Undergraduate Vacation Scholarships

To be eligible, students must be matriculated on an undergraduate degree programme at a university within the UK or Republic of Ireland and must not have graduated by the time of completing their Vacation Scholarship. Preference will be given to students who are in their 2nd or 3rd year at the time of submitting their application for a Vacation Scholarship.

The Vacation Scholarships must be conducted in a Scottish Higher Education Institution or recognised Research Institution (the Host Institution) during the summer vacation. They cannot be held at an institution outside Scotland.

There is no requirement or restriction on the subject of the student’s undergraduate degree programme. We welcome applications from students studying any subject, provided the proposed project addresses a question relevant to human health or disease (the causation, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of illness or the development of medical or surgical appliances, including hearing aids) and will increase the student’s understanding of what a full-time research career involves.

Scholarships are not available for the completion of projects that are part of the student’s normal degree course.

Only one application is permitted per student in any one academic year. Students who have previously had a Medical Research Scotland Vacation Scholarship are not eligible. Only one application is permitted per supervisor in any one academic year.

Supervisors and students should develop the project and application together, but the application must be submitted by the supervisor through our online application management system (AMS).

Supervisors, not students, must initiate the online application by logging on to the Vacation Scholarship Applcation Management System and clicking the “Start form” icon, after which they should invite the student to contribute to the application via the AMS.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon, Thursday 6 February 2025.

Application Forms, Guidance Notes and the Vacation Scholarship Standard Conditions are available here.

Applications are reviewed by expert reviewers. Please note that the reviewers’ scientific and medical expertise may lie in a different specialism to that of the proposed research, which should be taken in to consideration when completing the proposal: it is important to make the application understandable to scientifically literate but non-specialist reviewers.

Applications are assessed on the experience the proposed Vacation Scholarship will provide for the student, taking in to consideration the laboratory experience for the student, the opportunity for the student’s personal development as well as the quality of the science.

The Board of Trustees of Medical Research Scotland use the reviewers’ assessment of the applications when they make final award decisions.

Project Supervisors will be notified (via email through the AMS) of the outcome of their application and the supervisor and student must accept the offer of award through the AMS. Award decisions will normally be available by the end of May.

Following completion of the Vacation Scholarship, a short report on the project must be completed by the supervisor and student via the AMS within one month of the end date of the Vacation Scholarship.

Once you report has been reviewed as satisfactory, your award will be removed from the “Active Awards” section of your AMS dashboard and moved to archived applications. Individual notifications that the report had been approved will not be sent.

The Vacation Scholarship award student stipend (paid at £420 per week) will only be paid to the Host Institution after the Report has been received and reviewed by Medical Research Scotland as being satisfactory. Payment cannot be made in advance.

You award will be removed from the “Active Awards” section of your AMS dashboard when the report has been reviewed as satisfactory, and moved to archived applications. Individual notifications that the report has been approved will not be sent.

It is the responsibility of the Host Institution to submit an invoice to Lisa Stewart, Trust Administrator to Medical Research Scotland at Lisa.Stewart@turcanconnell.com.

Invoices should be submitted at the time of submitting your Report. If an invoice is not received by 31 December of the calendar year in which the Vacation Scholarship took place, the Vacation Scholarship funding will be forfeited.