Clinical Academics in Training Conference

To be eligible for the CATAC 2023 event competitions, you must be an early career researcher in medicine or health who also meets all of the following criteria:

• Based in the UK
• Either studying for your PhD or have completed your PhD and are conducting research as an early career post-doctoral researcher
• Conducting academic research that is related to your clinical background
• Hold a relevant undergraduate and/or master’s degree, for example: medicine, nursing, midwifery, dentistry, veterinary sciences or other health professional degree

The application window for CATAC 2023 event competitions is now closed. We welcome the attendance of anyone outside of these eligbility cirteria - registration for non-competing attendees will open in Spring 2023. 

This event is generously supported by Wellcome.

Abstract submissions for CATAC 2023 is now closed - general registraion for the event will open in Spring 2023.

There will be three competitions held at CATAC 2023 for all early career researchers in medicine and health (with clinical backgrounds in all disciplines and specialities) currently working in the UK: 

• Post-Doctoral Plenary Competition

This competition is for researchers with clinical qualifications who have passed their PhD viva (at the abstract submission closing date). If selected you will be asked to prepare a 10 minute oral presentation, to be followed by 5 minutes of questions from the audience. A panel of judges will score the presentations and there will be 1 winner and 1 runner up, who will each receive a monetary prize.

• Pre-Doctoral Plenary Competition

This competition is for researchers with clinical qualifications who have not yet passed a PhD viva (at the abstract submission closing date). If selected you will be asked to prepare a 5 minute oral presentation, to be followed by 2 minutes of questions from the audience. A panel of judges will score the presentations and there will be 1 winner and 1 runner up, who will each receive a monetary prize.

• Poster Competitions

This competition is for all researchers with clinical qualifications. If selected you will be asked to prepare a poster to present at the conference. The posters are grouped by broad research categories and there is a 1 hour session at the conference for two judges, the competitors in that category and other attendees to visit each poster. You will have 2 minutes to present your poster and 1 minute to answer questions. The judges will score each poster in the group and there will be 1 winner and 1 runner up per group, who will each receive a monetary prize.

Group A - Applied health services research; Epidemiology; Public health; Social science and health; Nursing services

Group B - Cellular and molecular biology; Genetics

Group C - Inflammation; Infection; Immunity

Group D - Neurology; Neuroscience; Imaging; Technology

This event is generously supported by Wellcome.

Are you an early career researcher in medicine or health looking for a chance to present your research, perhaps for the first time?

CATAC is a great opportunity for you to:

• Develop your presentation skills.
• Meet with your peers and senior academics to build networks.
• Raise your profile within the clinical academic and research community.
• Meet Academy Fellows.

This event is generously supported by Wellcome.

CATAC is the result of the evolution of our prestigious annual meeting for clinical academics following an independent evaluation.

• The most recent event was held at the Bristol Harbour Hotel, Bristol on 19 May 2022. 
• Before that, CATAC took several years off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Previous events have been held at the Royal College of Physicians, London and the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh since 2015.

CATAC 2022

You can watch back some of the event sessions here. This includes all plenary competition presentations and a wonderful keynote speech from Professor Charlotte Summers. The page also includes details of all the competition winners. 

Check #CATAC2022 on Twitter to see what attendees thought on the day.

CATAC 2018

You can watch back the keynote talk here.

You can watch the winning talks from CATAC 2018 here. 

Feedback from CATAC 2018:

"The keynote speakers gave honest accounts of the career ups and downs of a clinical academic, and invaluable advice on remaining true to yourself, maintaining work-life balance and how to ultimately succeed as an independent researcher. There were interesting presentations covering a diverse range of academic disciplines."

"We left the meeting with broadened horizons and renewed enthusiasm for collaborative research and future careers in clinical academia." 

This event is generously supported by Wellcome.