UROP Newsletter August 2023

UROP 2023 Round 1

The highly competitive UROP 2023 round 1 concluded with eight successful students accepting their placements with biomedical research organisations/institutes across Victoria. Thank you to all the supervisors who submitted proposals and accepted a UROP placement within their research teams/groups, and for your continued support of the program. We wish you and your student a rewarding and fulfilling experience. Thank you to all the students who applied for a placement this round, for submitting high calibre applications and for your interest in the program. We received over 400 applications, for those who did not get a placement this round we wish you well and encourage you to continue looking for opportunities to support your aspirations.

Celebrating our impact

Did you know that UROP has been facilitating biomedical student work placements since 1989, with over 760 students having successfully completed placements since 2004? Through their UROP placements, students have not just been a part of research teams working on cutting-edge science alongside renowned scientists but also have had the opportunity to pursue postgraduate studies, present at conferences and/or be contributing authors in scientific publications.

Congratulations to the twenty-eight students who completed their UROP placements during the 2022/2023 financial year. Of the students who responded to the Monitoring & Evaluation survey post placement (n=14), five students were offered employment as a direct result of their UROP placement, over 70% of students are currently studying or planning on starting an honours or post-graduate degree and four students were also given the opportunity to author or assist in the production of a publication

Changes to Supervisor Project Submissions

Supervisor applications will now be accepted all year round! Just indicate in your application when you would like the student to start, either in the next coming round, or a round in the future. However, if you want your project to be considered for the next upcoming round, the applications need to be in before that round closes, generally about 2-3 weeks after the university semester starts. The UROP team will confirm start details with you on receipt of your submission.

Interested in supervising a high achieving undergraduate student on your research project?

UROP Annual Conference 2023

The annual UROP conference was held on Thursday 20 July at CSIRO Clayton Ian Wark Theatre. This year the conference was well attended with over 40 attendees, including distinguished guests, Mr Simon McKeon AO (UROP patron, current chancellor of Monash University and 2011 Australian of the year), Dr Milica Ng (Head of data Science, CSL) and Ms Julia Siddiqui (Executive Manager, CSIRO Education and Outreach). The importance of STEM education and bilingual training (biology and computational) for future biomedical research careers were the emphasis of these addresses. The important role UROP plays in enhancing the future biomedical research industry's workforce capability and thereby the Australian health sector capability was highlighted.

Former UROP Student Ms Serena Kane, now a third year PhD student was the keynote speaker and shared her current work and the positive influence UROP had for what she is pursuing now.

Twelve UROP students presented their UROP placement work in three sessions chaired by UROP supervisors Dr Renee Chow (ARMI), Dr Christopher Draper-Joyce (The Florey) and Dr Mitchell Lawrence (Monash University). A panel of judges consisting of UROP supervisors Dr Adam Quek (CSL), Dr Gulrez Chahal (MCRI) and Dr Marina Alexander (CSIRO) had the difficult task of selecting the best three student presentations. Our congratulations to Adeline Trieu (MCRI) who was the winner this year, with Nguyen Nguyen (CSL) placed second and David Botros (ARMI) placed third. Our congratulations to their supervisors as well as to all the supervisors on the exceptional presentations each of their students presented on the day.