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Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
MD Education

Apply to RISE

PLEASE FOLLOW THIS LINK TO APPLY TO RISE

Applications due: January 30, 2022

Decisions announced: Early March 2022

Overview: The Research Intensive Scholarly Emphasis (RISE) program is a one-year fully funded opportunity for students who desire an intensive mentored research experience as a springboard to exploring careers as physician-scientists. 

Student eligibility: All M1-M3 students who are not enrolled in MSTP are eligible; this includes MD/MPH and MD/MA students. Students can choose when to take the RISE year after being accepted; for instance, an M1 or M2 accepted into RISE may choose to take the RISE year after M2 or M3 years. Students can apply multiple times for RISE (e.g., during M1, M2, and M3 years if not accepted M1 or M2 years). 

Mentor eligibility:  Funding is provided via a cost-share model between FSM/AWOME and research mentor/PIs. The mentor/PI must have an active research program. The faculty listed on our website have confirmed their interest; however, feel free to reach out to faculty not on the list; most willing faculty are likely to be eligible.

Overview of Application Materials

1. Personal statement
Please provide a statement of no more than 500 words describing your interest in pursuing an extra year of research and seminar sessions through the Research Intensive Scholarly Emphasis (RISE) program. Specifically, please discuss:

  1. Your over-arching career goals, including interest in a career as a physician-scientist
  2. How taking a year for RISE would help you progress toward these goals from a personal and career/scientific standpoint
2. Proposed Activities Over RISE Year
Please provide a brief (no more than 500 words) outline of planned activities over the course of the year. This includes an outline and general timeline of:
  • Planned background reading and project-scoping activities 
  • Planned analyses, interventions, and/or experiments, including (if applicable) major hypotheses; and
  • Goal outputs, e.g. focus areas/potential titles of presentation(s) and paper(s) that could result from the work
3. CV
Please upload your CV. Any format is allowed and documents must be uploaded as PDF or word.

Note that prior research experience is NOT required for candidacy in the RISE program. Rather, the primary focus of reviewers is on the quality of work planned over the RISE year and the extent to which the proposed RISE participation would contribute to a candidate’s potential career as a physician-scientist.

4. Mentor’s Letter
Students should upload a letter written from their proposed mentor or mentoring team. Instructions to share with the mentor(s) when drafting the letter are below:

For mentors: Please provide a brief (no more than 500 words) description of the following:
(1) Your scientific role and mentoring experience
(2) An overview of your program’s opportunities for scientific and career development for the applicant
(3) Whether applications for extramural funding for the student will be pursued in advance of the extra year of research
(4) A statement of whether the mentor is willing to support half or more or less than half of the standard student stipend for the RISE year. Note that half of the student stipend is approximately $17,000 for the year. The remaining uncovered portion will be supported by FSM funds. *