2009 essay prize winner was Justin Healy from the University of Manchester.

The Intensive Care Society would like to invite UK undergraduate students interested in critical care to participate in the Medical Student Essay Prize.

A prize of £200 will be awarded for the best medical student essay on a topic relevant to critical care. The applicant should be an undergraduate student in a recognised UK Medical School / University on Monday 29th November 2010. Applications may also be submitted from students undergoing intercalated courses of study.

Essay submission criteria

• The essay must be on an aspect of critical care relevant to research/audit/training and could be a literature review. Extra credit will be given for any original material included, e.g. summary of a project the student has been involved in, although this is not a pre-requisite.

• The essay should be around 5000 words excluding references; submissions greater than 7000 words are discouraged. Submissions may include relevant figures / tables / diagrams where these improve the clarity of the text, but should not be included where the added value is minimal.

• Marks will be awarded for relevance to critical care, originality, scientific value, clarity and good style.

The winning essay will be considered for publication in the Journal of the Intensive Care Society and all essays will be considered for upload on the ICS website, so students should take care to avoid copyright infringement in any figures used. Plagiarism will result in the entry being disqualified.

The prize will be judged by the Research Committee and conferred by Council. The decision of the judges is final, and no correspondence will be entered in to. Applicants will be notified of the results in January 2011.

Submissions are due in electronic format only (Word 6.0, .rtf or compatible) by Monday 29th November 2010, for the attention of Professor Mark Bellamy via gemma@ics.ac.uk.  Hard copies will not be accepted.