First-Year Medical Student Summer Research

First year student summer research applications are due on May 5, 2023, and a meeting concerning summer research opportunities for first year students will be held each November. Summer research stipends are awarded in the amount of $6,588 per student. Stipends are paid on a weekly basis. To be fair to all medical students, this stipend amount is in line with the National Institutes of Health pay level for a predoctoral stipend for research.

Applications for summer research fellowships are available electronically for download.

Use the following table to plan for finding a summer research mentor and selecting a research project. For more information on time and location, check your schedule in BlueDogs. Dates, times and locations for AY2022-23 sessions are available in Blue Dogs.

Listed below are links for additional sources of funding for summer research for 1st year medical students. It is important that you read the requirements carefully for each fellowship, as they have different eligibility requirements and deadlines.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are planning to apply for summer research fellowships from funding sources outside of Yale, please contact Anne Kellett at Anne.Kellett@yale.edu at least 7 days before the fellowship deadline, as there may be additional forms required by Yale's Office of Sponsored Projects that need to be completed before an application can be submitted to the funding agency.

The Jack and Francine Levin Yale-at-MBL Student Research Fellowships were established in 2018 by YSM alumnus Jack Levin, MD 1957, and his wife, Francine Levin, to encourage Yale undergraduates and medical students to engage in biomedical research early in their medical school careers. Located on Cape Cod, three hours from New Haven, MBL is a locus for scientists from around the globe pursuing research in a wide variety of fields directly relevant to human health. Discoveries by investigators at or affiliated with the MBL have produced more than 50 Nobel prizes in physiology or medicine since 1920. The MBL, an affliliate of the University of Chicago, provides access to, and training in, super-resolution and high-resolution microscopy and experimental techniques in cellular and molecular physiology, genetics, and other fields. Research across the MBL focuses on a number of distinctive themes, including:

• new discoveries emerging from the study of novel marine organisms, encompassing research in regenerative biology, neuroscience, sensory physiology, and comparative evolution and genomics;
• the study of microbiomes and microbial diversity and ecology in a variety of ocean and terrestrial habitats;
• cutting-edge imaging and computation, making the unseen visible to illuminate cellular function and to explore biological mechanisms; and
• organismal adaptation and resilience in the face of global climate change and rapidly changing ecosystems.