In May 2014, the Medical Research Volunteer Program (MRVP), a platform of experiential learning, was launched at AUB after a 2-year dormant phase. MRVP is a program that targets AUB undergraduate students interested in becoming involved in the field of medical research early on in their academic career. It provides these students with an active experience and the opportunity to learn from and support physicians, clinical researchers, basic scientists, and other health professionals. Since the inception of MRVP, hundreds of AUB undergraduate students have been matched to work on MRVP projects with PIs from the AUB Faculty of Medicine and some of them have coauthored publications in high-impact journals. We regularly organize workshops for AUB undergraduate students to prepare them for the MRVP.
In September 2021, we launched the MRVP-International (MRVP-Int’l) program in which AUB students are matched to work with MDs from all over the world on virtual research tasks. Up to August 2023, 83 AUB undergraduate students have worked on 38 MRVP-Int’l projects with 24 PIs from 23 institutions in the USA, Canada, England, France, and Hong Kong.
Target audience
Undergraduate students interested in becoming involved in the field of medical research early on in their academic career.