Addenbrooke's is full of clinican-scientists at various stages of their careers. They have all received help and advice (formal and informal) and are - barring the day before their next major grant application - always happy to offer their wisdom. Use them without qualm. And good luck!

As soon as possible after your job offer, get a supervisor + project in place. Your research is nominally approved by a named clinician-scientist. See the Cambridge Academic Training Office (CATO) website to find yours. http://cato.medschl.cam.ac.uk/clinical-academic-programmes/academic-foundation-year-programme/afy-programmes-in-cambridge/ It's worth trying to meet with them, tell them what you're interested in (and what you hate) and get recommendations for labs/PIs to speak to (especially if you're new to Cambridge, or you're moving fields).

Your supervisor does not have to be a practising clinician.

See your departmental website to kickstart your lab browsing. Do not forget the affiliate institutions - Sanger Institute; Babraham Institute; Gurdon Institute; Stem Cell Institute and all of the non-clinical University departments (Pathology, Biochemistry, Genetics) etc.

CATO will organise a Visitors Research Agreement for you to join the University (email, libraries, e-journals + college affiliation). You will be asked to return a form - supervisor, department, brief outline of work.

Other places for info: Deanery, now HEEoE NIHR - particularly useful for ACF information

There are plans for a Cambridge academic handbook with yet more details — watch this space.

One of the best aspects of the academic rotation is the vast choice of projects available to you. You truly can pursue what ever most interests you and in any university department as long as you can justify the academic and medical relevance.

It is a good idea to attend the annual NIHR BRC – AFY Research Day organised by CATO whilst still an FY1. This is usually an afternoon session were the current Academic FY2s have an opportunity to present their work in either poster or oral presentation format. It is an excellent way of finding out what is expected of you during the academic rotation, seeing what subject areas have been pursued as well as the opportunity to talk to current FY2s and potential supervisors.

If you choose a basic science project it would be worth getting into the laboratory prior to your academic rotation (if possible) so that the start of the rotation focuses on acquiring actual data as opposed to learning new techniques. Four months is an extremely short time to make an impact on the scientific world so be efficient!

Aim to select something which:

- relates to your clinical interests

- teaches you something new (techniques, ethics committee paperwork, statistics etc)

- is do-able in the time, facilities and funding available

- is publishable in the short term (e.g. a review or methods paper)

- is the basis of a bigger body of work, so this chunk of research can be the foundation of an application to a (post-)PhD fellowship (see NIHR, MRC, Wellcome Trust as a starting point)

- might change the world

Aim to finish the project within the 4 month rotation including the write up. It is tempting, particularly if this rotation comes early in the year, to think that you will be able to finish data collection and write ups during your clinical rotation. However, this is very difficult to achieve with clinical commitments and an on call rota to up hold.

To add to what's written above, it is difficult to achieve a publication in 4 months. I would also aim to choose something that enables you to learn a new skill or expand an old one in a new area.

There is no typical rotation - it will depend on your project and supervisor. You can usually take leave whenever you wish, but you may be constrained by your experiments. At the start of the block, try to schedule regular project supervisor meetings and create a project timeline.

The Cambridge AFPs all have the research time as a single 4 month block in F2. There are no clinical commitments in this block. The F2 sign-off process is the same - the same number of assessments need doing in 8 months of clinical work, not 12 months. However the Foundation Programme Director advises that you should try and complete at least a CBD based on your academic research and link aspects of your research to your ePortfolio.

Pay is unbanded and comes through the Addenbrooke's payroll (your NHS pension contributions can continue).

Your precise hours are determined between you and your supervisor. There is generally no expectation to be in at weekends or evenings, unless there is something time sensitive - an experiment or a patient sample to collect. Most supervisors don't watch your hours too closely; they're much more interested in your productivity.

Study leave is straightforward.

Work life balance is good to excellent. You can book your annual leave with your supervisor directly and as they don't have to cover service provision you can take it more-or-less whenever you want. You can actually be off for your birthday/wedding anniversary/May the Force day.

The allocated annual leave quota of 9 days remains the same for the academic rotation.

Think about things early. Choosing a project/supervisor is key. Get all the induction stuff done, including your IT training etc, so you can start pipetting/collecting/analysing on day 1. If you are apply for an ACF, you are unlikely to have finished your research block by the time of interviews - having a clear plan shows that you mean business, and gives you a fighting chance to get stuff done in just 3 months of bench time.

Think about the long term goal – will this project lead to a PhD, make you more competitive for a particular specialty training post etc?