The UK kidney association 2025 academic census: a national survey to identify workforce improvements

TL;DR

A survey of UK academic nephrology professionals reveals challenges like limited time and funding that threaten the future of kidney research and workforce sustainability.

Contribution

A national census identifies workforce barriers in UK academic nephrology and provides data-driven insights for improvement.

Findings

Most respondents were in the latter stages of their careers, with only 8.4% under 30 years old.

Key barriers to academic careers included lack of time (64%), research funding (60%), and competing work roles (53%).

The survey highlights the need for workforce improvements to sustain academic nephrology in the UK.

Abstract

Academic nephrology underpins innovation, translation, and the training of the future kidney workforce, yet there is growing concern that its capacity in the UK is fragile. Increasing clinical service pressures, limited protected academic time, fragmented career pathways, and challenges in recruitment and retention threaten the sustainability of the academic kidney workforce, prompting the UK Kidney Association (UKKA) to undertake a national Academic Census to systematically define these barriers and identify priorities for workforce improvement.

The anonymous survey was co-designed by UKKA and British Association for Paediatric Nephrology (BAPN), drawing on established academic workforce survey instruments and distributed nationally through UKKA and BAPN communication channels and their respective membership networks targeting health care professional, clinician scientists and basic scientists who spent the majority (> 50%) of their working time in Renal Medicine.

A total of 225 responses were recorded, of which 30.4% were over the age of 50 years, 32.6% were age 41–50 years and 28.6% age 31–40 years. Just 8.4% of respondents were under the age of 30 years. Half of respondents were medical doctors, 10% were nurses, 21% were allied health professionals and 18.7% were scientists. Of the cohort, 25.8% (n = 58) worked in paediatric medicine. Over half (52%, n = 118) had a PhD or MD, and 41.8% (n = 94) had over 20 years’ professional experience. The age distribution and experience indicated that most respondents were in the latter stage of their careers. The survey established barriers preventing successful academic careers and these included a lack of time (64%, n = 145), lack of research funding (60%, n = 135) and competing work roles (53%, n = 120).

This academic survey provides insight into how to strengthen the academic workforce for nephrology research in the UK.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-026-08855-y.

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