About us

ICAT Diagram as described in text below

Designed for academic medical, dental and allied health professionals, the Integrated Academic Training Programme gives you a coherent training and career pathway which integrates the development of your research skills with each of the key stages of your clinical academic career.

As an undergraduate, the most popular way of gaining research experience is by doing an Intercalated BSC degree within your MBChB programme.  (Graduate entry medical students do not have this option as they will have already done a BSc).

All UK trainees are then required to follow a 2-year Foundation Programme and it is possible to combine this with research by applying for Academic Foundation Training. 

Once you have completed your Foundation training and have decided which discipline you wish to follow, there are opportunities within your specialist training to combine your clinical work with academic work or research.  These opportunities include

Once you are a consultant, you can choose between posts which have specified research within them, or you can continue with your own research interests. 

The development of this national programme involves the collaboration of core partners; the Strategic Health Authority (notably the Workforce Deanery), regional HEIs (University of Birmingham) and partner NHS Trusts.

Initiatives for undergraduate students are linked to the aspirations of the INSPIRE programme.