Vacation Scholarships

Applications for the SRF Vacation Scholarship are now open.

Objective:

The objective of these scholarships is to enable students to work during the summer vacation in university departments or research institutes on research projects related to reproduction, fertility and lactation in humans and other animals.

Students should normally be in the second (if on a three year course) or second/third (if on a four year course) year of their undergraduate degree studies and may be considering research as a career.  Ideally, projects should be undertaken in the summer vacation prior to the student entering their final year.  Projects can be a maximum of 8 weeks long, and include a stipend funded of £250 per week to cover living costs for the student, plus an award of £1,000 to be paid to the host laboratory to cover the cost of consumables for the project.

Scholarships are not available for students to undertake projects which form part of their normal degree course. Novel, stand alone projects are encouraged.

A report, (maximum two sides of A4), must be submitted, detailing the findings of their investigation (further details will be sent to successful candidates). This report may be published in the SRF newsletter or on the website. If a report is not received by the end of December, the project supervisor will become ineligible for future vacation scholarships for 3 years.

The SRF would strongly encourage the award recipients (especially the student, but if not, the supervisor) to present their results at the following Fertility meeting if possible. They will need to submit their work via the Fertility abstract submission system. Registration, accommodation and travel expenses (the same bursary package that will be available to SRF members) will be covered for any student selected to present their scholarship data at this conference.

Only one scholarship will be awarded per student over the course of their undergraduate study. Project supervisors MUST be fully paid-up SRF Full members.

The following information will be needed to submit an application:

• University course & details
• Courses completed & results
• Referee & department contacts
• Project details including; title, laboratory, project background & aims, experimental materials & methods, reasons for undertaking the project
• Confirmation letter from the host university – to be uploaded
• Timeline of proposed work – uploaded as a file (ie Ghantt Chart)

Timeline for 2024

• Monday 8 April – Applications close at 11.59GMT
• Friday 3 May – Applicants will receive a confirmation, please note we are unable to advise applicants before this date.

2022 Vacation Scholarships

We are pleased to announce below the names of the 2022 successful applicants. Reports of their projects will be available via the reports link below as they are received.

2021 Vacation Scholarships

We are pleased to announce below the names of the 2021 successful applicants. Reports of their projects will be available via the reports link below as they are received.

2020 No Scholarships were awarded due to COVID-19

2019 Vacation Scholarships

We are pleased to announce below the names of the 2019 successful applicants. Reports of their projects will be available via the reports link below as they are received.

2018 Vacation Scholarships

We are pleased to announce below the names of the 2018 successful applicants. Reports of their projects will be available via the reports link below as they are received.

2017 Vacation Scholarships

We are pleased to announce below the names of the 2017 successful applicants. Reports of their projects will be available via the reports link below as they are received.