MGIMS, Sewagram believes that promoting research aptitude among undergraduate students will help them become more inquisitive and analytical in their approach and in turn lead to adoption of deeper learning approaches. In long run, it will help them become physician-researcher to bridge the gap between bench and bedside research.
It is more than two decades that the institute made efforts to encourage undergraduate students to apply for ICMR short term studentship (ICMR STS). In nineties, Department of Community Medicine also started engaging students in group projects under its Essential National Health Research (ENHR) scheme. To strengthen it further, in collaboration with Dreyfus Health Foundation, Washington DC and Health Action by People (HAP), Thiruvananthapuram, Department of Community Medicine started conducting a two-day workshop for undergraduate students, where expert facilitators help students frame a research question, decide appropriate methods to find answer. In 2008, under a funded project by OVATIONS, ICRAG; a mentorship program was implemented for two years, in which 32 undergraduate students were identified and attached to 32 faculty from different departments who work as mentors. The students under the tutelage of their mentors conducted their short research projects. Periodic academic programs were also arranged to build the research capacity of the students as well as the mentors under the program. In 2014, the birth centenary year of Dr. Sushila Nayar, an award for undergraduate research was instituted.
All of these efforts at institute level has succeeded in building a norm where more and more students are coming forward and applying for research studentship with ICMR and/ or MUHS. We have also observed that several students carry on with their research projects even when they do not receive a grant from ICMR or MUHS. In recent years, our undergraduate students also bagged several prizes in state/ national level conferences for their presentation of their oral papers.
Keeping this in mind, honorable President of Kasturba Health Society, Shri Dhirubhai Mehta, decided to launch an annual institutional grant for promoting undergraduate research at MGIMS, Sewagram and sanctioned an annual grant of Rs. 300,000. The current document, ‘Notification – Scheme for promoting undergraduate research at MGIMS, Sewagram’, provides details of activities and guidelines for its implementation for promoting undergraduate research at MGIMS, Sewagram using the above-mentioned grant.
Dr Sushila Nayar Memorial Award for UG Research
Dr Sushila Nayar Short-term Research Grant
Incentives for Scientific Publications by Undergraduate Students
Dr Sushila Nayar Travel Grant for presenting paper in national/ international conferences