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Leading kidney disease expert Professor Jeremy Levy has stepped down from his role as Director of the Clinical Academic Training Office after a decade.

The Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO) delivers research training and education opportunities for clinical staff. It is part of the – a  strategic partnership between 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ, , , and .

Professor Levy, who is also a Consultant Nephrologist at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Healthcare NHS Trust, was appointed the first Director of CATO in 2015 and stepped down from his role on 31 March.

Maxine Myers caught up with Professor Levy to hear about his achievements as CATO Director and what he will miss most about the role.

How has CATO’s work evolved over the last ten years?

The initial remit of CATO was to maximise our support for doctors doing clinical academic training.

We focused on making sure we would win the maximum number of academic training posts for doctors and support them as they were recruited. We also explored research opportunities for them and provided support as they worked on their PhDs.

I also created masterclasses and training events to help doctors secure grant funding for their research work and future personal development as clinical academics.

However, I was very keen that we should also try and provide support to nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, healthcare scientists, pharmacy staff, psychologists and clinical research practitioners (NMAHPPs) as there was a recognition that they could contribute significantly to clinical research. There was also more funding available from various research funders for this work.

We developed and ran a series of introductory workshops on research skills and career events aimed at NMAHPPs as well as a whole series of new programmes on how to write research papers and grants, develop research careers and become research active.  The aim was to encourage them into research careers. Of course I didn’t do this on my own, and worked closely with my former colleagues Professor Caroline Alexander, a physiotherapist, and Professor Mary Wells, a nurse.

What has been the impact of this NMAHPPs work?

We have been able to fund lots of training activities on research careers and skills for NMAHPPs and this has led to some great results.

We have had NMHAPPs winning PhD awards every year, mostly based at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ. We've also been successful at the postdoctoral level. Many of our NMAHPP colleagues have won NIHR advanced fellowships -  a postdoctoral fellowship aimed at anyone with a PhD who hasn't yet been appointed to a professorial post - and senior clinical practitioner fellowships – which provide postdoctoral funding and protected time for experienced healthcare professionals to balance research, training, and clinical leadership. It's been fantastic to see NMAHPP colleagues developing their research at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ and with the Trust.

We've now got two fantastic NMAHPP research leads in the form of Dr , from the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction and Dietician at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Dr , from the Department of Surgery & Cancer and Lead Clinical Academic for Allied Health Professionals, and a speech and language therapist at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Healthcare Trust, who are working with the CATO team on developing the research careers of NMHAPPs further. It's been an amazing evolution not found in almost any other university around the country.

What are some of the challenges you faced over the last ten years?

One of the main challenges we have faced has been around long-term career prospects of NMHAPPs and the competitive post-doctoral landscape for doctors.

We’ve been successful at attracting and getting NMAHPPs started in research but finding equivalent research positions after they’ve completed their PhDs can be difficult at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ because we don’t have a particular focus on nursing or physiotherapy or dietetics, and need to integrate such colleagues into other 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ departments. It is starting to get better in terms of opportunities but there’s more work to be done in this area. For doctors, the post-doctoral research funding landscape is very competitive now, and it’s been both a challenge and a real pleasure supporting people into clinician scientists and other research roles like intermediate fellowships.

What have been the highlights?

A key highlight has been providing personal support for individuals. I do a lot of one-to-one career guidance and chats with people at various stages of their careers. That’s been incredibly rewarding, particularly as I see people progress through their careers.

Another highlight is developing the 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ Post-Doctoral Post-CCT Research Fellowship award for talented individuals committed to conducting research at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ, with the potential to become leaders in academic medicine.

The scheme has been running for the last seven years and those who have been on the programme have been incredibly successful.

We’ve also won the maximum number of externally funded Integrated Academic Training posts from the NIHR each year, which has been brilliant. Such posts support the training of doctors in England to develop their clinical academic careers.

What will you miss about the role?

The CATO team themselves are brilliant to work with - Anna, Gemma, Rose, Nina, Emily and Chioma. I will miss being with them as much as I am now. But I'm not disappearing as I’m still involved in various aspects of CATO’s work – so they’re not rid of me yet!

I'll miss providing early career advice to clinical academics working in all specialities and the one-to-one work with people as they go through their career journeys.