Research grants for medical students?

[raltima07]

Hey,

I was looking up grants for research aimed at medical students. Seeing as many of you guys are MD/PhD's or just really into research, can you point out some named grants or anything which a medical student can pursue during their first or second year?

To clarify, I am not asking for grants to do one year of research (I.e. taking a year off) but any denomination to help fund research throughout the med school year.

Thank you for your help!

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[raltima07]

Bump!

 

[Neuronix]

I think the reason nobody is responding to your thread is because nobody is aware of the grant you are looking for. I don't believe it exists. If you want to expand your research training and potential, you need to take at least a year off.

Medical school is a full-time pursuit. Grant-giving institutions are only giving grants to pursue full time research as a trainee, as having too much educational conflict doesn't allow for you to utilize the grant you are given. Thus, if you want to apply for a year out grant, that's one possibility. There aren't any available through the NIH that I'm aware of, though there are some others I can't name off the top of my head. There are some small summer programs or fourth year research programs for a few months of research. These are supported by medical schools or small granting organizations.

I don't know how important a grant in medical school is for residency placement. I think it is a small to negligible piece in the overall process. Again, the key is time, experience, and publishing (more important for residency competition than medical school competition).

In any case, you don't need to worry about this until you get into medical school. Once you have matriculated there should be a research office or coordinator who can give you information and help you apply for grants or pursue any research goals. There is no need to do anything before starting medical school on that.

 

[SBR249]

I agree, I've never heard of major grants that fit the criteria.

If you want to take a year off (or if you go to Duke and want something to do the 3rd year), then CRTP, Doris Duke, or HHMI all offer something of that sort.

However, it would be hard to make a convincing case for any organization to fund a grant if you can't really nail down how much you'll be in the lab or how involved you'll be. Best thing to do would be to ask the med schools directly if their students do this sort of stuff and if so, how. Also I would imagine that many labs at med schools would be happy to take on a med student looking to do a bit of research on the side as long as you don't have expectations of being paid or anything like that.