Radiology is one of the most competitive specialty training applications in the UK. As it stands, your portfolio makes up 40% of your final ranking. That means it’s not something to think about a few weeks before the application deadline – it needs savvy planning and preparation, with the scoring criteria in mind from the start. 

This article breaks down the Clinical Radiology ST1 portfolio 2026, with practical strategies to help you maximise your score. It is vital to read through the official NHS England portfolio guidance as well.

The Five Domains

The current Clinical Radiology ST1 portfolio is divided into five domains:

1. Commitment to Specialty 
2. Leadership and Management 
3. Teaching and Training 
4. Audit and Quality Improvement 
5. Academic Achievements 

Each domain outlined above has pre-defined categories (A-E), and you must select the single category that best reflects your highest level of achievement:

Category A = 4 points

Category B = 3 points

Category C = 2 points

Category D = 1 point

Category E = 0 points

All domains score up to 4 points, except Domain 1 which is double-weighted (max 8 points). As a result, the total portfolio score is out of 24 points.

Low-Hanging Fruit and Long-Term Thinking

A common pitfall is trying to do a bit of everything without really understanding what actually scores well.

A better approach is to work backwards from the portfolio domains – identify the high-yield areas, and focus your efforts there, whilst gathering clear evidence as you go.

There are several areas of low-hanging fruit where you can pick up a good number of points without a huge amount of time or effort. Other areas require significant work for minimal gain. Being selective about where you direct your energy can make a big difference to your overall score.

At the same time, another trap is concentrating only on the upcoming application cycle and overlooking things that take longer to develop, like leadership roles or formal teaching qualifications. The reality is, not everyone gets a training number on their first attempt. If that happens, you don’t want to find yourself in the same position a year later because you put off the longer-term elements.

A balanced approach is therefore key:

• Prioritise the easier lower-hanging fruit for the current application cycle, AND
• Start laying the groundwork for things that will strengthen your application next time, if you end up applying again

Domain 1: Commitment to Specialty

Scoring Criteria:

Score A (8 points): Two or more significant exposures to clinical radiology.

Score B (6 points): One significant exposure to clinical radiology. 

Score C (4 points): Attended a radiology-based course of at least one day in length.

Score D (2 points): Attended a radiology-related conference.

Score E (0 points): None of the above

How to Approach Domain 1

Since Domain 1 (Commitment to Specialty) is double-weighted, it is an easy way to gain a significant number of points in a short period of time. If you’re still early in your preparation, this is absolutely where you should start.

“Significant exposure” = at least 3 whole-day equivalent time attached to a clinical radiology department.

If the exposure is less than this, it won’t count as a “significant” exposure.

Examples include:

• Taster week(s)
• Foundation job in radiology
• Elective placement in radiology
• Student-selected component
• Radiology-based clinical research project involving presence in the department and work with a radiologist. 

Taster Weeks

A radiology taster week is one of the best ways to build this section of your portfolio. Taster weeks are relatively easy to arrange, and useful beyond the application itself. They give you insight into the day-to-day reality of the specialty, help with interview preparation, and provide clear evidence for your portfolio.

Organise a taster week by contacting your local radiology department. It’s very likely they will have arranged taster weeks for prospective applicants in the past but if you’re struggling to get anywhere with this, it is worth speaking to your Educational Supervisor who may be able to help.

When organising a taster week, be clear about what you want to get out of it. This is an opportunity to not just tick the box for your portfolio, but to have something to talk about in your interview:

• Try to arrange exposure to a range of areas such as plain film reporting, CT, MRI, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, and interventional radiology.
• Speak to registrars and consultants. Ask about training, exams, workload, and what they enjoy (or don’t!) about the specialty. 

Maximise Your Points

To fully max out the points for this domain, aim for more than one significant exposure.

These must be “meaningfully different”. Two taster weeks can count for the top score if they offer different settings or experiences, whereas two taster weeks offering the same experience would only count as one significant exposure.

In practical terms, if you are arranging two tasters, it is sensible to do one in a district general hospital and one in a tertiary centre, rather than doing two very similar weeks in the same type of department. Alternatively, you might choose one taster week in diagnostic radiology and another in interventional radiology.

Domain 2: Leadership and Management

How to Approach Domain 2

Domain 2 (Leadership and Management) is one of the hardest areas to score highly in.

National radiology-related roles are difficult to get but there are organisations who offer these to non-trainees. You can also still get yourself a significant number of points from non-national roles – and even this stands you apart from lots of applicants.

All leadership roles need to have been held for a minimum of 6 months to count.

Some ideas are: 

Score A (4 points): National level leadership role involving radiology

• National leadership or managerial role involving radiology such as non-trainee committee member for the British Society of Interventional Radiologists (BSIR), the Society of Radiologists in Training (SRT), UK Radiology Specialty Training (UKRST) and the British Institute of Radiology (BIR).
  • There are many radiology societies you can apply to and positions usually open March-April. 
  • Take a look at the BSIR Juniors website for more examples of national/international societies that may offer roles/spaces for resident doctors: IR Juniors Societies
• National education lead for radiology courses, webinars or teaching programmes e.g. Mind the Bleep!
• National radiology conference organising committee roles 
• Programme, abstracts, or trainee-stream lead for a national radiology meeting
• Any formal national radiology-related managerial or leadership post 

Score B (3 points): National level leadership role not involving radiology, but relating to healthcare, OR, local/regional level leadership role involving radiology.

• Local or regional radiology leadership posts in your trust or deanery 
• Organising committee role for a local or regional radiology teaching programme or journal club
• Local radiology education lead or trainee representative 
• Radiology rota, governance, or audit lead at local level 
• Committee member of an undergraduate radiology society
• Local radiology conference or teaching event leadership role 
• BMA committee or representative roles at national level 
• National royal college roles outside radiology 
• National NHS leadership or policy roles not specific to radiology 
• Leadership in national trainee or junior doctor bodies outside radiology
• National leadership role in a healthcare-related charity

Score C (2 points): National level leadership role outside healthcare, OR, local/regional leadership role not involving radiology but relevant to healthcare.

• National leadership role in a non-healthcare-related charity 
• National committee role in a sports organisation 
• National leadership post in a student union or youth organisation 
• National role in a creative arts organisation 
• Junior Doctors Forum committee member 
• Mess committee role 
• Foundation programme representative 
• University healthcare society committee role (e.g. MedSoc, Students for Global Health)
• Local wellbeing, rota, or staff engagement lead outside radiology but related to healthcare

Score D (1 point): Local/regional leadership role outside healthcare:

• President or committee member of a local/regional sports club 
• Local charity organiser or branch committee member 
• Leadership role in a university society outside medicine 
• School governor or local community board role 
• Local faith/community group committee role 
• Local arts, music, drama, or media society leadership role 
• Local volunteer team leader 
• Regional amateur sports captain or organiser

Domain 3: Teaching and Training

Scoring Criteria

Score A (4 points): Hold a formal teaching qualification awarded at postgraduate level, for example: masters, CILT, PGDip, PGCert.         

Score B (3 points): Have made a major contribution to a national or international teaching programme, with evidence.

Score C (2 points): Evidence of other training in teaching methods after study of at least two days (such as Train the Trainers).

Score D (1 point): Evidence of regional teaching.

Score E (0 points): None of the above.

How to Approach Domain 3

Almost everyone applying to specialty training has done teaching in some form. What separates an average teaching portfolio from a strong one is structure.

Putting in a bit of effort to develop a teaching “programme” pays dividends in terms of portfolio points. This essentially just means multiple sessions over the course of at least 3 months. It does not need to be radiology-related. This could take the form of:

• A revision series for medical students
• A radiology basics course for medical students
• A foundation doctor teaching programme (depending on your grade!)

Maximise Your Points

The key here is to provide your programme to a “national” (or international) audience. In practice, the easiest way to do this is to collaborate with online educational platforms (such as Mind the Bleep!) that offer their content digitally to everyone, not just to those within one Trust or one medical school.

Bear in mind that this formal teaching programme must have a duration of 3 months or more, and you need someone who is willing to verify that you have done this. You should also collect student feedback that you can submit as part of your evidence.

Your evidence should usually include:

• A clear description of your role 
• Dates and programme details 
• Formal feedback countersigned by a third-party

Domain 4: Audit and QI

Scoring Criteria 

Score A (4 points): Led ≥2 radiology-related audits/QIPs which resulted in changed practice.

Score B (3 points): Led one radiology-related audits/QIP which resulted in changed practice.

Score C (2 points): Led non-radiology audits/QIPs, shown to have resulted in changed practice.

Score D (1 point): Contributed to, but not led, an audit/QIP.

Score E (0 points): None of the above.

There are 3 key points when trying to max out Domain 4:

1. Your QIP should be radiology-related meaning that “diagnostic imaging forms a major part of the project.”
2. It needs to have “changed practice”. In short, it needs to be a two-cycle closed-loop audit/QIP.
3. You need to do two of them.

Practical tips for arranging a QIP:

• Radiology is a wide-reaching field – use this to your advantage: identify an auditable imaging-related clinical problem in your current clinical job. Speak to your consultant about organising this and make sure they would be happy to supervise and provide you with evidence.
  • Some examples would include an audit of appropriateness of CXRs in ED, or CT head requests meeting NICE criteria in an old age psychiatric ward
• Choose a high-frequency topic (e.g. CXRs in ED) so data collection can be completed in a short timeframe
• Think about your intervention in advance: your audit should demonstrate measurable change in clinical practice so avoid problems that require major cultural or system-wide change
• Sometimes the best project is not a brand new one, but an older audit that was never properly closed. Finishing an incomplete project and demonstrating change can be far more useful than starting something ambitious that never reaches completion.
• For QIP ideas, use the RCR’s AuditLive resource

Domain 5: Academic Achievements

Scoring Criteria

Score A (4 points): At least one first author radiology-related publication or postgraduate research degree.

Score B (3 points): At least one publication relating to radiology not as the first author, OR, at least one first-author publication not relating to radiology, OR, a first author radiology-related case report, OR, at least one first author radiology-related oral or poster presentation at a national or international level.

Score C (2 points): At least one publication not as first author, OR, a first author case report not related to radiology, OR, at least one first author radiology-related oral or poster presentation at local/regional level as first author.

Score D (1 point): At least one oral or poster presentation not relating to radiology at either local, regional, national or international level, OR, involvement in a research team as part of an elective, intercalated degree, extended student research and enterprise project, academic foundation programme, academic summer school or other research taster.

Score E (0 points): None of the above.

How to Approach Domain 5

Similarly to QIPs, you don’t need radiology contacts to start building this section of your portfolio. Collaborating with research-interested trainees or consultants in your current job on anything imaging-related can be a route to a first-author radiology publication – just bear in mind that this is a longer-term goal, as publishing research takes time.

In the meantime, there are other ways to gain points in this domain. Consider how existing work might be repurposed:

• A radiology audit could become a poster presentation
• A clinical case with an interesting imaging component could become a case report
• A local presentation could be built up into a regional or national submission
• A teaching programme evaluation could become a medical education poster or paper

Collecting and Submitting Your Evidence

You must obtain evidence for everything you do, and ensure it meets the criteria outlined on the NHS England Clinical Radiology ST1 Application pages.

For each domain, you are required to submit a single continuous document of your evidence (apart from Domains 1 and 4, which each allow two files).

Tips For Collecting and Submitting Evidence:

• It is best to collect this evidence as soon as possible after completing the achievement, while your supervisor remembers the details, and to allow for delays in obtaining signatures or documentation from busy consultants.
• Keep all evidence in a single dedicated folder, ready for submission via Oriel in February.
• Ensure the document for each domain is clear and easy to navigate. A simple cover sheet for each domain is useful, briefly listing the contents in order followed by the supporting evidence.
• Avoid including unnecessary or irrelevant documents “just in case” if they do not contribute to your score, as this can make the submission harder to review and risks important evidence being overlooked.

The goal is to present your achievements clearly and make the reviewer’s job as straightforward as possible.

A Practical Plan For The Next Few Months

If you are building your radiology portfolio now, a sensible order of priorities would be:

1. First, organise a taster week in radiology. Ideally, organise two – but make sure they are “meaningfully different”
2. Second, start or join an imaging-related audit or QI project that has realistic potential to close the loop and demonstrate change, looking at a frequently-occurring clinical issue.
3. Third, contact relevant radiology organisations that interest you to enquire about a leadership role.
4. Fourth, contact an online educational platform with an idea for a multi-session teaching series that fills a gap.
5. Finally, look at your existing projects (e.g. audits, evaluations, posters you did at uni or in FY) and think about which could be developed into posters, presentations, or publications.

Obviously, this is just a rough guide and will vary depending on what you’ve already done and which areas of your portfolio need the most work.

Conclusion and Resources

Hopefully this guide has been useful to you. Take a look at some other Mind The Bleep content that you might find helpful:

• Clinical Radiology ST1 Application Guide
• Join the Mind the Bleep team
• Careers Page with Webinars/Articles
• Top tips for Audit/QIPs
• How to teach medical students
• Leadership
• Work-Life Balance

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. Best of luck with your application!

Written by Dr Pareya Ahmed (Senior House Officer) and Dr Olivia Parish (MTB Radiology Lead)

References:

1. NHS England (2025) 2026 Clinical Radiology ST1 Portfolio review guidance. Medical Hub. Available at: https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/clinical-radiology/core-clinical-radiology/clinical-radiology-st1-portfolio-review-guidance

2. Radiology Cafe. Available at: https://www.radiologycafe.com/