There are two groundbreaking new doctoral programs in biomedical research: the Oxford University-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Scholars in Biomedical Research and the Cambridge University-NIH Health Sciences Research Scholars. The application deadline of January 1, 2008 is fast approaching. These programs are built on a unique arrangement in which students spend approximately two years at either Oxford or Cambridge and two years at the NIH working on a collaborative research project. Oxford and Cambridge have for centuries been two of the most prominent universities internationally and the NIH is the largest biomedical research facility in the world with most of its activities located in Bethesda, MD, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
There is no standard curriculum in these programs and each student pursues an individualized course of study in which thesis work is initiated at the beginning of the first year. Because these are accelerated programs, students typically receive a Ph.D. or D. Phil. degree from Oxford or Cambridge in 3 to 5 years. These innovative programs grew out of the realization that the next generation of research scientists will increasingly need to think in an interdisciplinary fashion and to surmount the intellectual and experimental barriers that presently exist between traditional disciplines. All students become members of a college at Oxford or Cambridge and have an opportunity to immerse themselves in British academic life.
All students are FULLY FUNDED by the NIH for the duration of their doctoral work and receive a stipend. There is support offered for combined M.D./PhD training in which the PhD is obtained at Oxford or Cambridge and the M.D. is obtained from one of the 41 top American medical schools that have Medical Scientist Training Programs.
The application is available online and easy to complete. There is no application fee and the application can be found at our newly launched website: http://oxcam.gpp.nih.gov/index.asp.