UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) is a paid employment scheme designed to give undergraduate students an early opportunity to experience real life in a research laboratory and gain insight into careers in biomedical research. Students studying maths, statistics and computer science are also encouraged to apply.
Students involved in the program undertake a project that is part of the research program of a biomedical research laboratory. They are supervised by a research scientist in a mentoring role and work alongside other research staff and students in the team. The project can be experimental and based in a laboratory, bioinformatical or statistical.
While the scheme is not a formal part of undergraduate coursework, it is supported by universities because it aims to provide a vertical integration of practical research into the undergraduate years. Students practise the knowledge and skills obtained in undergraduate science-based courses during their placement, and vice versa.
There are opportunities for VeRSI to further engage with the Bio21 Cluster UROP program by leveraging the developing VeRSI program under the strategic capability areas of Training & Awareness, and Research Data & Repositories.
Aims and objectives
The UROP group manages applications, matching students with appropriate research laboratories, and maintains a list of alumni. This is currently being achieved through an aging CMS that is no longer able to fulfil requirements. The aim of this project is to re-implement the existing solution in a modern CMS, which will allow further development of the student-management system in order to add value for participants and facilitate the maintenance of alumni records.
Outcomes
UROP is a workforce capacity-building program for the biomedical/biotechnology sector in Victoria, relied upon by a number of different stakeholders (see below). The project will produce a CMS that will facilitate the management of UROP and support the biomedical community in discovering, recruiting and nurturing high-achieving students interested in biomedical research.
Accurate and timely management of student applications and recruitment processes is critical to the efficacy and standing of the program in the biomedical community. In addition, the ability to readily track students and analyse outcomes of student participation in the scheme for different stakeholders is critical to validating the program’s impact and informing participating organisations’ strategies for student recruitment. The new developments in the CMS will facilitate administrative and student-management processes, assist tracking of the careers of student participants, deliver data on student outcomes to participating organisations and indirectly foster a more cohesive alumni community.
Project details
This Project has now been completed
Lead institute Bio21 Cluster
Principal investigator Tam C. Nguyen – UROP Manager
Partner PIs and/or participating institutions Elizabeth Johnson – Projects Manager Bio21 Cluster
Partner sponsor UROP is sponsored by CSL Ltd and VLSCI and supported by a grant from the Victorian Government
VeRSI executive sponsor Dr Ann Borda – VeRSI Executive Director
Keywords: UROP | VeRSI | Research | Teaching | Student | Research | Biomedical | Employment | Bio21 | Cluster | Laboratory | Bioinformatical | Statistical | CMS | Alumni