Doctoral Fellowships in Maternity Disparities

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium (MDC) is proud to announce its doctoral fellowships competition. We are seeking the next generation of researchers to help us tackle persistent inequalities in maternity. 

The MDC brings together a UK wide collaboration of universities, NHS trusts, councils, charities, and industry partners. You can find information about our consortium members here. Our goal is to improve outcomes for women and babies before, during, and after pregnancy through inclusive, evidence-based research.

The MDC capacity development programme aims to build the next generation of maternity disparities research leaders, strengthen the workforce to deliver and sustain impact across the UK.

The Consortium focuses on growing long-term research capacity and expertise, especially within underrepresented disciplines, professions and underserved communities; inspiring and supporting the next generation of researchers with the right skills mix to work across clinical, practice and research sectors.  

The Opportunity 

We are offering up to 8 funded salaried doctorates across a range of potential projects at universities across our Consortium. We are specifically looking to grow research capacity among underrepresented disciplines such as midwives, health visitors, neonatal nurses, social care practitioners and community pharmacists.  

• Start: June 2027 
• Duration: Up to 3 years (Full-Time) or 4 years at 0.8WTE (Part-Time) dependent on project, please see individual project pages. 

Funding:  

• Full salary, including national insurance and superannuation, based on your current full time equivalent (fte) salary, up to a salary of £68,000fte (100% direct costs only). 
• Active clinician or practitioner applicants, or applicants that are registered practitioners employed in a local authority setting, can claim up to 20% clinical or practice time within the award 
• Full PhD tuition fees, at UK home rate 
• £5,000 contribution towards research, travel, training and consumables. 

Who is a MDC doctoral fellowship for? 

To be eligible for this scheme you should be an active clinician or practitioner or a registered practitioner based in a local authority setting. Applicants must hold a substantive contract in a clinical / local authority practice role. 

For this award, we define ‘active clinicians or practitioners’ as people who hold a contract of employment in the UK who are either: 

• Registered UK health, public health or social care professionals  
• Doctors or dentists registered with the General Dental Council or General Medical Council 
• Health and care professionals (HCPs) (which includes nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, regulated clinical and practitioner psychologists, pharmacists, and healthcare scientists) registered with one of the national regulatory bodies, including the: 
  • Nursing and Midwifery Council 
  • Health and Care Professions Council 
  • General Dental Council 
  • General Medical Council 
  • General Optical Council 
  • General Osteopathic Council 
  • General Chiropractic Council 
  • General Pharmaceutical Council 
  • Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland 

Fixed term contracts of employment of any duration are acceptable but honorary contracts or bank work are not.  

We define ‘registered practitioners based in local authority settings’ as people who are:  

• Registered UK health, public health or social care professionals, registered with a national body including:  
• Social Work England, Northern Ireland Social Care Council, Scottish Social Services Council, Social Care Wales 
• UK Public Health Register 
• Health and Care Professions Council 
• Nursing and Midwifery Council 

And hold a contract of employment in the UK with either a: 

• local authority  
• provider of local authority commissioned services, or a 
• non-profit organisation, such as a charity that provides services on behalf of a local authority, or that otherwise supports a local authority in meeting its objectives 
• fixed term contracts of employment of any duration are acceptable but honorary contracts or bank work are not 
• non-profit organisation, which provide services on behalf of a local authority, or that otherwise supports a local authority, do not need to be commissioned or funded by that local authority, but the support does need to be co-designed with, or at the very least acknowledged and signposted by, the local authority or authorities in question 

We welcome applications from individuals passionate about maternal health equity and particularly from areas that are underrepresented in maternity disparities research. We are committed to building a supportive, inclusive, and caring research community. We particularly encourage applications from: 

• People from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds. 
• People with disabilities, neurodivergent conditions, and long-term health requirements 
• Candidates of all genders, ages, and beliefs. 

Each project has a supervisor, theme lead and capacity development lead listed on the project page. We encourage you to contact them to ensure the project is a right fit for you. 

For more information, please click on the 'Apply' button above, Please note, you may apply for a maximum of two projects.

Accessibility & Support 

We want you to perform at your best. You may contact individual supervisors when asking for more details about the projects and your suitability for the project. General enquiries about the recruitment process and MDC, including if you require any reasonable adjustments for the application process or the interview (such as alternative formats, extra time, or specific technological needs), please contact nihr.mdc.capacitydevelopment@newcastle.ac.uk.  

NIHR and DHSC have a duty as a public body to promote equality of opportunity.  We will contact all applicants throughout the application period with an Equality Monitoring Form. Monitoring ensures that all applications to NIHR MDC Programmes are treated equally in terms of gender, ethnicity and/or disability. Information will be anonymised and stored separately from your application, only be used for the purpose of monitoring equal opportunities and be kept securely and in confidence. 

Closing Date: 5pm 11th January 2027