Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF)

One online academic interview of at least 30 minutes, as NIHR's 2027 guidance sets out. Your mock interviews follow the same format, scored as one interview.

NIHR published its 2027 guidance on 21 September 2026. The seven scoresheet headings stay, but the marks change: explaining the dataset and knowledge of the science behind the post each fall from 16 to 8, the lay explanation from 8 to 6, and balancing clinical and academic work rises from 5 to 8. Our marking follows the 2027 marks. Prioritisation applies to the 2027 ACF round at offers only. We check every specialty against each year's official guidance when it is published.

NIHR publishes no national ACF ratio. It allocated funding for 278 ACFs for 2027/28, each post with its own field, and a surgical ACF also needs you to be appointable at your specialty's national clinical interview unless you already hold a training number at that level in that specialty.

Applications open on 1 October 2026 and close on 29 October 2026. Interviews run from 9 November 2026 to 15 January 2027, each on a date set by the NHS England office hosting the post. Initial offers are released from 19 January 2027.

A dataset or published study, the same for every candidate for the post, sent no more than 48 hours before your interview. It is no longer than two sides of A4 and can be assessed in about 10 minutes; you then explain it to a scientific panel and as you would to a lay audience.

Yes. 6 of the 71 Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) scenarios carry a study abstract to appraise, shown under the question.

Only at the offer stage this year: NHS England applies the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 to the 2027 ACF round at offers only. It does not change the interview or your rank.

At most three ACF applications in the round, under NIHR's 2027 guidance.

Yes. In the Prep Lounge you meet another ACF candidate on video: one of you interviews, the other answers, and you both score the answer with the same mark scheme. Core includes 10 sessions, Pro 20 and Elite 40.

We read it once to list your experience and never store the file. You check the list, and only the list is kept, private to your account. It's used to point out what you left out of career answers, and it never changes your scores. You can edit or delete it at any time.

Every plan opens the whole Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) Interview Library and your progress and prep plan. If you add your CV, you also get feedback on what you left out of career answers. The plans differ in their tutor sessions, mock interview sittings and Prep Lounge sessions: 90, 3 and 10 on Core; 180, 6 and 20 on Pro; 360, 10 and 40 on Elite.

Yes. Sign up free, confirm your email and choose Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF), and two of its questions open: read each model answer as often as you like and practise each question out loud twice with the Virtual Tutor. The rest of the Library, the mock interviews and the Prep Lounge come with a plan.

Three months from the day you buy it. It is paid once and does not renew.

No. A plan covers one specialty, which you choose when you sign up.

The moment you press Start, even if you leave before answering. A Prep Lounge session is held when you book it and used only when it runs, so a cancelled session, or one your partner never joins, uses nothing. Reading the Library never uses anything.

Yes. Sitting one again uses another sitting from your plan, and your earlier report stays.

Yes. You pay the difference in price, and your end date stays the same.

You get one for each friend who signs up, and can hold up to three at once.