The Student Voice Prize
Prizes for 2024
The Student Voice Prize offers a range of excellent prizes to our winning students.
Whether you’re looking to earn some extra cash or wish to see your name in one of the world’s most widely read publications, this competition is for you!
Check out the list of 2024 Prizes now!
Overall winner
The student whose essay is selected as the overall winner will receive the following prizes:
- The winning essay will be published in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases
- £300 cash prize!
- Opportunities to speak at M4RD and Beacon events
Runners-up
In addition to the overall winner, the competition selects a number of runners-up. All runners-up will receive the following prizes:
- £150 cash prize!
- The opportunity to be published as a blog on Springer Nature’s Research Communities site. The essays are shortened to fit a blog format, but your name and message will still be in print, ready to impress your friends and potential employers.
ESL Winner
We’re excited to announce that the 2024 competition will include an overall winner for students whose second language is English. They will receive the following prizes:
- £150 cash prize!
- The opportunity to be published as a blog on Springer Nature’s Research Communities site. The essays are shortened to fit a blog format, but your name and message will still be in print, ready to impress your friends and potential employers.
English as a second language shortlist
In 2022 we introduced a shortlist for students whose second language is English. Since then it has become an important part of the competition.
Rare disease communities must collaborate across borders to achieve change in their field and cannot be limited to one single country or location. To reflect this, the Student Voice Prize always has been and continues to be an international essay competition, with entries not confined to the borders of the UK or solely English-speaking countries.
Students who make the shortlist will receive certificates and will have the opportunity to be featured as blogs on the Beacon and M4RD websites!
NB: Essays in this category are still considered for winning and runner up positions as well as for inclusion on the shortlist.
Looking for more reasons to get involved this year?
You will encounter rare diseases and rare disease patients throughout your career, so it’s important that you understand how to help and treat them while training to become a doctor, nurse or scientist.
Listening to the patient experience is crucial, as rare disease patients often report similar experiences and challenges.
We hope you can see that The Student Voice Prize is much more than just a competition. It has proven to be a gateway for many medical students, nurses and scientists who want to engage with patients from across the medical spectrum, particularly in rare diseases.
This is your chance to become an advocate for a large, but poorly represented community and help make a real difference in the lives of rare disease patients and their families.
The Student Voice Prize can take you and your career further than you think, so apply today to see how far it can take you in 2024 and beyond!