Medical Academic Matching Scheme: Research Team Guide

Green Templeton College Medical Academic Matching Scheme is a platform to connect researchers with medical students to allow an early exposure to academia. The programme is targeted for all clinical medical students at college with an interest in following an academic career and aims to break down the barrier of access to researchers and knowledge of opportunities.

The students will be allocated to research teams of similar interests and will work closely with a supervisor on a new or ongoing research project. The programme aims to teach medical students the skills required to carry out research to answer clinical question. Additionally, this scheme can pave the way for students to present their research findings and potentially contribute to publications. Integral to the scheme’s ethos is mentorship. As students form bonds with their supervisors, they not only garner valuable insights but also receive informal mentorship, further anchoring their pursuit of a fulfilling academic career.

Through our collaboration with Oxford medical school and our extensive network of alumni at the college, we aim to foster interdisciplinary medical research through a range of exciting formats and create opportunities for medical students to support their pursuit in academic medicine.

If you are interested in supervising students and have potential research projects, please fill in the brief online form. For more information or if you have any questions, please email Ali Ansaripour.

Frequently asked questions

Who would the students be allocated to and what should they do during the scheme?

This is up to the research group’s decision. As a suggestion, medical students could initially shadow a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow over a few sessions where research techniques and/or analysis are performed. A student could also participate in a research group meeting or presentation to understand research reasoning and discussion. Once the student has gained a working understanding of the research team, they will be allocated to a specific research project which they will carry out under supervision of their supervisor(s). This could be the principal investigator in the team or one of the post-doctoral fellows or PhD/DPhil students.

How are students allocated?

Students who are interested in participating are required to submit an application, where they indicate their interests and rank their choices of research group they wish to shadow. According to availability of research group and student’s interest, the two parties will be matched accordingly. After allocation, student will contact the group directly using the contact details provided to us to arrange for a specific time and meeting place to begin their visit.

How long will the scheme last?

This is decided by your research group and depending on availability. Ideally, students should be exposed to different research activities i.e. experiments, data analysis, group meeting/discussion, etc, upon joining the research team. Once they have been allocated to a research project, depending on the methodology, further time commitment and timelines will be discussed between yourself and the student. There will be no funding available as part of the scheme.

What sort of information will my group need to provide?

We ask participating research groups to provide an overview of the work/research interest of the laboratory/research team as well as the availability of the supervisors. We also ask for research teams to provide suitable contact details which have a quick response rate to messages so that the team can be easily contacted by the admin team and by the medical students. We also ask to kindly indicate whether you would be happy to have more than one student at any given time. If you are interested in joining the scheme, we kindly ask you to complete the short online application form

Research Team Guide produced by Mr Ali Ansaripour, Joan and Richard Doll Fellow

Editing Team

Senior Joan and Richard Doll Fellows: Dr Sheila Lumley and Dr Radhika Chadha

Joan and Richard Doll Fellows: Dr Hussam Rostom, Dr Josh Brewin, Dr Robert Conway, Dr Alexander Finlayson, Mr Sai Sathanapally

Richard Doll Society Committee: Mr Gianni Tam-McMillan, RDS President and Year 5 Medical Student

Alumni Relations team: Mrs Ceri Butcher, Head of Development and Alumni Relations and Sophie Schirmacher, Alumni Relations and Regular Giving Officer