Student Research
Start a rewarding Career of Enquiry Here
Scientific knowledge is at the core of all our programmes. In addition to educating students in specific programmes, the School has a mission to create life-long learners who are fired by a desire to add to the knowledge base through enquiry and investigation.
Our students are given a number of opportunities to undertake research during their studies including:
Student Summer Research Initiatives
This 8-week elective module provides an ideal opportunity for undergraduate students to undertake a supervised research project with the potential of gaining 10 ECTS credits towards their degree programme. The research projects take place during the third (summer) trimester in a variety of locations within UCD and at our affiliated hospital sites. Students participating in this programme compete for the Student Summer Research Awards (SSRA) through poster and oral presentations. Presentations are adjudicated by a committee of principal investigators from across the School and beyond.
Student Summer Research Initiatives
- 1 - Laboratory Research Opportunities
A range of principal investigators from across the School and the Conway Institute offer laboratory research opportunities to our undergraduate students each summer. Students participate in research as part of existing teams and get first hand experience of laboratory investigations. Many students progress to
intercalated research masters
whilst completing their undergraduate degrees or enrol in masters or doctoral research programmes immediately after graduation.
- 2 - Clinical Research Opportunities
Our extensive clinical faculty provide our students with extensive clinical research opportunities within the UCD Clinical Research Centre at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and St Vincent's University Hospital, at our specialist obstetric and paediatric teaching hospitals and within our primary care network.
- 3 - Patient & Advocate Centred Education & Research (PACER)
To be effective in our mission to advance translational research, patients and their needs must be at the centre of everything we do. Arising from our highly successful, Patient & Advocate Centred Education (PACE) programme, where patients are trained to be clinical educators, the School is building several research projects which investigate specific clinical questions, challenge how we train our clinical staff and evaluate alternative intervention strategies.
Thanks to the enthusiastic participation of patient advocate groups such as the Irish Cancer Society, we are delighted to be able to offer a number of research opportunities which focus on very specific questions of importance to these patient groups.
- 4 - International Research Opportunities
The School also offers a number of research projects hosted by our overseas collaborator institutions which allow some students to reconcile scientific enquiry with international travel.
Intercalated Research Masters in Medical Science
As part of a strategy of increasing research opportunities within our undergraduate programmes, the School has established a one year intercalated Masters in Medical Science degree for students of our medicine degree programmes.
This Masters programme is open to Undergraduate Direct Entry to Medicine students with 180 credits from their medical degree or Graduate Entry to Medicine students with a primary degree in a Science-based discipline. Preference will be given to candidates with previous research experience, which can include participation in the UCD Summer Student Research Scheme or an independent Science/Medicine related research project.
This programme allows undergraduate students to tap into the extensive portfolio of biomedical, clinical and translational research by over 75 principal investigators across the School and within the Conway Institute.
A previous participant, Seamus Flynn completed his intercalated research programme in 2009/2010 and will graduate with a Medicine (MB BCh BAO) degree and a MSc in Medical Science degree.
DAMC Young Investigators' Symposium
The DAMC Young Investigator Symposium is an annual showcasing of current laboratory and clinical research undertaken by young investigators at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and St Vincent's University Hospital. ( more )
