Topic
Date published
23/06/2025
These fellowships give researchers protected, funded time to develop and submit a high-quality application for a NIHR career development award, including pre-doctoral, doctoral or postdoctoral fellowships.
The 2025 Pre-Application Support Fellows are:
- Bhavik Bhanderi, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Callum Brown, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Foundation Trust
- Dalvir Kandola, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trusts
- Dr Frances Hallam-Bowles, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Dr Lal Russell, University of Nottingham
- Dr Paul Langthorne, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and University of Nottingham
- Philippa Jones, General Practice Alliance
- Dr Rachael Carroll, University of Nottingham
- Dr Rachel Keetley, Nottingham Children’s Hospital
Read on to learn more about each fellow and their research ambitions.
Meet the fellows
Bhavik Bhanderi, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Current role and background
I am a Senior Dental Officer at the Specialist Dental Services, NHFT, with a background in special care dentistry. I have shaped a mixed portfolio career combining clinical leadership with research. In addition to my clinical role, I am a Medical and Dental Co-Lead for Quality Improvement (QI) at NHFT. This is a trust-wide role to design and deliver a strategy to embed QI capability among medical and dental staff leading to sustainable improvements in clinical practice.
Research interests
My main research interest is psychological approaches to dental anxiety management and exploring the long-term outcomes, real-world acceptability and cost-effectiveness at scale.
Fellowship aims
I aim to use this fellowship as a bridging period to acquire knowledge and skills specific to my research interest and gain confidence in my abilities. I will refine my doctoral proposal and apply for the NIHR Doctoral Award. Through my clinical academic and professional experiences, I recognise there is a lack of dental academic infrastructure in the East Midlands and, by extension, research capacity and opportunities for dentists, dental services, and patient and public involvement in research. I am keen to begin pursuing my career vision to address these shortcomings and advocate for greater research inclusion to act in the best interest of the patient population and my profession.
Callum Brown, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Foundation Trust
Current role and background
I am a senior physiotherapist at the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Foundation Trust, with a background in orthopaedic and neurological injury rehabilitation. I have worked across inpatient and outpatient settings since qualifying as a physiotherapist at the University of Birmingham (pre-registration MSc) in 2015.
Research interests
My main research interest is in clinical guideline application in the field of rehabilitation. I am exploring cardio-respiratory exercise in moderate to severely impaired stroke survivors. This touches on topics including therapy intensity, combined resistance and task-based practice exercise and the use of assistive technologies. I am using implementation methodology frameworks to support this.
Fellowship aims
During this fellowship, I aim to develop a pre-doctoral application. This will entail building a supervisory team, completing an evidence synthesis and undertaking specific learning modules. Research modules will include community engagement and qualitative analysis. Clinical modules will include cardiovascular training principles. In addition, I will be partaking in active learning sets and attending a national conference to build networks for future collaborations. This programme will provide me with protected time and funding to complete this step-change in my career.
Dalvir Kandola, University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trusts
Current role and background
I am a Consultant Midwife Lead for Inclusivity at UHL NHS Trusts with a background of 15 years experience in maternity and neonatal healthcare. I specialise in cultural diversity, supporting one of the most diverse cities in the country to provide inclusive care within perinatal provision. I lead on developing the best approach to tackling health inequalities and enacting quality improvement initiatives which underpin the equality, diversity and inclusivity agenda. Previous to this role, I worked in higher academic institutes, teaching and designing undergraduate healthcare programmes.
Research interests
My main research interest is addressing health disparities in underserved communities in relation to maternal access to care and experiences which affect health outcomes.
Fellowship aims
During this fellowship, I aim to develop a research proposal for a NIHR Doctoral award as well as develop my knowledge on specific research methodology and widen my publication outputs.
Dr Frances Hallam-Bowles, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Current role and background
I am a Clinical Researcher and registered physiotherapist at NUH, with a background in falls management and rehabilitation in community settings.
Research interests
My main research interests include rehabilitation in social care, digital technology, implementation and co-production.
Fellowship aims
During this fellowship, I aim to develop a research proposal on the co-design of a digital champion role in care homes to support positive risk assessment and person-centred care. I will develop knowledge of implementation science approaches and build collaborations in social care organisations, care home staff, residents and their families.
Dr Lal Russell, University of Nottingham
Current role and background
I am a Physiotherapist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, with a background in stroke and neurological rehabilitation.
Research interests
My main research interests include severe disability, rehabilitation, implementation science, realist methods, data for quality improvement and rehabilitation technology.
Fellowship aims
During this fellowship, I aim to build collaborations with the voluntary sector and gain a greater understanding of their role in strategic implementation of research, undertake leadership training, write a paper based on findings from my PhD, and develop a robust career development award.
Dr Paul Langthorne, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Current role and background
I am a Clinical Psychologist at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, with a background in working with survivors of complex trauma and abuse. I am particularly interested in developing safe and effective care for people who have difficulties with dissociation as a result of their traumatic experiences.
Research interests
My main research interests include improving the quality of care offered to people who experience trauma-related dissociation (improve how services recognise and respond to these needs). I’m particularly interested in exploring the impact of applying evidence-based interventions for trauma-related dissociation within the NHS, and how these interventions can be offered in a more person- and need-centred way.
Fellowship aims
My main research interests include improving the quality of care offered to people who experience trauma-related dissociation (improve how services recognise and respond to these needs). I’m particularly interested in exploring the impact of applying evidence-based interventions for trauma-related dissociation within the NHS, and how these interventions can be offered in a more person- and need-centred way.
Philippa Jones, General Practice Alliance
Current role and background
I am a Principal Clinical Pharmacist at General Practice Alliance in Northamptonshire, with a background in both primary and secondary care. I spent over 10 years of my secondary care background as lead renal pharmacist for Northamptonshire and now lead a team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in primary care.
Research interests
My main research interests include integrated care, particularly around long-term conditions such as Chronic Kidney Disease.
Fellowship aims
During this fellowship, I aim to enhance my skills across several key areas essential for a future clinical academic career. These include patient and public involvement (PPI), inclusive research practices, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and quantitative research methodologies. A central objective of this fellowship is to conduct a scoping review on integrated models of care for individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The findings will inform the development of future research questions and strengthen subsequent fellowship applications. I also intend to build meaningful connections within my local community, with the goal of establishing a public contributor group. This group will play a central role in co-designing future research proposals, ensuring that they are grounded in lived experience and community priorities. Finally, I aim to use the experience and outputs from this fellowship to prepare and submit a competitive application for the NIHR Pre-Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) in 2026.
Dr Rachael Carroll, University of Nottingham
Current role and background
I am a Research Fellow at University of Nottingham, with a background in mental health nursing.
Research interests
My main research interests include care homes for older people.
Fellowship aims
During this fellowship, I aim to develop a research proposal on how staff can meet the intimacy needs of older people who live in care homes.
Dr Rachel Keetley, Nottingham Children's Hospital
Current role and background
I am a clinical specialist physiotherapist at Nottingham Children’s Hospital, with a background in children’s neurosciences and neurorehabilitation.
Research interests
My main research interests include paediatric neurorehabilitation and the long term participation and wellbeing needs of children with acquired brain injuries and their families.
Fellowship aims
During this fellowship, I aim to continue to co-develop an intervention with patients, families and stakeholders and research plan to test it’s feasibility, develop collaborations within paediatric neurorehabilitation research and develop an application for a post-doctoral award.