Assistant/Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine (Honorary Consultant) (Fixed Term) | University of Cambridge
Department/location: Office of the School of Clinical Medicine
Salary: £109,725 - £145,478
Reference: RA48299
Closing date: 18 January 2026
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a new University of Cambridge-Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Assistant/Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine. We are seeking applications from suitably qualified Respiratory physicians with clinical subspecialty expertise in interstitial lung disease, pulmonary vascular diseases, or sleep medicine.
Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is the UK's leading heart and lung hospital, delivering care to more than 50,000 patients a year in its new state-of-the-art hospital in Cambridge. We perform the most heart and/or lung transplants in the UK and carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant in 1979. It also offers emergency heart attack treatment, sleep centre care and is one of just five centres nationally for those in severe respiratory failure. Our patients and staff benefit from a newly built 'state of the art' 300-bed cardiothoracic centre opened in 2019 with six catheter labs, six operating theatres and a 44-bedded cardiothoracic intensive care unit.
The University of Cambridge (UoC) is one of the world's oldest and most successful universities. We are a renowned centre for research, education, and scholarship that makes a significant contribution to society. The University is consistently ranked amongst the top universities in the world.
The University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine aspires to change the practice of medicine and improve biological understanding in a wide range of clinical specialities and scientific disciplines. Collaborative research, both within biomedicine and crossing the boundaries to the mathematical, physical and social sciences, is key to our approach. The School also supports key enabling technologies and facilities in imaging, bioinformatics and biological systems. The School aims to provide leadership in education, discovery and healthcare through inspirational teaching and training, outstanding basic and clinical research, and integration of these to improve medical practice for both individual patients and populations.
Opening in 2022, the Victor Phillip Daldaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute (VPD-HLRI) is a new joint venture between the NHS (Royal Papworth and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts) and the University of Cambridge that draws together the NHS, academia, commercial, and charitable organisations to create a world-leading research environment aiming to improve cardiovascular and lung health across the world.
The VPD-HLRI is adjacent to RPH on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the largest biotech cluster outside the United States. The VPD-HLRI hosts >450 research staff from eight different University departments and the NHS, and currently holds >£250 million in active research funding. In addition to wet and dry laboratory research space, the institute houses an NIHR-accredited Clinical Research Facility with the ability to support experimental medicine and early- and late- phase clinical trials. The VPD-HLRI also hosts other important research infrastructure, including a BHF Centre of Research Excellence, the Cambridge Baker Systems Genomic Initiative, and the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, alongside space for education and training, and the RPH R&D Department. To find out more about our work, please visit www.hlri.cam.ac.uk.
The move of RPH to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus has provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity for RPH to invest in research, and this post is one of five clinical academic appointments being made across the breadth of RPH's clinical domains. RPH has also invested in new posts to improve our capacity to deliver clinical research.
Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.
The post-holder will be expected to lead and deliver a program of respiratory research at a level commensurate with the appropriate university appointment. The successful post-holder will have a strong track record of attracting competitive research grant funding and supervision of graduate research students. The postholder will be expected to contribute to the growth of respiratory research by working collaboratively with university and NHS colleagues, and to contribute to the activities of the Respiratory Department and the VPD-HLRI more broadly through education, public engagement, and institute management in collaboration with the VPD-HLRI Director.
As a clinical academic, it is anticipated that 50% of the postholder's time will be dedicated to research and 50% to clinical work at RPH. The postholder will be expected to integrate seamlessly into the established clinical respiratory services at RPH, and will be expected to have a collaborative and flexible approach to working within a busy clinical department with dynamic and variable requirements.
For further information, please contact: Prof Charlotte Summers (Director of VPD-HLRI, University of Cambridge) via cs493@cam.ac.uk or 01223 762007.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 5 years in the first instance.
Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a standard Disclosure and Barring Service check.
Please ensure that you upload a covering letter and CV in the Upload section of the online application. The covering letter should outline how you match the criteria for the post and why you are applying for this role. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.
Please include details of your three referees, including email address and phone number, one of which must be your most recent line manager.
Closing date for all applications is Sunday 18 January 2026, with interviews to be confirmed soon after.
Please quote reference RA48299 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.