The University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Summer Scholars Program provides first and second-year veterinary students with experience in research related to veterinary, animal, and human health initiatives. Students will gain an appreciation of biomedical and veterinary research careers and see firsthand how research contributes to advances in healthcare and veterinary practice.

This program's strength lies in our faculty's research experience and the strong mentoring environments their programs provide. Learning is supplemented via seminars on research ethics, animal welfare, communicating science, and career development. Field trips to local research animal care facilities and biomedical device companies are planned.

Our 2025 Funding Partners

The Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program was created in 1989 to expose veterinary students to research and careers in biomedicine. The program has exceeded expectations and many participants choose to pursue further research training and careers. The University of Minnesota offers a broad range of research experiences within the College of Veterinary Medicine, the Masonic Cancer Center, and the Medical School. Funding is provided by key partners:

• The College of Veterinary Medicine, UMN

• Research Office, UMN CVM

• NIH T35 Training Grant, "Veterinary Summer Scholars in Comparative Medicine" (details below)

• Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars

• AGREETT Funding, UMN CVM

• Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, UMN CVM

• Office of Graduate Programs, UMN CVM

• Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, UMN CVM

• Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, UMN CVM

• Skadron Family Oncology Scholarship

• Tilstra Fund

• Van Sloun Foundation Fund

• Zoetis

• Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station 

Our 2025 Student Awards

Students are encouraged to pursue external funding opportunities to enhance the support they receive for their research. This summer, several students secured competitive funding:

• Morris Animal Foundation Veterinary Student Scholar Program

  • Funding for Matt Bermudez (scholar) and Jennifer Granick (mentor)'s project: "Big Data for Small Animals: Using a large national medical records database to understand current treatments and outcomes for bacterial pneumonia in dogs"

• AVMA/AVMF 2nd Opportunity Summer Research Stipend

  • Funding for Regina Kurandina (scholar) and Sian Durward-Akhurst (mentor)'s project: "Characterization of ion channel genetic variation in animal models of sudden cardiac arrest"

• USDA Scholars

  • Emma Prybylski (scholar) successfully applied for funding through the BI-USDA Veterinary Scholars Program Summer Research Experience. However, this program was subsequently suspended. 

NIH T35 Veterinary Summer Scholars in Comparative Medicine

A T35 Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health provides funding for 7 DVM students each summer to engage in mentored, hypothesis-driven biomedical research through the Veterinary Summer Scholars program. Funding supports a stipend and travel expenses for trainees to attend the Veterinary Scholars Symposium. T35-funded summer scholars participate in CVM's Veterinary Summer Scholars program with the same requirements and expectations as those supported by other funding sources.

Veterinarians are uniquely prepared for scientific discovery that benefits human health, particularly when their broad understanding of comparative physiology and pathology is coupled with mechanistic or translational research training. The T35 research training program “Veterinary Summer Scholars in Comparative Medicine” provides a mechanism that helps meet the need for greater numbers of veterinarian scientists in biomedical research.

T35 advisors study disease processes in humans, spontaneous animal disease models, and experimental animal models. The mentors include a complement of basic scientists and both human and veterinary clinician-scientists that have extramurally funded research programs.

For further information about this program, please contact the program director Dr. Ned Patterson (patte037@umn.edu).