NIHR SCIP is a personal funding award that allows early career staff to complete a Master’s in Research at one of several participating Universities in the South-Central Region of England. Staff completing the NIHR SCIP programme will develop knowledge and skill in research and improvement methods. Learners will be supported throughout their studies to apply their learning to their professional practice, to inform local service improvement initiatives or identify priority areas for future research.

The SCIP award includes funding of full MSc tuition fees at one of the participating Universities. The SCIP award also includes a stipend payment of approximately £20,780 in total. This is a fixed amount, that is determined in accordance with UKRI rate recommendation. The stipend amount will be paid to the applicant (or by separate negotiation may be paid to the applicant’s employer) via a SCIP University. Payment is typically made retrospectively and in quarterly installments.

All early career health or social care professionals registered with one of the eligible regulatory professional bodies at the time commencement on the programme are welcome to apply. Early career is defined as up to five years whole time equivalent spent working in their registered profession. Career breaks (e.g., maternity leave) are excluded from the calculation of whole time equivalent.

Applications are welcome from undergraduate or postgraduate students/early career professionals working towards registration/ registered with one the following regulatory bodies (not including doctors and dentists):  Academy for Healthcare Science  General Chiropractic Council  General Dental Council  General Medical Council  General optical Council  General Osteopathic Council  General Pharmaceutical Council  Health and Care Professions Council  Nursing and Midwifery Council  Social Work England  UK Public Health Register  Applicants must be registered with one of the eligible professional regulatory body’s by the time they start at University.

Yes, applicants can choose to study full time (completion of masters degree within one year) or part time (completion of masters degree within two years).

Yes, applicants can work alongside study, but they do need to be able to attend lectures and complete course assignments. When considering support of your member of staff it is helpful for them to familiarize themselves with the requirements of the course and be able to discuss this with you so that you can plan for the different commitments. Applicants must select one of the following work–study combinations: work full-time/study part-time, work part-time/study part-time, or work part-time/study full-time. Studying full-time while working full-time is not permitted and applications proposing this combination will not be accepted.  It is strongly advised that you discuss an application with your employee AND employing organisation Heads of Department/ other as appropriate at the soonest possible time. When discussing an application, you should confirm employer support to apply and how you agree to manage ongoing support if successfully awarded funding.   Please contact the SCIP team if you would like support discussing work and study arrangements (emailscip.insight@soton.ac.uk).

It may be possible to agree reallocation of the stipend award to the applicants’ employer, to support them to undertake study and allow your organization to arrange some backfill/or other alternative of time. Please discuss this with the applicant and the SCIP team for further detail.     Each of our participating University courses have a slightly different master’s programme. Below is a summary of the programmes:

Yes, in the 2026 round of SCIP international applicants are eligible to apply but will be required to self-fund the difference between home and international tuition fee rates. International applicants, with support of their employers, are expected to check and confirm that take-up of an award will not breach any visa conditions. Inability to pay the fee difference or confirm visa compliance may result in the award offer being withdrawn.

The SCIP team will confirm that an offer of study will be made by the applicants first choice University before making a funding offer. If all funded places at the first choice University have been filled, AND the applicant meets the eligibility criteria for SCIP funding place and has indicated that they are happy for us to share their application with the other participating Universities, they may be offered funding and place of study at one of the other participating Universities. Applicants can indicate on the application form if they would like to be considered for funding at only their first-choice university or any participating university. We encourage applicants and their employers to carefully consider the study requirements of each programme when completing this question on the application form.   This is year 2 of a 3-year funding programme; if an applicant is unsuccessful in their first attempt they may choose to apply in the next round of funding. Funding applications open once annually.

Applicants should complete the online form when application window is live.

The deadline for receipt of applications will be available once applicaiton widnow is open. Applicants must have submitted an NIHR SCIP application AND an application directly to their first choice of university by this deadline.

More information is available on each of the participating University websites (see table above). Specific queries can be sent to scip.insight@soton.ac.uk. You can watch a webinar recording about NIHR SCIP here: South Central INSIGHT Programme Cohort 3 Launch   Thank you for considering support of your staff member to apply to the NIHR SCIP programme.