BHF Research Professorships - Internal coordination

Per the BHF eligibility criteria, applicants for Research Professorships must:

• Be a senior investigator (i.e. hold the title of full Professor) in clinical or basic cardiovascular science, with an established reputation as an international leader in their research field
• Have a substantial output of high impact research on a sustained trajectory.
• Hold a tenured position (defined in this case as a permanent contract) with their host institution. If you do not hold a permanent contract at the time of submitting your internal EOI you can still apply and be nominated to the BHF, but the Department must have offered a permanent contract by the time of submitting a preliminary application.
• Have a track record of attracting significant peer-reviewed research grant income as principal investigator, including current, substantial and long-term funding (i.e. programmatic level grant funding from the BHF or other funders). The volume of funding should be at least 3 years of programme grant-level funding in place at the time of initial application to BHF. Renewal at the 5-year point will also depend on such funding being in place at the time of renewal.

Applying for internal selection 

To apply for internal consideration to be nominated to the BHF, applicants must submit an internal expression of interest (EOI) to an internal deadline. Anyone expecting to be in position to apply for a Professorship within 24 months of the next internal deadline should apply, to enable MSD and the panel to prioritise applicants and avoid unnecessary competition between applicants from Oxford.

• Applicants who expect to be ready to submit to BHF within 9 months of the internal EOI deadline may be nominated to BHF if selected by the internal panel.
• Applicants who expect to be ready within 9-24 months of the EOI deadline are encouraged to submit an internal EOI so that the panel has oversight of the pool of likely future candidates. These applicants must re-submit a revised EOI to one of the subsequent deadlines to outline their developing plans and updated timeline. When these applicants submit an internal EOI and expect to be ready to apply to BHF within 9 months of the EOI deadline, they will be considered for a go-ahead to apply to BHF.

If given go-ahead by the internal panel, applicants must submit a preliminary application to BHF within 9 months of receiving their go-ahead. It is expected that no more than two candidates from each internal EOI round will be given the go-ahead to apply to BHF.

Candidates who are not given the go-ahead to apply will be given feedback from the panel and may resubmit to a following internal EOI deadline.

Internal EOIs must be submitted in IRAMS using the Case for Support template (Word document) that is downloaded from IRAMS. Applicants are asked to summarise their research goals, suitability for a Research Professorship, readiness to apply to BHF and an expected timeline to submission.

Applicants must also submit a CV of up to four pages which includes their current and previous roles, education, key publications, current and previous research funding, and any other awards or recognition to demonstrate their career trajectory.

Combine the Case for Support template and CV into a single PDF, upload to IRAMS and submit, also leaving time before the deadline for a representative of your Department to approve the submission in IRAMS.

Institutional nomination to BHF – the ‘initial query’ 

Once you have received the go-ahead to submit to the BHF, the MSD Research Strategy & Funding Team, on behalf of the Head of Division, will submit the ‘initial query’ to the BHF by email per the BHF’s application process. The applicant, their department and the BHF Centre of Research Excellence (if applicable) must support with providing the content for this initial query (max. 2 pages) describing the candidate and their achievements, how a Professorship would add value to both the candidate’s career and the institutional cardiovascular research environment, how the Professor will be supported by the host institution*, and how (if the institution already has one or more BHF Research Professors) a further award will add value and complement current Professorships.

MSD will aim to submit your institutional nomination to BHF within one month of you receiving the go-ahead, or sooner if you wish to submit the preliminary application to the BHF urgently.

* BHF expects that candidates will already hold the title of full Professor and will be tenured, i.e. hold a permanent contract with their host institution. The initial query for any candidates who do not yet hold a permanent contract at the time of application must include a statement from the Department that the candidate will be offered a permanent contract by the time of submitting a preliminary application.

Submission of Preliminary Application to the BHF

Following submission of the initial query by MSD, it is anticipated that BHF will provide the applicant with a link to submit their preliminary application. BHF may decline to invite submission of a preliminary application at this stage. It is not currently clear if there is an expected minimum/maximum timescale between submission of the initial query to BHF and submission of the preliminary application.

If given go-ahead by the internal panel, applicants must submit a preliminary application to BHF within 9 months of receiving their go-ahead. If you do not apply within this time you will need to re-submit your EOI to the next deadline to be re-considered.

The BHF require preliminary applications to be submitted ‘on behalf of the university leadership with oversight of the broader institutional research strategy’. The applicant and their department will prepare the preliminary application which will be submitted by (or on behalf of) the CRE and/or the applicant’s Head of Department.

Once a preliminary application is submitted and approved, the BHF will invite applicants to submit a full application. Applicants will then be invited to interview.

There will be an internal EOI deadline every six months in June and December. The first established deadlines are:

1. 12 noon on Wednesday 3rd December 2025
2. 12 noon on Wednesday 3rd June 2026

Anyone who will be ready to submit a preliminary application to BHF by the end of 2025 can contact MSDO directly by email (research@medsci.ox.ac.uk) by 5pm on Friday 24^th October to be considered for an early submission.

The BHF is not setting deadlines to apply for Research Professorships. Applicants who state on their EOI that they will be ready to apply within 9 months of the EOI deadline will (if given go-ahead by the internal panel) have 9 months from the date of receiving their go-ahead to submit their preliminary application to BHF.