The NIHR has announced the appointment of 46 NIHR Senior Investigators, who are among the most prominent and prestigious researchers funded by the organisation, for the year of 2021.
Each year, the NIHR invites applications into a round of open competition to decide who it awards the prestigious research roles to, based on individuals it feels can make the most significant impacts in patient and people-based research.
In this year’s awards, the 14th annual iteration, 31 researchers have been newly-appointed to the NIHR Senior Investigator role.
The remaining 15 are either current or previous holders of the award who have been reappointed for a second term.
NIHR Senior Investigators are able to occupy their positions for no more than two terms, in order to ensure turnover. This creates opportunities for new researchers to participate in NIHR at this level, incentivising the research community, while maintaining the college of Senior Investigators at a manageable size.
A second role, Emeritus Senior Investigator status, was also newly-awarded to 21 researchers, bringing the total number of them across the NIHR research community to 188.
Emeritus status applies for the duration of time that the holder remains in substantive employment in England, and is considered a significant achievement with holders having succeeded twice in open competition and completed two terms as a Senior Investigator.
Full details of the 2021 NIHR Senior Investigator and Senior Investigator Emeritus appointments are available on the NIHR website. Full details of all NIHR Senior Investigators are available on the NIHR Senior Investigators Directory, which is updated in April each year.
