Rules and Criteria

Major Criteria for Judging Applications

Quality of research experience for the student. Research projects should be well planned and should be structured in eight-week segments. A project which requires a four to six week reading or library research period is not appropriate for this program, nor is a retrospective review of patient charts.

Quality of the application. The student should write the application after thorough consultation with the sponsor. It should include a summary of the background for the proposal, a statement of aims, a summary of methods, references from the sponsor's experience and/or literature, a letter of support and the student's C.V. In particular, it must include a clear description of the student's role, indicating to the committee specifically how the student will be spending his/her time on the project during the eight weeks. (It should be typed so that it can be duplicated for the Summer Research Fellowship Committee.)

Faculty Sponsors

Faculty members at RWJMS, NJMS, or other medical Schools or scientific research institutions may act as sponsors. Students who want to work with sponsors from other institutions should obtain letters of invitation specifying the nature of the research project and the facilities available. Because the demand for Summer Research Fellowships greatly exceeds the number of fellowships awarded, preference will be given to faculty research sponsors in the State of New Jersey. For the same reason, we do not anticipate being able to support more than one student per faculty sponsor.

Faculty sponsors should not sign for the same project with competing students. It is the responsibility of the faculty member, not the committee, to select the student with whom he/she wants to work.

Faculty sponsors may sign for different projects with different students, in which case the Committee will judge the applications on merit and make their choice of one or (rarely) more.

Faculty sponsors may sign for a project involving two students working together only if the project uniquely requires a team approach.

It will be the responsibility of the faculty sponsor to obtain appropriate UMDNJ approval for research involving human subjects, radioisotopes, recombinant DNA, animals, and/or biohazards prior to the start of the proposed research. IRB and IACUC forms must be submitted to the respective committee on or before the due date of the application.

Fellowship monies will be awarded only after documentation of UMDNJ approvalis provided.

Papers

Students awarded a summer fellowship must submit a written summary/abstract by mid-September. This should consist of 500 to 800 words without graphs or tabular data, for printing in the annual UMDNJ student research publication.

Department Sponsored Fellowships

Departments which develop money of their own for fellowship support will negotiate for and select students on their own, unless they specifically ask the Summer Research Fellowship Committee to include their funds in the overall competition. Abstracts for such projects will be published if submitted according to the guidelines.

Awards

Fellowships are awarded for a period of eight weeks during the summer months. Summer fellowships carry a stipend of $2,700.00. The awards are for the student's use only. No funds are available for equipment or supplies.

Student Applications

Copies of the student application forms are available in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Room R-109, Piscataway.