Professor Katie Sheehan, Professor of Rehabilitation & UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Centre for Bone & Joint Health, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London discusses a project to increase visible leadership of Allied Health Professionals in health research.
In 2023, major UK health and care research funders identified diversifying clinical academia as a priority, committing additional investment to supporting careers beyond traditional medical pathways. This included a significant increase in funding opportunities for AHP-led research, creating a real opportunity to strengthen the clinical academic workforce.
But funding alone is not enough.
While progress has undoubtedly been made, many AHPs continue to face considerable structural barriers when trying to build and sustain clinical academic careers. Securing protected research time, finding clear progression pathways, navigating joint NHS-university appointments, and balancing clinical demands with research ambitions remain familiar challenges. For some, these barriers delay career progression. For others, they become reasons to leave clinical academia altogether.
Too often, discussions about workforce development focus on policies, funding streams and organisational structures. These are important, but they risk overlooking the experiences of the people behind the statistics.
That is why, together with colleagues from Queen Mary University of London and the University of Lancashire, we set out to tell these stories.
Putting people at the centre of the conversation
Supported by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Development Network, our team at Queen Mary, University of London—Prof Katie Sheehan, Ms Jamila Kassam, Dr Catherine Carr, Ms Jessica Pawson, Dr Hortensia Gimeno, and the University of Lancashire—Dr Rachel Stockley—worked with AHP clinical academics and clinical academics in training from across the UK to create a series of digital stories. These stories were developed in collaboration with a freelance creative practitioner through a structured storytelling process designed to capture authentic experiences and reflections.
The project had three key aims:
- To celebrate the impact that research led by AHP clinical academics has on patients, families and carers.
- To improve visibility and understanding of clinical academic career opportunities within the AHP workforce.
- To support advocacy for stronger, more structured career pathways for AHP clinical academics.
What emerged was a collection of powerful personal accounts that reveal both the possibilities and the challenges of a clinical academic career.
Why stories matter
AHP clinical academics are making a profound difference across the UK’s health and social care system. Their work influences clinical practice, improves services, informs policy, and ultimately changes patient outcomes. Yet the contribution AHP clinical academics make to the UK’s research landscape remains limited.
The stories in this collection showcase individuals who have successfully navigated clinical academic careers, often overcoming significant obstacles along the way. They highlight innovative research, meaningful collaborations,tangible patient benefits positively impacting our healthcare system. Importantly, they also reveal the personal and professional costs of working within systems that do not always provide clear or sustainable career pathways.
Several contributors describe periods where clinical pressures left little room for research activity. Others reflect on the uncertainty that follows doctoral or fellowship funding. Some speak candidly about colleagues who have left clinical academia despite a passion for research because the structures needed to support long-term careers were absent.
These experiences are not isolated. They represent challenges that many AHPs recognise.
A resource for aspiring clinical academics—and those who support them
We hope these stories will be valuable for a wide range of audiences.
For students and early-career AHPs, they provide honest insights into what a clinical academic career can look like in practice.
For established clinical academics, they offer recognition and solidarity.
For managers, workforce leads, funders, professional bodies and policymakers, they provide an opportunity to hear directly from people whose careers are shaped by the decisions made about research culture, infrastructure and funding. The stories also invite reflection on how organisations can support workforce development, nurture talent and create an environment where clinical academics thrive.
Most importantly, these stories demonstrate what can be achieved when talented clinicians are given the opportunity to combine research with clinical practice.
Listen to the stories
I invite you to listen to our digital story collection featuring AHP clinical academics and clinical academics in training from across the UK.
Their voices remind us that behind every fellowship, publication and research programme is a person trying to improve care through evidence, innovation and inquiry.
The stories in this collection are a celebration of achievement, but they are also a call to action.
If we want more AHPs to contribute to research—and if we want patients and communities to benefit from that research—we must continue building structures that enable talented clinicians not just to enter clinical academia, but to remain and flourish within it.
After all, supporting clinical academic careers is not simply an investment in individuals. It is an investment in better health and care for everyone.
