Education and training

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Moorfields provide educational support to staff and students at our partner institutions, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

We host and partner with programmes dedicated to helping colleagues develop their skills, furthering their careers and enhancing the research landscape. The different cohorts can deepen their understanding of eye and vision research and reach the next level of their career, often with protected time to make their work impactful. All the while, they are improving the health and care landscape in the UK and worldwide. We host regular meetings to explore the research and clinical outputs of our organisations. If you are thinking of clinical academic career or talk about potential career pathways, contact us, come and speak to us – moorfieldsbrc@nihr.ac.uk

Regular meetings:

Clinical Academic Trainees in Ophthalmology Network (CATION) meetings: online first Thursday of each month

At each monthly meeting, one of our clinical academic trainees will give a 20 min talk (either related to their research, a journal article or another relevant topic) and the rest of the meeting enables audience discussion. The session discussion relates to the talk as well as lends the opportunity to focus on other topics relating to clinical academic training/research in ophthalmology for those not yet at consultant level. All who are interested (including trainees / consultants / non-clinicians / non-London based people) are welcome. You do not need to register, just join via the zoom link (email o.mahroo@ucl.ac.uk for zoom link).

Clinical academic forum meetings: in person, every 3 months

At these meetings (usually on a Monday starting at 17.30), senior and junior clinical academics share their career journeys, discussing challenges faced and answering questions on clinical academic training.

Any queries, email o.mahroo@ucl.ac.uk or w.wong10@nhs.net

Meeting other professionals

Cross Innovation Hub

The Cross Innovation Hub is on a mission is to drive innovation and translate outcomes into benefits for patients and the public. This happens in an environment that supports multidisciplinary approaches and collaboration. The Cross Innovation Hub aims to facilitate partnerships between clinicians and researchers by providing a place for ideas to grow. We have different ways you can get involved

Grand challenges
Membership
Shadowing
PhD committee membership
Events
Small grants funding

NIHR programmes

NIHR Health and Care Professional Internship Programme: North London Research Internship for Skill building and Excellence (NL RISE)

The annual research internship programme provides health and care professionals with the opportunity to develop research knowledge and skills: to enhance practice, build research delivery expertise or begin a clinical academic career pathway as part of the NIHR research career funding programme.

Find out more here

Recent programmes

It aims to support individuals with ‘time out’ to develop research proposals and apply for further career development opportunities

Funding opportunity promoted within 3 targeted departments (i.e. 3 core underrepresented groups in ophthalmic research: nursing, visual electrophysiology and paediatric ophthalmology)
Awardees are required to apply for an NIHR career development award (including pre-doctoral, doctoral and post doctoral awards) as the endpoint
A total of 7 individuals were awarded with funding – supported with up to 0.2 WTE protected time for 12 months

Awardees are mentored by Prof. Omar Mahroo, Prof. Anthony Robson (electrophysiology), Prof. Roxanne Crosby-Nwaobi (nursing), and Dr Annegret Dahlmann-Noor (paediatrics)

It aims to support individuals with ‘time out’ to develop research proposals and apply for further career development opportunities.

The call is similar to the previous NIHR Infrastructure/ School pre-application support fund programme, however instead of being limited to nurses and AHPs, it was opened to all staff across the UCL and MEH partnership
Awardees can apply for any fellowship (not restricted to NIHR awards)
Advertisement on Eye Q and email circulation among different departments have been carried out
A total of 12 applications were received
4 awardees were confirmed – to be supported with up to 0.4 WTE protected time for 12 months
Awardees are mentored by Prof. Mariya Moosajee (genetics), Dr Vijay Tailor-Hamblin (paediatrics), Dr Annegret Dahlmann-Noor (paediatrics) and Prof Anthony Khawaja (glaucoma and data).

The course is provided by The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The course is now titled – Research Skills for Eye Health course
- available on LSHTM Open Study platform https://open.lshtm.ac.uk/

The course aims to equip health professionals with public‑health–focused skills to reduce blindness and visual disability globally, while also strengthening research capacity within the clinical workforce
Designed for a wide range of eye‑care professionals, including ophthalmic nurses, clinical officers, programme managers, optometrists, dispensing opticians, ophthalmology residents, ophthalmologists and medical students
Runs over 18 weeks, consisting of four 4‑week modules (online format), plus 2 weeks for final assessments
Covers four core topics:
1. Global challenges in ophthalmology
2. Essential epidemiology, health economics and statistics
3. Research methods and skills for eye care
4. Planning and implementing eye‑care services
Recruitment
1. Pilot cohort 2024/25: Opportunity promoted within targeted departments including Nursing, Optometry and Orthoptics)
2. Re-run cohort 2025/26: Advertisement on Eye Q and email circulation among different departments
Two cohorts run so far
1. Pilot cohort 2024/25: 15 participants from Moorfields (including nurse, orthoptist, optometrist)
2. Re-run cohort 2025/26: 7 participants from Moorfields (including nurse, ophthalmic technician, resident doctor, ophthalmic vision science practitioner, research comms)