Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track (ECAT)

Advice

Helpful advice from past and present fellows

“As long as you’ve got a good project, a good supervisor and you’ve got funding, there’s no obstacle you can’t overcome…”  
“Maintain the balance between your clinical and academic work… – in 5 or 10 years time you won’t be judged on whether you did that extra on-call shift, but on the quality of your research…”
“Do something that you enjoy above all, rather than simply choosing someone else’s project”
“Make the effort early on to get involved in what’s going on in your research community”
“I would recommend the Edinburgh ECAT programme in terms of the opportunities it gives for choosing a project and choosing a supervisor rather than having to pick someone else’s project.”
“Doing research actually helps me to appreciate the science in medicine”
“I missed clinical medicine more than I anticipated and I found the balance between what to prioritise difficult to get – time helps with that.”
“Why do a clinical academic career? – It’s an amazing opportunity to be creative in your work… and pursue what you’re interested in.”
“It’s been exciting… doing western blots and DNA replication – all these things you’ve read about before but haven’t actually done”
“It’s exciting meeting scientists from other countries [at conferences] and exchanging ideas”
“It’s definitely part of the PhD experience to come across things that you find difficult and don’t enjoy…”
“Some people might have to think very hard about whether they want to do really basic science or whether to incorporate some clinical research”