About us

The Clinical Academic Training Office

CATO is the centralised pan-professional academic training hub and the main point of contact for clinical academic trainees and researchers (medical and healthcare professions outside of medicine) for advice, best practice and information on academic careers, recruitment, training and funding. CATO is part of the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) and serves as a focal point for clinical academic careers across the AHSC. The Office has oversight of current clinical medical academic training schemes, manages bidding rounds for NIHR/other clinical academic schemes, coordinates conferences and educational support activities, disseminates information and supports the development of new clinical academic schemes and academic initiatives for healthcare professionals (e.g. nurses, midwives, pharmacists, allied health professionals and healthcare scientists).

• CATO activities and priorities are guided by the AHSC Education Committee, the CATO Committee (medical) and the Clinical Academic Research Committee (ICHT, Health Professions outside of Medicine).  Each committee meets three times each year and has representation from all major medical/non-medical specialties, Imperial College London, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, AHSC partner organisations and other external stakeholders. Prof Jeremy Levy (pictured above) is Director of CATO. The programme of activities is supported administratively by the CATO Team. 
  
  
• The CATO service was established in 2015 and is located in the AHSC Offices at Hammersmith Hospital.  Further details about support available for clinical academics at the Imperial AHSC can be found on these web pages, or by contacting us directly at +44 (0)20 331 31373/37397 or by email (cato@imperial.ac.uk). 
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• Colleagues based at AHSC partner organisations can also access information from local teams via their separate websites:  RBHT Research Training & Development / RMH BRC Training Hub
  
  
• CATO is fully committed to Athena Swan principles and ensures our interview panels are gender balanced with high representation of female academics. Our Quality Assurance activities always include reviews and actions to support the career development of female academics.
  
  
• In light of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in May 2018 we have developed our GDPR Privacy Notice which describes how we collect and use personal information for users of CATO services.