Medical Student Research Program

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Contact Us
For more info or to schedule a time to meet with the MSRP Team, please contact:
Brooke Piercy, piercyb@hs.uci.edu
Overview
The Medical Student Research Program provides UCI medical students the opportunity to develop insight and understanding of translational biomedical research through completion of mentored scholarly research. To accomplish this goal the ICTS has developed a four-year program focusing on one-on-one mentored research that supports students aiming to develop a research project resulting in an abstract, poster, or publication. The MSRP provides students the opportunity to participate in formalized mentored research while providing resources to support these efforts such as IRB submission and grant writing assistance, funding opportunities, statistical support, and more.
Year 1
Students pair with a faculty mentor with similar interests and goals after completing MSRP coursework. The student and mentor submit a project prospectus. Once IRB/IACUC compliance is fulfilled, the student begins the research project.
Year 2
The student and mentor meet regularly to carry out the research project. The student provides their first annual update to ICTS and MSRP leadership of the progress on their research project.

Year 3
(Clerkship Year) The student and mentor continue to meet regularly; however, the student’s time commitment to the research project may be limited due to clerkship activities. Data analysis is typically conducted during this period.
Year 4
The student submits a research poster or abstract for presentation at a conference by this period. Any outstanding aspects of the research project are finalized with the mentor before the student prepares to begin residency.
What are the benefits of participating?
  • Access to resources while conducting research (statistics, IRB, IACUC, research design, identifying funding opportunities)
  • Certain resources only available to medical students in this program, such as limited funds for conference travel
  • Dedicated point of contact on campus to help overcome obstacles and barriers
  • Transcript notation and optional elective credit
  • Letters of Support for Residency applications
Medical Students are encouraged to apply for external funding to support their research. Please find a list of possible opportunities here.
UCI faculty interested in mentoring medical students can sign up here.