A Research Year gives medical and dentistry students enrolled at Aarhus University a unique opportunity to learn and become acquainted with relevant research methods, scientific literature and research in general.
A Research Year at the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University consists of 12 months (2 semesters) of fulltime research in one of the departments at the Faculty of Health.
It is also possible to apply for enrolment for 1 semester which is the minimum enrolment period. However, the outcome must be equivalent to 2 semesters (12 months) of fulltime research, in order to complete the Research Year.
Also, the student must apply for special leave during the Research Year.
These guidelines are applicable to Research Year students enrolled from 1 September 2019 onwards.
In order to become a Research Year student, the student must apply and be approved for enrolment at the Graduate School of Health.
Before applying for enrolment, the student needs to find a main supervisor, a research project and consider how to fund the project.
Calls for application for enrolment and/or scholarship are announced twice a year; the deadlines are mid-April and mid-October.
The open call provides an online application form, which must be completed by the student, in cooperation with the main supervisor.
Before filling in the online application, please ensure to read the application guide. All relevant information and templates can be found on the webpage.
It is a requirement to fill in the application form and all mandatory attachments in English.
The call opens approximately one month before deadline.
During the application process, the Graduate School of Health informs AU Study about who has applied for a Research Year, and who is accepted.
There must be one main supervisor affiliated with the Research Year project, and preferably one or two co-supervisors.
Main supervisors must be employed at Faculty of Health at Aarhus University (minimum at associate professor level). Co-supervisors must have a Master’s degree or higher, e.g. be a PhD student.
Only a limited number of applicants can be enrolled in each application round.
A maximum of two applicants from each main supervisor can be approved in each application round.
It is required that a Research Year starts either 1 September or 1 February, and thereby follows the ordinary semesters at Aarhus University. Starting a Research Year at other dates can have consequences for the student’s education, the mandatory registration for exams and the right to receive SU.
Furthermore, it is required that the student applies for special leave during the enrolment period, to ensure that the student’s education is not influenced by the Study Progress Reform.
In order to be enrolled in the Research Year, the Research Year student must submit a copy of his or her permission to take special leave to the Graduate School of Health.
An approval of the project is only valid in the current application round, so it is not possible for Research Year students to postpone their starting date beyond the earliest possible starting date. Meaning, applicants offered a research year in the April application round must start on the firstcoming 1 September. And applicants in the October application round must start on the firstcoming 1 February .
From the application round in 2020, it will no longer be possible to apply for scholarship in a later application round, as the project approval will only be valid for the round in which it is given.
It is not possible to apply for a scholarship if the student has received funding from other sources.
If the student receives funding from other sources, a financial statement must be send to the Graduate School of Health no later than 14 days before the student wishes to start their Research Year.
When applying for enrolment and/or scholarship, the student has to choose the relevant Graduate Programme (GP); the GP that represents the department at Aarhus University where the main supervisor is employed.
Applications are assessed by the Head of GP in collaboration with a member of the Student Research committee, based on the assessment criteria.
All applications are evaluated on the material submitted within the deadline, focusing on the applicant and the research environment.
The project is assessed on its feasibility, level, whether it is suitable to 12 months research and if all the necessary permissions are present.
The assessment of the student counts for 50 % of the total evaluation and the research environment counts for the remaining 50 % of the total evaluation.
Only a limited number of students can be enrolled as Research Year students, and therefore applicants who are qualified may be rejected.
Applications containing a financial statement are not more likely to be approved for enrolment than applications without.
All applications will be discussed at a meeting with the Heads of GPs, the Student Research committee and the Vice Dean. The final decision regarding both enrolment and scholarship is made by the Vice-dean for Research, Health.
The student must unregister his/her SU while on special leave. When the special leave is registered in STADS, the SU system will be notified.
It is the student’s own responsibility to make sure that the SU system has the correct dates and that the SU system has unregistered the student while on special leave.
Funding is a requirement for enrolment, and the student needs to have adequate funding (12 x 10,000 DKK) for a personal scholarship.
A Research Year can be funded by a scholarship administered by Aarhus University or by private or public funds. The Graduate School of Health administers a number of scholarships that can be applied for in the ordinary application rounds in April and October.
In order to apply for an AU scholarship, it must be documented that the student has also applied for other funds.
If the student obtains funding from other sources, the application for a scholarship is withdrawn. The student is obliged to inform the Graduate School of Health of any other funds.
It is furthermore not possible to apply for a scholarship once the student is enrolled.
If the student does not obtain a scholarship, a financial statement signed by the main supervisor and the department must be submitted, in order for the student to be enrolled.
Research Year students who are granted a scholarship from the Graduate School of Health will receive a letter confirming the scholarship and the money will be paid directly to the student’s “NEM-konto”.
If the Research Year student will be paid via other funds from an account at Aarhus University, a recommendation for payment of scholarship has to be submitted to the Graduate School of Health in order for the scholarship to be paid directly to the student’s “NEM-konto”.
The Graduate School of Health must be informed about all long-term absence during a Research Year.
Leave due to long-term sickness or maternity/paternity does not automatically extend the enrolment as a Research Year student.
But it is possible to apply for splitting the Research Year in two parts and taking a break from it for a period. Approval of such an application is based on an individual assessment and is dependent on all the following conditions being met:
If the Research Year is delayed due to long-term illness or maternity/paternity leave, and the abovementioned conditions cannot be fulfilled, the student has the following options:
In the event of sickness or maternity/paternity leave, the student may have to cancel the special leave in order to obtain the right to receive SU during the absence.
Please notice that giving birth while on special leave may lead to the annulment of the extra SU grants. For more information, please contact the SU Office at AU.
In case of long-term absence, please contact the Graduate School of Health and AU Study in order to find the best possible solution.
After the student has completed the 12 months of research, the main supervisor must submit a notification of completion to the Graduate School of Health in which he or she states whether or not the Research Year has been completed satisfactorily. The student and the main supervisor decide how the Research Year will be completed, e.g. with an article, presentation, etc. The outcome should be agreed upon at the time of application.
In connection with completion of their Research Year, students have the option to write their Master’s thesis based on their research. However, students must be aware that the Master’s thesis is an exam assignment and therefore must fulfil the requirement for individualisation. Therefore, data and other material published during the Research Year can only be included in the Master’s thesis with proper use of references – as is also the case with all other published material included by the students. Furthermore, (elements from) discussions of method and data that are drawn up in collaboration with the research group cannot be used as they are not drawn up independently by the student. The Master’s thesis can be used as a draft for publication after it has been submitted for assessment – also before the assessment is received.
For further information, please consult your study portal or contact HE Studies Administration.
A maximum of 15 ECTS for PhD courses completed during the research year and within the last 5 years before enrolment in the PhD programme can be transferred and approved as part of a future PhD degree. However, please notice that if you have had PhD courses transferred to your Master's degree programme, you cannot also get them transferred to your PhD degree programme.
Students, who after a Research Year becomes a PhD student, can also apply for up to 6 months credit transfer, and thereby shorten the enrolment for the PhD study to 2,5 years.
In the case of insurance, Research Year students are compared to actively enrolled students at AU. It is therefore recommended that you as a Research Year student take out a full-time accident and liability insurance (heltidsdækkende ulykkes- og ansvarsforsikring).
Please consult AU’s staff pages for information about insurance.
A Research Year is a fulltime activity, and it is therefore strongly recommended that the student does not have other work at the same time.
