Medicine has around 450 academic foundation roles available every year involving research and teaching, leadership and management, or quality improvement. However, an academic career in dentistry is not as clearly defined immediately post-graduation. The North East General Professional Training scheme is a two-year longitudinal dental foundation training scheme and this year, for the first time, has conducted a pilot programme allowing two trainees the opportunity to complete a research project. The experiences of the two trainees confirm the benefit of dental foundation research posts and support the need for additional positions nationally.