Overview

HEIDS Scholars participate in faculty-mentored infectious disease research, broadly focused on HIV and associated infections. Domestic and international clinical research topics can include mental health, substance use disorders, TB, Hepatitis, STI's, Bacterial infections, etc. Most HEIDS scholars participate in research experiences full-time over the summer months (8-10 weeks)

Eligibility

The HEIDS Scholars program is open to PLME undergraduate students (rising juniors, seniors and graduates the summer before attending AMS), undergraduate students admitted to the Early Identified Program in Medicine, Alpert Medical School / PC-PM Students (usually rising second years), and medical students participating in AMS Summer Assistantships / Scholarly Concentration Program.

Benefits

• Summer Research Stipends: HEIDS Scholars receive a $3,750 stipend for 8-10 weeks of full-time research.
• Community of Scholars: Scholars are invited to participate in various lectures and networking opportunities as a Community of Scholars throughout the academic year. For more information about upcoming and past events, see our Events page.
• Research Training and Support: HEIDS Scholars are provided with opportunities for research training and support, including the Research RX summer research course, required Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training, and biostatistics office hours. See our Research Training and Support page for more information.
• Scholarly Products: All scholars are required to present a scholarly product based on their research experience at a Brown research forum or at a scientific conference (such as Global Health Research Day or the Warren Alpert Medical School Academic Symposium). For a list of selected HEIDS publications, view our Student Spotlight page.
• Publication and Conference Support: The HEIDS program supports conference travel in the years following the initial summer research experience for scholars with first or second-authored accepted abstracts and publication charges for related manuscripts. For more information, visit our For Current HEIDS Scholars and Fellows page.

Application and Selection

Interested applicants are first encouraged to find a faculty mentored research project on a HEIDS-related topic. Students may choose to participate in the HEIDS / CGHE Mentor Matching Program (yearly deadline in October), to consult with the faculty project directory compiled by the Medical School (PLME and Medical Students must log in through Brown email to view), or to identify a faculty mentor and research project on their own. Applicants may contact the HEIDS program as they are finalizing a project to ensure it aligns with the goals of the grant. 

To apply, all interested students must submit a completed application by early February, 2026 (date TBD) to be reviewed for consideration by the HEIDS Executive Committee.  

Please note a complete application requires a letter of support and other materials from your faculty mentor, so please ensure that they have ample time to complete them before the deadline. 

For PLME students and AMS Medical Students: Submit the Summer Assistantship (PLME / Medical Student) Application in UFunds. See the AMS SRA and PLME SRA websites for more information.

For all other students (including EIP and AMS PC-PM students):  Submit the HEIDS Student Application Form.

Coming soon.

In Fall 2025, the HEIDS program will pilot a semester-long HEIDS PLME Mentored Group Research Project (MGRP), led by Co-I Dr. Fizza Gillani. The MGRP was developed in response to strong PLME student demand for introductory research experiences. 

The group project is designed to provide an introduction to clinical research – asking an answerable and clinically relevant question, querying existing databases, conducting analyses, interpreting analytic output, and reporting the findings. Dr. Gillani will provide close supervision and guidance along each step of the project from conceptualization, research strategy, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation of study findings, and presentation and/or publication of final work. PLME students who complete this mentored group research project will be in a strong position to create an HEIDS summer research funding proposal in the years following their semester-long experience. 

Students have been selected for the Fall 2025 semester. If you are interested in future mentored group research projects, please contact Program Specialist, Laura Pleasants (laura_pleasants@brown.edu).