Goals for supporting research and academic careers

Overall goals

arc has a commitment to ensuring that there is sufficient capacity within the relevant UK institutions to deliver on its research and educational goals
It accepts that the institutions themselves, and their relevant national strategic bodies such as the NHS and HEFCE, will not necessarily see as a priority delivering sufficient capacity in the areas relevant to arc
arc is not the sole provider of research and academic capacity in musculoskeletal diseases and sees the public sector, typically Universities as well as the NHS, as playing the major role

Stages in career development

arc seeks to encourage the brightest and most committed scientists and clinical professionals in all relevant disciplines to commit their energies into musculoskeletal diseases. It aims therefore:

to provide incentives and motivation during early training and education to make musculoskeletal disease a career choice
to provide opportunities for early research experience
to support advanced training for the brightest early career researchers
to provide support leading to the researcher becoming an independent researcher/principal investigator at which point Universities can provide funding
to ensure that the research and educational training, where relevant, are consistent with professional career training pathways

Academic clinicians

arc is committed to ensuring a career path for medically qualified individuals in relevant disciplines including rheumatology, orthopaedics and primary care, who wish to devote a substantial component of their activity to research. Support will encourage the brightest graduates to undergo research training in the most appropriate settings and to select from these those that should continue with additional training to ultimately achieve independent investigator status.

arc believes that all clinicians aiming to follow a career in musculoskeletal diseases would benefit from research experience even if their final career choice is predominantly in patient care

arc aims to foster a research culture amongst clinicians in training although the proportion it would accept for formal training, even in early careers would be small
arc does not provide support for the provision of clinical services in the NHS or elsewhere but accepts that the job plans of such clinicians need to include a modest (less than 20% of time) ongoing clinical commitment to maintain skills and contribute to research development
arc accepts that salaries in the NHS for clinically qualified staff are higher than for scientists in universities and that the cost of employing the former is greater, even if the research output is identical
arc does not believe it is appropriate to offer any further financial inducement to recruit clinically qualified staff even though for many there would be a salary disadvantage because of loss, for example, of payments for additional clinical duties

Academic health professionals

arc has a commitment to ensure research training opportunities to non-medical health professionals with an interest in musculoskeletal diseases. Such individuals include, but are not restricted to, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, rheumatology specialist nurses, podiatrists and psychologists.

arc accepts that the research culture and opportunities in these disciplines is less established and less widely available
arc aims to increase critical mass of research excellence in these areas by offering training and academic career opportunities in line with the policies above
arc accepts that for many such professional groups, domestic considerations require flexibility in terms of research training and difficulties in relocation to different training sites

Non-clinical scientists

arc recognises that the career path for non-clinical scientists is uncertain and that many such scientists have transferable skills relevant to other areas of medical research.