From Clinical Practice to Clinical Academia: My Four-Year NIHR ARC-GM Journey
Laura McGarrigle, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT)
After almost 20 years working as a physiotherapist in the NHS, I knew I wanted to contribute more formally to research, I just wasn’t sure how to take that next step. My time supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Applied Research Collaboration (NIHR ARC-GM) has been the bridge between being a research-interested clinician and feeling genuinely ready to submit a doctoral fellowship application.
Over four years; through an Internship, a Pre-doctoral Fellowship and further pre-application support funding, I have been embraced by the ARC-GM team. The guidance, encouragement and practical support from across the whole Capacity Building team have been instrumental in shaping my development, support that has now led to me successfully securing NIHR funding to undertake a PhD.
During my Pre-doctoral Fellowship, I focused on frailty in lung transplant candidates. Frailty is common in people with end-stage lung disease and is linked to poorer outcomes both before and after transplant, yet there is still little consensus on how best to measure or modify it. The Fellowship gave me protected time to explore this question properly. I published a systematic review (and protocol) and conducted a UK-wide survey examining how frailty is assessed and how prehabilitation is delivered. I had the opportunity to present this work nationally and internationally, including at the Transplantoux symposium in Leuven. The expertise of my supervision team, alongside protected, backfilled time, was crucial in enabling me to complete and disseminate this work.
Just as importantly, the Fellowship strengthened my confidence to step beyond my immediate clinical role and contribute to national conversations. The credibility and skills I developed have enabled me not only to contribute to, but to co-lead, wider initiatives including the NHS Blood and Transplant enhanced recovery in lung transplant development programme. I now feel far more equipped to represent physiotherapy and rehabilitation perspectives at a national level and to bring research evidence into meaningful service development discussions.
Methodologically, the Fellowship broadened my perspective. I learned to think beyond delivering a single study and instead to design a coherent programme of research with clear clinical impact. The shift from “doing a project” to building a programme of work has been transformative.
Patient and Public Involvement has been central throughout. I was inspired early on by the ARC-GM Young People’s Advisory Group, who demonstrated just how essential it is to involve the public meaningfully in research design. With charitable funding, I established a small panel of people with lived experience of lung transplantation. Their insight and honesty reshaped my thinking and directly informed my Doctoral Fellowship proposal.
The support from ARC-GM has gone beyond research skills. My supervision team, peer network and the wider ARC community have strengthened not only my study design, but my belief that I can lead and deliver ambitious work. Along the way, I have expanded my professional networks, completed the NIHR Associate Principal Investigator Scheme, contributed to transplant research within my organisation, and taken on leadership roles within MFT that support other clinicians beginning their own research journeys.
My time with ARC-GM has not only developed my technical expertise, it has also changed how I see myself and shifted my career trajectory. I feel more confident taking on new challenges, contributing to national programmes, and leading research-informed service development. Most importantly, it has enabled me to submit a clear and credible Doctoral Fellowship application, now successfully funded the NIHR, built on strong foundations of methodology, collaboration and patient involvement.
I am extremely grateful to NIHR ARC-GM for investing in my development and over a sustained period, for helping to turn meaningful clinical questions into impactful research, and for supporting me to secure National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funding to undertake a PhD.
Laura wrote a previous blog on her experience of moving from ARC-GM Intern to Pre-doctoral Fellow, available here.
Published 23/03/2026