The HRB Summer Student Scholarship scheme aims to give undergraduate students working in health and social care or related disciplines a first flavour of active research.

Applications to the 2024 round of the scheme will open in mid-October 2023, with a deadline for applications in mid-December 2023.

Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll, Chief Executive at the HRB says,

“The Summer Student Scholarships have been run by the HRB for almost three decades. The 2024 call will be the 29th annual iteration of this funding initiative and almost 1400 students have been supported since it began in 1995.

“The scheme plays a key strategic role for the HRB as it gives students and our next generation of health researchers an important first taste of research in a health-related context and in healthcare situations.”

The earlier call opening and closing dates are to facilitate successful students and their supervisors to secure necessary approvals (for example, ethics and animal) prior to starting the scholarship.

The second change will see the stipend available to students rise from €300 to €400 per week. 

And lastly, following a rigorous eligibility checking process (exactly the same as in previous years) the HRB will move away from the postal panel review process that it used to adjudicate on the applications and instead introduce a randomisation process to select successful applications.

Dr Anne Cody, Head of Investigator-Led Grants, Research Careers and Enablers, explains,

“The HRB is committed to sustaining our longstanding annual investment in this scheme, which supports 50 or more scholarships each year and has an average success rate of 50 percent.

“We believe that this new approach is both pragmatic and innovative in piloting a novel approach for funding allocation. It is also proportionate, in terms of the type of investment, time and resources allocated to the scheme.”

Ends.

Explanatory note on the randomisation process

There is a growing interest among many funders worldwide in experimenting with randomisation or partial randomisation in funding decisions. Advantages with randomisation cited in the literature include reducing biases and increasing diversity, fostering innovation and creativity, reducing reviewers’ burden, and increasing transparency. 

Some argue that (partial) randomisation is not merit-based and may lower the quality of some applications that are funded.

To help mitigate those risks:

  1. The HRB team will conduct a detailed assessment of all applications for scope of the proposed research project as per scheme guidelines and for eligibility of students, supervisors and the general research environment. Only applications that pass this review will proceed to the randomisation phase.
  2. The randomisation process will be conducted in the presence of two independent observers from the HRB approved Institutions’ Research Offices. This will ensure transparency and fairness in the process.