Pre-graduate Scholarships | Medical Sciences (Autumn)

Objective

This funding instrument is offered only by DFF | Medical Sciences. The council funds pre-graduate scholarships of 6-12 months’ duration with the purpose of providing the most talented BA and MA students, who have completed at least 2 years of education (finalised with an evaluation) from educations that allow no more than 6 months for the completion of their master’s thesis, with the opportunity to undertake scientific work and strengthen their interest in pursuing a scientific career.

About the applicant

Applications for Pre-graduate Scholarships | Medical Sciences must be submitted by the student’s academic supervisor. As a supervisor, you must normally have obtained a PhD degree or achieved equivalent qualifications through your research. The council places emphasis on the fact that you have an independent research profile and that you have the time required to undertake the supervision.

About the scholar student

The student completes a research project of 2 consecutive semesters’ duration. It is expected that one of the 2 semesters is teaching-free, or that the student takes leave during the semester. The second semester must have research as its main focus. If exceptional circumstances prevent the student from taking leave for a semester, this must be accounted for in the application. There is no requirement as to when this consecutive period is placed during the student’s overall education, other than the fact that the period must be completed before the student finishes their education.

Students enrolled in programmes that do not offer the possibility of a research semester are still eligible to apply for a scholarship. In this case, it is likewise expected that the student takes leave for a one-semester period. It is also a requirement that the research project takes place over a total period of two semesters. The council is willing to accept that the project, if necessary, extends over a threesemester period.

Students enrolled in an education that allows more than 6 months for the completion of the master’s thesis (regardless of whether this option is utilised or not) are not eligible to receive a Pre-graduate Scholarship. 

As a pre-graduate scholarship is tied to the specific student listed in the application, it is not possible for grant recipients to subsequently transfer the grant to another student.

About the application

When writing an application to the fund, you must pay special attention to ensuring that the application fulfils the objective of the funding instrument and that it meets the fund’s assessment criteria. 

In its assessment of the application, the council places emphasis on the student’s qualifications (especially their grades) as well as the student’s role and work tasks in relation to the project. The tasks must form part of an innovative research project and not merely constitute practical routine tasks in support of a larger project. The intention of the scholarship is that the student completes an independent project under the guidance of the supervisor/applicant, and with the aim of the student publishing their contribution. The council does not offer support for pre-graduate scholarships that
have already received full or partial funding for the student’s salary from other sources.

You cannot apply for funding for pre-graduate scholarships within the framework of the council’s other funding instruments.

The application must be written in English.

Budget

You can apply for up to DKK 150,000 excl. overhead. The budget must be completed in the mandatory budget template, which can be downloaded from e-grant.

The grant covers 6-12 months scholarship for the pre-graduate scholar as well as other operating expenses, and the budget must account for the use of these. The funds can be used throughout the entire approved period.

The funds for a pre-graduate scholarship count as operating grant support (“driftstilskud”) to the supervisor’s research activities in regard to the budget. Thus, the scholar is neither a scientific/academic employee, nor a technical/administrative employee, and the funds for the scholarship should therefore not be listed as salary, but as an operating expense in the budget template. It should be noted in the free text field for the relevant budget item how the funding is distributed between the student’s scholarship and other operating expenses.

The council prioritises applications that include financing of operating expenses, or operating grant support (“driftstilskud”), for the student/pre-graduate scholar over applications that only include financing of other operating expenses.

Project description and appendices

There are a number of mandatory appendices that must always be attached, as well as additional appendices that must be included if relevant. You can read more about the general requirements for the contents of the project description and appendices in section 8 in the call and the budget in section 9 in the call.

Please pay special attention to the fact that there are character and page limits for both the project description and the applicant's CV. Exceeding these limits will result in an administrative rejection. It is always the character count generated by e-grant that applies. You can find more information in section 8.2 in the call.