Summer Fellowship
MERRIT Fellowship is a 10-week, paid summer kidney research program that takes place in the Division of Nephrology Research Labs in New York City.
MERRIT stands for Multidisciplinary Engineering and Renal Research for Innovation of Technology. It is an educational, design and research pipeline for teams of engineering students to focus on the development of new technologies for nephrology and to encourage the pursuit of academic careers in kidney research. Our program brings together two complementary sets of mentors: engineering faculty from Cooper Union and the nephrology faculty from Mount Sinai.
You must be an undergraduate engineering student with a declared major or a master’s student currently enrolled in an accredited university. All subdisciplines of engineering are welcome.
Selection for the program is competitive. We accept 3-6 students each year. You can apply through the Mount Sinai MERRIT Application Portal starting on September 15 (here).
Yes. Online applications are due on February 28
While all the research labs participating in the program are in the Division of Nephrology, they have varying interests that range from immunology to tissue engineering. Some labs focus on specific diseases (e.g., polycystic kidney disease) while others are more clinical or translational (e.g., discovery of new urinary biomarkers). You can find a list of research labs in Mount Sinai Division of Nephrology here.
While prior research experience is not necessary, the application process is competitive and prior research experience could be a factor in admission
Each student is expected to prepare a poster presentation at the end of their fellowship and participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium at Mount Sinai.
The 2022 stipend for 10 weeks is $6,000.
Yes. The fellowship includes free housing near the Mount Sinai campus for the entire duration of the program.
Yes, undergraduate or master’s students must be in an accredited university and must have declared their major in engineering.
There will be one formal class on Responsible Conduct of Research. There will also be several didactic programs that are jointly administered with other summer research programs at Sinai. These may include scientific seminars, research presentations, and journal clubs where research papers will be discussed.
You will receive your stipend as a single paycheck before the end of July.
MERRIT is a collaborative training program bringing together nephrology researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the engineering educators at The Cooper Union to promote advances in the development of kidney disease treatment.