitate the stringent international peer review process for shortlisting applicants.

If one of your referees is unable to provide a reference by the specified date, please approach alternate referees. If you have any specific queries regarding your submission, please contact the programme directly.

All applications are sent for international review by a minimum of three independent peer reviewers and their scores will be combined. Feedback from the peer reviewers and their scores will be reviewed by the Shortlisting panel to ensure fairness.

The combined application scores will be used to shortlist candidates for interview and all applicants will be given feedback on the application process.

ICAT has identified some specialties that are underrepresented in clinical academia in general as well as within ICAT, and strongly encourages trainees in these specialties to apply. ICAT expects that this will increase the number of applications from trainees in these specialties, and therefore increases the likelihood that some may be appointed to the programme.

There is no preference given to trainees from these specialties within the application and interview process. All applicants have to reach a threshold for shortlisting, and have to be considered ‘appointable’ by the interview panel to be offered a fellowship. There is one ICAT fellowship that is ringfenced for trainees in these identified specialties; however, trainees must reach the threshold for appointment. If there are no trainees from the underserved specialties within the list of appointable candidates, the fellowship will be awarded to another candidate.

There are several fellowships available within each application call and trainees within every specialty are eligible for the majority of these, with only two exceptions – only veterinary candidates are eligible for the Department of Food, Agriculture and the Marine (DAFM) fellowships, and only trainees within the College of Anaesthesiology (CAI) are eligible for the CAI fellowships (the latter are also eligible for the general call).

Example of fellowships that may be available in one application call:

• 5 fellowships open to all medical and dental graduates – ‘general call’.
• 1 fellowship open to all medical and dental graduates enrolled on a higher specialist training scheme in NI (trainees are also eligible for the general call).
• 1 fellowship open to a trainees in an identified underrepresented specialty – if not filled by a trainee within one of the identified specialties, this fellowship will be offered to the next highest ranking candidate in the general call.
• 1 veterinary fellowship.
• 1 fellowship for a trainee enrolled in a College of Anaesthesiologists (CAI) higher specialist training scheme (CAI trainees are also eligible for the general call). This is a 4-year PhD due to a greater clinical commitment during the PhD.

Shortlisted applicants are invited to interview at a location in Dublin; interviews are generally held in early December. Remote interviews may be held in exceptional circumstances.

Applicants are invited to give a brief presentation (a title is sent to each candidate in advance of the interview) and then are interviewed by a panel. We strive for gender balance and diversity of research and clinical specialties amongst the panel members; we do not tailor the panels for each candidate.

The interview panels are composed of leading academics and clinicians in Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as international academics. In the interest of fairness, we do not divulge the names of the panel members to any candidates prior to the interviews. Written feedback is provided to all interview candidates following the interviews.

ICAT funds exceptional individuals with a strong interest in pursuing a career as a clinical academic; it is not required that you interview with a fully-formed PhD project idea, but it is expected that you are able to discuss in depth your research interests and to explain why ICAT is the right programme for you.

Yes, we welcome applications from clinical trainees internationally. Please be aware that you need to be eligible to enrol in a higher specialist training scheme in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, and that you must have been offered a place on a training scheme before you accept an offer of an ICAT fellowship.

It is also worth noting that ICAT offers funding for PhD registration fees at the local/EU rate, but any additional fees must be arranged independently; please contact the Programme Managers directly for advice in this regard.

The ICAT programme is open to trainees enrolled in training schemes in the UK and Republic of Ireland at the time of entering ICAT. If you are registered with the GMC as a UK-based trainee, you would be eligible to apply. Year 1 is a combined clinical training and research preparation year and will count towards a CCT if recognized prospectively by the Specialty Advisory Committee of the clinical discipline you are training in.

If successful and you were awarded an ICAT fellowship it would be expected that you would relocate to a training post in either Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland. This is to allow the ICAT Fellow to enjoy all of the opportunities afforded during Year 1 and to develop a robust PhD proposal that is acceptable to the host institution (university) and academic supervisors. Years 2-4 are full-time research with the aim of completing a PhD, and fellows must be registered as PhD students with one of the six ICAT partner universities.

If considering relocation from the UK or further afield, we recommend that you notify us in advance of your application so that we can advise you.

Year 1 of the ICAT fellowship would count towards your UK CCT if the clinical training was based in NI (you can be appointed to one ICAT university for Year 1 and then switch to another for your PhD in Years 2-4). Years 2-4 would be your full-time PhD, i.e. out-of-programme research (OOPR). Any clinical training during your PhD would need to be prospectively recognised by the Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) for your training scheme in the UK. Normally in the UK, only up to 3 months is recognised for clinical training during the total 3-year OOPR period for a PhD.

If you wished to have any clinical training in the Republic of Ireland recognised (during your PhD) this would require prior approval by NIMDTA, as the Northern Ireland Deanery, and should be discussed with your Dean of postgraduate clinical training.

ICAT Fellows continue to progress up the relevant trainee salary payscale (for example, the non-consultant hospital doctor Specialist Registrar scale for most trainees in the Republic of Ireland) during their ICAT fellowship. If a trainee reaches the maximum point on the salary scale, they will remain on that point until CSCST/CCT. Veterinary trainees will receive a university salary.

Yes, ICAT will fund maternity leave taken within a fellowship. ICAT is fully flexible for fellows who take a period of leave (including maternity leave, long-term sick leave etc.) and will work with the fellow to re-arrange deadlines and pertinent dates such as PhD proposal interviews, where required.

ICAT Fellows can develop research projects in any area of interest to them, these could include lab-based, data-based, clinical research, qualitative research or blue skies research.

ICAT encourages novel, innovative and multi-sectorial approaches to research and Fellows must be supervised by a cross-disciplinary team with supervisors from at least two of the ICAT universities as well as international collaborators who can add value to the research.

ICAT Fellows can develop research projects in any area of interest to them, these could include lab-based, data-based, clinical research, qualitative research or blue skies research.

If you are successful in the defence of your PhD project proposal in year 1, ICAT will fund a 3-year PhD. PhD costs include a salary, PhD registration fees (at local/EU rate), a contribution to research costs, for example laboratory consumables, and funding towards travel, training, dissemination, outreach activities and public and patient involvement in your research.

ICAT also funds regular Study Days, an annual Retreat, an Induction Event for new fellows and an annual Summer School. Within ICAT-2 (from 2022), fellows may apply for funding towards an international research placement to be undertaken during their PhD.

If a 4-year PhD is required for purposes of your clinical training, the funding for your salary and PhD registration fees for the final year must be sourced independently and approved prior to your appointment as an ICAT Fellow.

We are flexible in terms of training and it is the responsibility of the postgraduate clinical training body to agree with the format of training within the programme, in particular with respect to GIM versus specialty training accreditation.

The first year of the ICAT programme is 80% clinical and 20% academic, with a focus on protected time. Your trainers and higher specialist training (HST) committee need to be supportive of you achieving this goal and to sign off for high intensity GIM.

ICAT is based on a principal of streamlined clinical and academic training with CSCST/CCT.

You can apply for ICAT when enrolling in or enrolled on HST; the best time to apply to ICAT is dependent on the length of your training scheme and the stage you are at. For ICAT you cannot complete CSCST/CCT until the end of your ICAT fellowship.

Year 1 of ICAT is generally fully accredited for clinical training and you can prospectively apply in ROI for up to 1-year accreditation for the 3 years of your PhD; accreditation is at the discretion of your postgraduate clinical training body in ROI.

Generally an ICAT fellowship is 4 years – 1 pre-PhD year and 3 PhD years.

CAI/HRB-funded fellowships for trainees on a College of Anaesthesiologists training scheme are 5 years in length – 1 pre-PhD year and 4 PhD years. This is due to a greater clinical commitment during the PhD.

Your clinical training is organised by your postgraduate clinical training body, not by the ICAT programme. The structure of ICAT is such that the first year is 80% clinical and 20% academic, during which time you prepare your PhD proposal submission. Upon successful peer review, you enter your PhD years from years 2 to 4 inclusive. You then re-enter your clinical training and a minimum of one year is required prior to completion of specialist training.

It is the decision of your training body where you carry out your clinical training in the final years of the programme. During the PhD research years, short periods abroad can be facilitated on the basis of collaborations between your supervisor and centres of excellence abroad, for research purposes only.