Higher Specialist Scientist Training

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) supported a 2020 cohort of healthcare scientists to develop in readiness for seniority equivalent to consultant clinical scientist. The expectation is that this cohort will meet the domains of Good Scientific Practice and be eligible to join the Higher specialists accredited register of the Academy for Healthcare Science (AHCS).

For any prospective Higher Specialist Scientist (HSS), registration as a Clinical Scientist is not a pre-requisite but applicants must be at least level 7 of the NHS Scotland career framework for health.

The plan of development for the consultant scientist trainee must incorporate all of:

• scientific and clinical specialism development;

• research skills development to doctoral level and

• leadership and management development.

Training should be aligned with the high-level themes of Higher Specialist Scientific Training for the specialism.

Although NES sponsorship of programmes is currently closed, we encourage acquisition of a National Training Number (NTN). For candidates near completion we offer support for the AHCS equivalence fee.

More information on the equivalence routes can be found in our Equivalence Routes and Support page.