In the summertime

Scientists usually get their first real experience of research when they start their PhD, but the Wellcome Trust’s Vacation Scholarships (see box below) offer an earlier taste of life in the laboratory. The scheme is aimed at undergraduates in their middle year - medical students, vets or basic scientists who have not yet had a research element in their degree.

Students have a chance to work full time on their own research project for a period of up to eight weeks over the summer break, providing undergraduates with a glimpse of life in a research laboratory before they make important career decisions. The experience can be rewarding, enabling budding young scientists to sample the joys and frustrations of research, and experience the all-important social side of laboratory life.

This first early taster can be a decisive factor in encouraging students to embark on a research career. "My studentship was a major influence on my decision to do a PhD," says Steve Sansom, who is now in his first year of the Wellcome Trust’s Four-year PhD Programme in developmental biology at the University of Cambridge.

"I spent eight weeks at the School of Life Sciences Biocentre in Dundee learning how to clone proteins. It was the only experience I had of working full-time in a lab for a sustained period of time and made me realise that this was the type of work I wanted to do. The techniques I learnt gave me a big head-start when it came to my honours project. The experience also provided an edge for my PhD applications, and gave me confidence that I could cope with the different demands of studying for a PhD. I would definitely recommend a vacation studentship to anyone thinking seriously of a PhD in the life sciences."

For clinicians in human medicine or the veterinary sciences, a Vacation Scholarship can open up the prospect of a research career as an alternative or complement to clinical practice. Many also say that a greater understanding of the fundamental, theoretical basis of their work helps put their clinical practice in better perspective.

Esme Harris, who is training to be a vet at the University of Glasgow and spent her Vacation Scholarship in July and August 2001 studying Cushing’s disease in dogs, agrees with this suggestion. "I learnt the theoretical and practical aspects of biochemical assays and their interpretation, and also improved my clinical practical skills in working with dogs. Overall, I gained greater confidence in both my scientific and clinical abilities, and in communicating with colleagues and supervisors.

"The award gave me invaluable experience in an area of veterinary medicine that is not very accessible for students at my stage, which will provide me with a better perspective on the material I will be studying in the final two years of my course. Participating in this project has made research a more attractive career option and I would be particularly interested in pursuing a career that combined small animal medicine with research."

At the University of Liverpool, Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow Dr Dean Naisbitt sponsored chemistry student Andrew Gallimore for a Vacation Scholarship at the Department of Pharmacology in the summer of 2001. In his view, the scholarship helps students take their first step towards autonomy in the lab. "Practicals for an honours degree consist of spending three hours in a laboratory then going away again," he explains. "Vacation Scholars, once they’re comfortable with the new techniques they’ve had to learn, can come in each morning and set up the experiment without any help from the other members of the research team. And they get used to thinking ahead and designing experiments day by day to get the results they want."

Moreover, testifies Dr Naisbitt, students can make valuable contributions to research projects. During his Vacation Scholarship, Andrew Gallimore used the various techniques he learnt, such as flow cytometry, to investigate how drugs bind to cells. He produced research data which will be included both in a paper and a presentation to the British Pharmacological Society in December 2001.

See also

• Four-year PhD Training Programmes: Scheme details