20th anniversary of the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation’s Student Grant Program
2025 marks the 20th year that the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada has provided grants to medical undergraduates to help them with their earliest forays into research.
“The grants support medical students to help introduce them into the world of scientific research,” said Dr. Chris Carruthers, chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. The grants were designed to foster research skills among future physicians, sparking the next generation of physician-researchers.
They help the universities involved as well. “The grants also tie in with medical schools to support their research initiatives,” Dr. Carruthers said.
The program started in 2005 with seven of Canada’s medical schools signing on. Today, all 17 medical faculties benefit from the program.
By the numbers
To date, the Student Grant Program has helped 1,466 students with their summer research projects, with total grant funding totalling just under $6 million — a level it will surpass this year.
The projects funded were in psychiatry, cardiology and oncology — the areas of research that the foundation’s founders, Vaclav Mach and Dr. Hanni Gaensslen, targeted in establishing the foundation. Of the total projects funded, 625 were in oncology, 466 were in cardiology and 368 were in psychiatry (the specific area for seven early projects was not recorded).
Understanding the grants’ impact
“Once the program was up and running, the Board of Directors decided to capture the program’s relevance to its grantees. Karen Petticrew joined the foundation as a research coordinator to administer the program and launch this feedback effort,” said Dr. Ian Arnold, vice-chair of the foundation. “From the beginning of the research support program, we used questionnaires that would assist us to understand the value of this approach over time. Students agreed to participate every 5 years in this longitudinal prospective study, and we will soon be looking at 20 years of follow-up data.”
Arnold developed forms and questionnaires for the participating students to gauge the program’s impact on students’ understanding of and involvement with research, as well as to track their satisfaction with the grants.
Students complete questionnaires before and after their research project, as well as a survey to evaluate their satisfaction with the grant. The students’ progress is followed with questionnaires at five-year intervals after their experience to learn the long-term effects of the program.
Petticrew captures is information, analyzes it and reports it to the foundation’s Board of Directors regularly.
In 2017, the foundation, with several members of the Clinicial-Investigator Trainee Association of Canada, conducted an analysis of the students’ surveys, published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine in 2017 (https://doi.org/10.1136/jim-2016-000348). The data showed that the vast majority of students participating went on to publish at least one paper, and most were very satisfied with the experience.
A minority of participants went on to consider a full-time research career, but most recognized the importance of research in their medical education and of incorporating research into their future medical practice.
Lead author Dr. Branavan Manoranjan, who later joined the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation’s Board of Directors, says, “The Mach-Gaensslen Foundation’s Student Research Program is a unique funding opportunity for medical students engaged in clinical or basic science research. It provides essential funds to support and nurture the curiosity and development of Canada’s next generation of clinician-scientists. Financial resources to support trainee-led research remains a major obstacle for students to pursue additional research training in an already prolonged training path as a clinician-scientist. The ability for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation to step up and support the academic pursuits of medical trainees is not only deeply valued but also a call for federal funding agencies and NGOs to support the training of clinician-scientists.”
Appreciation for the foundation’s support
“The program has been a success over the years we have supported it,” said Dr. Carruthers.
Petticrew said she is heartened by the positive feedback she hears. “Over the 17 years that I have been coordinating the Student Grant Program, I have regularly received expressions of gratitude for the funding from the student grant recipients and thank you’s from the medical schools for supporting medical research at their universities.”
In 2014 and 2021, the foundation surveyed the deans of the 17 medical schools about their satisfaction with the program. “Responses showed a high regard for the program and appreciation for support to their students,” said Petticrew.
Following the first 20 years of success with the program, the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada looks forward to continuing to instill an appreciation for research among tomorrow’s physicians.
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