Purpose: To provide guidance to students, faculty, and administration regarding departmental and college funding in support of medical students who have been accepted to present research or other scholarly activity at a regional or national meeting.
Scope: Medical students in the UNMC College of Medicine
Background: The need for medical student leadership and engagement of research and scholarly activity continues to increase. The College of Medicine is committed to supporting our students in pursuit of these activities and historically has provided support to students as such. This policy is intended to solidify that support and provide clear guidelines for students, faculty, and administration.
Limitations: Medical students in the MD-PhD program, or other dual degree program, who are not active in the MD portion of their training are excluded from this policy. Exceptions to this limitation may be considered on a case-by-case basis. No funding will be provided by the College of Medicine for presentation at a local meeting or for presentations that are completed virtually.
Policy or Guideline:
- Students must have an abstract, workshop, or equivalent accepted for presentation (poster or oral) at a regional or national conference.
- Students must first receive appropriate funding from the faculty sponsor (PI) and/or Department in which the research was conducted prior to receiving funds from the COM. Students should secure PI/Departmental funding prior to submitting an abstract to a meeting. In most cases, this will include the faculty/department paying for student registration for the conference/meeting and poster printing, if applicable. Some situations will be managed based upon the unique contexts and needs.
- Faculty and Departments may use funds from a variety of sources include but are not limited to existing grants or research funding to support the work, discretionary funds made available to individual faculty, departmental funds received by the College for discretionary use, and funds provided through the University of Nebraska Foundation.
- The maximum amount of funding from the COM will provide is $2000 total throughout a students’ matriculation.
- Faculty should secure funding for the student from their own funds, or departmental funds, before a student submits an abstract, or other submission, for presentation per departmental guidelines.
- Funding from the COM is not guaranteed, even if an abstract is accepted for presentation. Students may apply for funding from the COM only after their abstract is accepted and they have secured funding from their PI or Department, according to this policy.
- Funding is provided directly to students as reimbursement after travel has been completed and after all forms are submitted through the COM Dean’s Business Office.
Procedures/Processes:
- Student should contact Kari Nelson, PhD (kari.nelson@unmc.edu) Director, Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) Research with inquiries and to request funding from the COM.
- Students must submit expenses in an organized manner to the COM Dean’s Business Office within 60 days to receive reimbursement. Funding from other sources (e.g., grants) may have differing timelines in which to submit expenses.
Contact: Kari Nelson, PhD (kari.nelson@unmc.edu), Director of UME Research
Approved by the Faculty Council: April 12, 2024