Scottish Clinical Pharmacology & Pathology Programme (SCP3)

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Scotland offers a world-class environment in which to train future clinical academic leaders.
We propose an exciting clinical research fellowship programme (SCP3) that will integrate
clinical pharmacology and pathology training across the Scottish Biomedical Universities. We
will thereby break the mould of two traditional ?ologies? by integrating training in the combined
competencies necessary to dissect complex pathogenesis and promote mechanism-based
medicine discovery. SCP3 is built on the notion that mechanistic (pathology)-based approaches
comprise an essential prerequisite to successful elucidation of pathogenesis, and therefore
drug discovery, development and evaluation in a ?translational medical? environment. A
corollary is that research in the UK can be optimised by integrated training for future
translational medicine leaders in these disciplines from an early stage. SCP3 will operate within
an outstanding research environment ideally suited to achieve this goal. Evidence for such
research and environmental excellence resides in excellent recent RAE performance and in
consistent, competitive levels of grant income and publication productivity. The rich project
resource available to fellows will encompass organ- or tissue-based themes, but will include
the opportunity to combine clinical pharmacology and pathology supervisorial teams to truly
integrate state-of-the-art molecular/cellular pathology techniques to foster drug development
and pathogenesis discovery. Moreover we bring strong, established partnership with Pfizer
that will benefit SCP3 both through provision of industrial placements and through access to
the state of the art Translational Medicine Research Institute.
The programme will focus in the disciplines of cardiovascular, metabolic and inflammation
medicine and cancer representing areas of global unmet clinical need and reflecting areas of
conspicuous research excellence in Scotland. Fellows selected on the basis of individual
excellence will receive comprehensive training in generic skills that will add value to high
quality core research training, providing an overall mixture of didactic and flexible
laboratory/clinical research based training. Excellent mentorship and supervision built into a
flexible programme will ensure a tailored approach to the needs of individual fellows. A robust
oversight structure is proposed to ensure prompt recruitment and ongoing management of the
programme. We will offer the unique added value of ?run through training? to appointed fellows
such that upon satisfactory progress, each recruit will be offered a lecturer position within
discipline to facilitate training to senior appointment level. SCP3 will therefore generate a cadre
of high quality clinical academics in clinical pharmacology and pathology with the necessary
skills to drive forward clinical research excellence in the next decades.