Free stuff for bioscience PhD students!

giantmutantbroccoli

So I was tidying my desk draw of old rubbish, and guess what I found? A list of sites that offered free "welcome packs" to lab-based bioscience PhD students! I know this is probably only of interest to maybe one person, but that person will at least be able to enjoy some free promotional rubbish and all the mugs they can eat

Merck biosciences PhD student welcome pack:
http://www.merckbiosciences.co.uk/html/cnuk/phd_spon_programme.htm
Includes a nice mug, some pens, possibly some paper, and a squeezie water and glitter-filled stress thingy.

New England Biolabs student starter kit - not live yet (should be 1st September)
http://www.neb.com/nebecomm/starterpack.asp

Includes a mug, pen, pencil, post-its and some samples of enzymes/reagents (not many, but enough to be useful). The samples you get depends on the area you say you're interested in.

ABd serotech
http://www.abdserotec.co.uk/

Can't find it now but it might come back in September. They sent me a box of mini cadbury's chocolate bars, a t-shirt, a bag, a pen and a mug!

I'll keep an eye out for any more.

cicdwarfer

Hi,

I'm really interested in these starter packs - however I can only actually find the application form for the Merck welcome pack.

I don't suppose you have any more specific links for the other two companies do you?

Many thanks for any help,
Will

giantmutantbroccoli

Sorry, no - I've had another look and NEB UK don't have the offer up yet. It might be worth emailing them to see when it's gong to come out as they do normally do one every year. Abdserotec don't have anything up either, and I don't know if last year's was a one-off. They are running a competition though:
http://www.abdserotec.com/special-offers/sign_up_for_our_mail_list_and_win_an_amazon_gift_certificate_-479.html

Sorry I can't be more helpful! If it's free enzyme samples/reagents etc that you're after, it's always worthwhile emailing the company directly, they;'re usually quite willing to send out samples.

seanspotatobusiness

Anything this year? NEB has done it this year but I want more!

giantmutantbroccoli

Greedy much?
Here's the link for Merck's student welcome pack for this year:
http://www.merck-chemicals.co.uk/life-science-research/phd-sponsor-programme/c_XD2b.s1O7sgAAAEiyzs7mOB9

Be careful with the stress balls though, they're pretty easy to pop!

Also never forget to take advantage of every sponsorship event at your lab - they always have free stuff to give away!