SSRA Scholarships

An annual award of the “Clare O’Connor Summer Student Scholarship in Respiratory Research” to the value of €2,000, will be made to a UCD medical student for excellence in Respiratory Research (laboratory based) within the UCD Belfield Campus and/or its affiliated University Hospitals.

The Clare O’Connor Summer Student Scholarship in Respiratory Research awards have been created thanks to generous donations by a number of individuals via Prof Muiris X FitzGerald, former Dean of Medicine and founder of the St. Vincent's University Hospital (SVUH) Cystic Fibrosis Unit.

Dr Clare O’Connor was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine, UCD and led a major research team at Woodview House from 1981 to 2003. In 2008 she was appointed Graduate School Director in the UCD Conway Institute until her retirement in 2014. Her distinguished research and teaching career centered on applied immunological, biochemical and genetic research on respiratory diseases in conjunction with Professor MX FitzGerald, Professor Seamus Donnelly and other respiratory investigators at SVUH. Dr O’Connor secured major research grants in Ireland and from the EU Concerted Action Programmes and led the Euro Lung Consortium, which involved UCD and the Universities of Edinburgh, Nottingham, Siena and Leiden.

Medical students are highly encouraged to independently seek out projects related to respiratory medicine. If your project falls within that remit, please complete the Clare O'Connor Application Form (SSRA student hub) and submit it to ssra@ucd.ie for review by September 1st 2026.

Who is eligible: UEM and GEM Students

How to Apply: Candidates must email the following to ssra@ucd.ie

1. A statement on why your SSRA Project should be chosen for this scholarship (300 words maximum). A valid SSRA Project number must be included.
2. Complete the Clare O'Connor Scholarship Application Form 2026
3. A short CV (1 x A4 page maximum).

Application Deadline: September 1st 2026
 
The selection of the successful student/project for this award is based on an interview process where shortlisted students each present their research projects (5mins) and a 3 minute question and answer session with a panel of UCD academics and clinicians.

This annual award is in memory of Dr. Kathleen Lynn (b. 1874-d.1955), a remarkable medical graduate of UCD/St Cecilia at the end of the 19th century. Her extraordinary life is detailed in her biography - Kathleen Lynn: Irishwoman, Patriot, Doctor by Margaret O’hOgartaigh. Dr Lynn was Chief Medical Officer in James Connolly’s Citizen Army, a revolutionary who occupied Dublin’s City Hall in the Easter Week Rising of 1916 and was imprisoned and deported to Britain. Later, she was elected as a Sinn Fein TD in the 1918 and 1923 elections. She performed pioneering medical work in St. Ultan’s Hospital Dublin, which she co-founded with Dr Dorothy Stopford-Price and was a leader in the prevention and care of tuberculosis in children. A Lecture Theatre in the UCD Health Sciences Centre is named in her honour.

The annual award of the “Kathleen Lynn Summer Student Scholarship in the History of Medicine/Humanities in Medicine” to the value of €2,000, will be made to one UCD medical student each year, who is sponsored conjointly by the UCD School of Medicine and the UCD Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, UCD School of History. (The applicant can work with another School in UCD College of Arts and Humanities).

Eligibility:

Any UCD medical Students enrolled in either the UEM or GEM programmes.

Application Process:

UCD medical Students must email the following to: (opens in a new window)ssra@ucd.ie

1. Personal statement detailing your interest in the History of Medicine (250 words maximum). Please include the topic you wish to investigate for your SSRA project and why. Examples of topics include: history of epidemic disease in Ireland (such as polio, 1918 flu pandemic, Tuberculosis (TB)), history of chronic diseases such as cancer, or the history of psychiatry in Ireland. These are examples only to provide applicants with some guidance.

2. Complete the Kathleen Lynn Summer Student Scholarship Form 2026

3. Short CV (max 2 pages)    

Student applications will be assessed by members of the SSRA Committee and a representative from the UCD Centre for History of Medicine in Ireland. A formal virtual interview process will take place in April and a student will be chosen for the Scholarship.

Deadline: 3^rd March 2026 

The annual award of the UCD School of Medicine SSRA Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine scholarship to the value of €2000 will be made to a UCD School of Medicine student for excellence in research relating to the use of AI in human medicine.

Advancements in AI are rapidly reshaping many areas of medicine including Radiography and imaging analysis, cancer research and personalised clinical care, the diagnosis and disease prediction of cardiovascular and respiratory disease to name but a few. AI algorithms and other applications powered by AI are being used to support medical professionals in decision making and in ongoing biomedical research.

Deadline: 1st September 2026

Eligibility:

This scholarship is open to any School of Medicine student including Medicine (UEM, GEM), RUMC, Radiography, BHLS and Physiology. Projects can be in any area of medicine that fall within the remit of AI. Students must register for the 2026 SSRA programme and present their research at the SSRA Poster and Gold Medal events.

Application Process:

Applicants should email the following to: (opens in a new window)(opens in a new window)ssra@ucd.ie

1. Statement on why you and your project should be chosen for this scholarship (300 words maximum). SSRA Project Number must be included.
2. Short CV (max 1 page)

The selection of the successful student/project for this award is based on an interview process where shortlisted students each present their research projects proposal (5mins) and a 3 minute question and answer session with a panel of UCD academics and clinicians.

The Dr Mary J Farrell SSRA in General Practice Award was established in 2019 in memory of Dr Mary J Farrell (MB BCh BAO 1916, MD, MAO, DPH) to provide studentships for SSRA students to conduct general practice related research. Students participating in our eight-week programme of research during the summer of 2026 will be eligible for the Dr Mary J Farrell SSRA in General Practice award.

Application Process:

Venue – Virtual and / or Health Sciences Centre, UCD, Belfield Dublin 4

Applications are sought from students on the UCD Medicine degree programme for the opportunity to carry out an eight-week programme of research during the summer of 2026. The programme will provide students with a comprehensive introduction to general practice and primary care research, and s/he will participate in a range of activities, including:

• learning about qualitative and quantitative research methods
• analysing data and preparing reports
• disseminating their work, specifically presenting a poster at the 2026 SSRA Poster Evening, a national scientific meeting, and drafting a manuscript for publication in a scientific journal.

Each week we will have a group Zoom project update meeting followed by a webinar on an aspect of research methodology. Outside of these weekly updates/webinars, supervisors will arrange 1-2 further weekly Zoom meetings with individual students to discuss weekly workplans and evaluate progress. It is expected that students will be available to work on these projects full-time for the duration of the programme. Remote working arrangements can be facilitated, subject to the needs of individual projects.

In 2026, the programme will include research on projects that examine:  

• Clinical education and professional development
• Clinical Care
• Population Health
• Mental Health, wellbeing and behaviour change
• Health inclusion and access
• Practice innovations, interventions and trials

Deadline:

To apply, please submit your application (opens in a new window)here by 31st January 2026

Please contact Dr Geoff McCombe (opens in a new window)geoff.mccombe@ucd.ie if you have any queries.

The Dr Mary J Farrell SSRA Bursary in General Practice 2026

In addition, one bursary of €5,000 will be provided to a student who, due to their financial circumstances, would not be able to do a Research Elective in General Practice. The Award will be made to a student who has applied for the SSRA programme and has indicated their wish to avail of the bursary. This bursary will be awarded on the basis of an interview with senior academic staff within the section of General Practice, Forensic & Legal Medicine, andwill be awarded on a confidential basis. Recipients may be asked to attend a private meeting with the donors who have made this Bursary possible. 

The UCD One Health Centre was established in 2024 and is the only WHO One Health Collaborating Centre in the world. We work with global health organisations as well as academic institutions to enable the operationalisation of One Health in an effective and practical way.

The UCD One Health Centre is pleased to offer a scholarship of €1000 to a student who is undertaking a summer project that takes a One Health approach to tackling their research question. One Health encourages the consideration of human, animal plant and environmental health when tackling challenges and designing research projects. It requires a multidisciplinary approach, teaming people with a variety of expertise, to enable a more holistic, more comprehensive and more effective way of solving problems.

Eligibility:

To apply for this scholarship, you can be a student in any school in UCD. Your project must be linked to at least two supervisors from different disciplines in UCD or beyond. Your project must take a One Health approach to solving a research question or be part of a larger project that is using a One Health approach.

Application Process:

Please complete the google form available at 

(opens in a new window)https://forms.gle/N9EC2s96yDKJmrC17 before March 13th, 2026. You will be notified by the end of March 2026 if your application was successful. 

Selection process:

The selection will be based on your application form and confirmation from your supervisors that you are undertaking the work in their groups as described. The UCD One Health management committee will review all applications and make their selection based on the following criteria:

Hypothesis, project description clarity, strength of personal motivation and strength of the project's One Health approach.

Deadline: 13 March 2026

Contact Information: If you have any questions, please email (opens in a new window)onehealth@ucd.ie

• Gaensler Scholarship
• Belclare Scholarship
• SSRA Dean’s Scholarships

Please visit https://www.ucd.ie/medicine/research/ssra/internationalprojects/ for further information and email  (opens in a new window)ssra.international@ucd.ie if you have any further questions.