Undergraduate medical students will get the chance to learn more about research, and realise its links with medical practice, thanks to a £10,000 grant from INSPIRE, from the Academy of Medical Sciences and supported by the Wellcome Trust. The Faculty of Medicine has matched this funding so that the project can extend over two years.
Anneke Lucassen, Professor of Clinical Genetics, and colleagues, submitted the bid together with a student panel, led by students James Badger and Margaret White, who are keen to promote the advantages of getting involved with research at one of the UK's leading research-intensive medical schools.
"While we organise research-themed events already, they tend not to attract many undergraduates," explains Anneke. "INSPIRE will help us both to co-ordinate existing opportunities and come up with new exciting and innovative ways to target all our students and encourage them to take part in research."
INSPIRE will start at Southampton in April
. A website will signpost events and feature podcasts of lectures, teaching and learning materials and social media feeds. Students will be invited to work on their own Southampton INSPIRE Portfolio (SIP), learning skills and collecting points and certificates for their CVs, in a similar way to professional CPD systems; a undergraduate mentorship scheme will also be launched using the expertise of PhD and postdoc students. An annual launch event will showcase INSPIRE to freshers and newly-interested students.
"We envisage INSPIRE to be led by our students and we are delighted that so many have already volunteered to join the organisers. James and Margaret are very keen to make the scheme a success and they will be ably backed up by an enthusiastic panel of third and fourth years," says Anneke.