RCS England Intercalated BSc/MSc Grant

Summary

Are you a medical student hoping to pursue a career in surgery and research? Our intercalated grant can provide funding to support research costs associated with your intercalated degree in surgery or a surgical-related area.

Career stage

Medical student 

Funding amount

Up to £5,000

Deadline

14 January at 14:00

Duration

You can use the funding flexibly while you carry out a research project as part of your intercalated degree in the academic year starting September 2026.

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We recommend you read the information below fully before starting an application.

Eligibility 

To apply for this grant, you must be undertaking an Intercalated BSc or MSc that includes surgical research, in the academic year commencing in September 2026.

You must also:

• be a clinical student at a UK medical school wishing to pursue a career in surgery and research;
• be a paid affiliate member of RCS England;
• have not received an intercalated award from RCS England before.
  
  

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About our intercalated grants

The RCS England Intercalated BSc/MSc grant in surgery or surgical-related area provides up to £5,000 towards research costs for medical students wishing to pursue a career in surgery and research.

This grant will support your research costs in any aspect of surgery or surgical care, whether in basic science, diagnosis, treatment, surgical technology, audit; or advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare. Funds are not available to support individual living or subsistence costs. 

Some elements of travel may be supported particularly where evidenced that this travel is vital for the undertaking of the research/data collection. Funding is not available for attending conferences.

What’s expected from grant holders

Intercalated BSc/MSc grants in surgery are made on the understanding that you, your host centre, and supervisor agree to accept the Terms and Conditions relating to the scheme and any amendments issued during the course of the grant.

Additional terms include:

• Your project should commence within the academic year of the award date.
• You should only use the grant funding for the purpose described in the application.
• If there are any proposed changes to your project, supervisor, or wider circumstances from the application, you should notify us, at which point further guidance will be provided.
• Your affiliate membership subscription should remain up to date throughout the period of the grant. 
• You will provide a report for inclusion in our surgical research report upon completion of your research.
  
  

What you’ll gain from the grant

A grant of up to £5,000 that may be used flexibly to support the research element of your intercalated degree, for the purpose described in your application form.

How to apply

Apply through our research funding portal. Select the 2027 Intercalated BSc/MSc grant from the list of available grants.

Before you start  

The form has five sections. These cover your details, eligibility, organisation, and proposed research project. You will also be asked to provide:

• evidence of your interest in pursuing both a career in surgery and in research, with an outline of your plan to undertake an Intercalated BSc or MSc in surgery, inclusive of surgical research, during the academic year commencing September 2026;
• the contact details of your proposed supervisor;
• a report from a surgeon working at the hospital linked to your medical school, along with their contact details. If this is the same person as your proposed supervisor, please fill out both sections.

It is your responsibility to make sure every part of the form is complete and submitted by the deadline. You can save your application and return to it at any time. 

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What happens next?

We will check every application against the eligibility criteria, after which eligible applications go through an independent peer review process. Applications are ranked and awarded based on the combined peer review scores and comments.

We will advise applicants of the grant outcome in the spring. If successful, you will be asked to sign the grant terms and conditions.

On completion of your project, you will be expected to provide a report for inclusion in our surgical research report. We will send successful recipients’ an award pack with further details on the report.

Please note: The number of awards made depends on available funding and the quality of applications. The success rate for intercalated BSc/MSc grant applications in 2026 was 58%.

Contact us

If you have any questions about applying for an intercalated BSc/MSc grant, please email research@rcseng.ac.uk and we’ll be happy to help.

How this grant is funded

This funding is possible thanks to RCS England restricted research funds.