Overview
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and Flinn Foundation Summer Research Internship provides a hands-on opportunity for pre-med undergraduate students to engage in hypothesis-driven biomedical research. Interns work in a collaborative interdisciplinary environment that fosters critical thinking, scientific analysis, technical laboratory techniques, and computational skills. Over the course of 10 weeks, interns are mentored by a biomedical scientist to develop a hypothesis and conduct guided research. Interns also attend weekly Lunch and Learn discussions with physician scientists, college leadership, and current medical students. Interns are paid a stipend of $4,000 during the program. Each intern is expected to write a brief scientific paper about their summer research and present their findings at a college-wide symposium at the end of the program.
This internship is a great fit for college students who are passionate about translating laboratory findings into tangible, patient-centered health solutions and interested in exploring a career path as a physician-scientist. Interns may be placed in traditional wet lab settings or computational dry lab settings depending on their interests. Read about the 2025 cohort and the 2024 cohort. You can complete this form to be notified when the 2026 internship application opens.
Application Timeline:
- Application opens in early December 2025 *exact date TBA
- Application Deadline: Sunday, February 1st, 2026
- Reference Letters Accepted until Sunday, February 1st, 2026
- Interviews will be scheduled throughout February 2026
- Applicants will be notified of acceptance in March 2026
Application Instructions
To complete the application, you will need:
- A personal statement, no longer than two pages, that answers the following questions:
- Why are you applying for this biomedical research internship and what do you hope to gain?
- What has influenced your decision to pursue medicine?
- Do you intend to apply to medical school? Are you interested in pursuing an MD/PhD program?
- What experience do you have in a lab setting, professional and/or academic?
- What other clinical, leadership, extracurricular, or community experiences have prepared you for this internship?
- Which college courses or academic experiences have you found most rewarding? Why?
- What would you like the selection committee to know about you that was not addressed in the questions above?
- A PDF of your (unofficial) high school transcript (for college freshman and sophomore applicants)
- A PDF of your (unofficial) college transcript
- A PDF of your CV/Resume
- The email address of a college professor who will write a reference/recommendation on your behalf. They will receive an email requesting the completion of an online form.
If you choose to complete the application in more than one sitting, please retain your Return Code. Contact Sabrina Uddin (@email) if you do not have or do not remember the code.
Eligibility for the Summer 2026 Cohort
- Current Undergraduate student (must be enrolled as a Sophomore, Junior or Senior or be a recent college graduate taking a gap year in Fall 2026).
- Have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0
- US Citizen or permanent resident
- Able to commit to the full 10-week summer research experience. Vacations or summer classes cannot be accommodated.
- The Flinn Foundation encourages applications from students that are first generation college students and/or belong to backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine.
For more information, please contact Sabrina Uddin, Flinn Program Manager, at @email.