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Annabelle Mohring, Veterinary Advisor at MSD Animal Health, comments: “We’re keen to encourage vet students to develop their research skills and support the vet community in learning more about the areas that interest them. It is a great way for vet students to gain additional experience while they undertake their research projects. As part of our commitment to the science of healthier animals and the future of the veterinary profession we are encouraging as many students as possible to take the opportunity to apply.”
Past students who have benefitted from an MSD Animal Health Research Bursary include Eleanor Robertson, from the University of Liverpool, whose research focused on access to and use of antifungal medications in Ethiopia. On completing her research, she commented: “The support from the research bursary and the team at Liverpool allowed me to gain confidence in qualitative research techniques, such as conducting interviews with translators and making use of coding software.” Sara Hillyer, from Bristol University, a bursary winner in 2017 added: “The most valuable skill I have taken from my research is being able to do a thorough and comprehensive literature review. During my project I had to search the literature extensively looking for different visualisation and assay techniques to help inform my protocol, this took time but now means I have excellent skills searching relevant veterinary databases. I now find great satisfaction exploring the current research and using that to inform my clinical decision making in practice.”
Vet students given awards will be invited to MSD Animal Health’s Research Bursary annual awards dinner and presentation day in June, which is likely to be held online. Last year MSD Animal Health presented four awards to veterinary students from The Royal (Dick) School for Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, including Lauren Collins for her research project ‘Investigating the genetics of ‘hardiness’ in a short wool, dark faced native sheep breed, the Norfolk horn’; Georgie Everest for an ‘Assessment of bovine alveolar macrophages and roles in immunity’; Beth Thompson for her project on ‘The role of TTC4 and HSP90 in replication of BoHV-1’; and Andrea Ang for her research on ‘Closing the life cycle: co-localisation of Stylaria sp. and Myxidium streisingeri’. The fifth award went to Jack Rust, from the University of Bristol, for ‘A study of the effectiveness of a detergent-based California Milk Test (CMT)’.
Successful applicants will be announced in July 2021. For further details, please visit the MSD Animal Health Research Bursary website at www.msdahresearchbursary.co.uk.