The Faculty of Science and Engineering invites applications for Undergraduate Research Studentships from UK candidates from Underrepresented Groups in Research with priority this round to Black, Black British, Caribbean, or African candidates. The competition is part of wider set of measures to address the systemic underrepresentation of certain groups conducting research at QMUL. The internships will offer a broad understanding of research skills and methods as well as industry or non-academic career paths that are available to those with research skills.
Ten research internships (two per School in the Faculty of Science & Engineering) are offered of 8 weeks duration full-time from Monday 12 June to Friday 4 August 2023. Interns will be paid at higher rate than the London Living Wage one (approx. £473/week). Interns will also commit to a parallel enrichment and training programme consisting of 8 weekly afternoon Researcher Development Workshops including network and cohort building activity, please see next page for the tentative programme. Interns will be asked to contribute to School outreach programmes in the following academic year.The internships will be awarded on the basis of the excellence and feasibility of the project, and the level of support and mentorship from the project supervisor. This year the proposed research topic could be in any research area covered by the Science and Engineering Faculty.
Eligibility:In order to be considered, applicants should be: registered undergraduate students at Queen Mary eligible for home fees from an underrepresented group in research with priority this round to Black, BlackBritish, Caribbean or African in year 1 or 2 of a BSc/BEng programme, or years 1, 2 or 3 of a MSci/MEng programme on a trajectory to achieve a 2:1 or a 1st class degree awardHow to applyApplications should be made jointly by the academic supervisor and the undergraduate student. Therefore, it is important you find an appropriate academic supervisor and work together on the application materials consisting of: a project statement outlining the science goals (which must be feasible with the 8-week timeframe), and the outcomes for the intern a training and mentorship statement detailing the support offered to the internthroughout the project which exceeds the standard offered to interns within the School.
Mentorship may also extend beyond the 8-week programme.No CV or transcript is required, but the academic should confirm that the student is on track for a 2:1 or 1st class degree award. Please use 11pt arial font with 2cm page margins. Both documents should be no more than 1 side of A4 each. Applications should be submitted to the School Director of Graduate Studies by Monday 15th May 2023.
How your application will be assessedYour application will be assessed by a School selection panel chaired by the Director of Graduate Studies. Panels will evaluate applications using the following criteria with equal weighting: Quality of project statement; the feasibility of achieving the stated scientific goals withinthe internship period; and the benefits and outcomes for the interns. Excellence of the training, support and mentorship offered by the academic supervisor which exceeds the standard expected within the School.Each School will send the Faculty Research Team their top two candidates (+ one reserve) to dean-for-research-se@qmul.ac.uk by 24th May 2023. Outcomes will be communicated to the applicants by end of May 2023.S&E Underrepresented in Research UG Summer Research Internships QMUL2 Enrichment & Training Programme (Tentative).The 8-week internship programme comes with a ‘afternoon release’ uplift scheme to teach core soft skills to support interns’ development and future research careers. For 2023 the students will work together across all three faculties as a cohort in these areas.
Week 1 – Researcher Integrity and Responsible ResearchWeek 2 – Communicating Research IdeasWeek 3 – NetworkingWeek 4 – Working in research collaborationsWeek 5 – Public Research PerformanceWeek 6 – Career DevelopmentWeek 7 – EntrepreneurshipWeek 8 – Concluding research presentations and celebration
These sessions will take place on Tuesday afternoons throughout the period of theprogramme. We request that students are released by their supervisors to undertake this training programme. We also request supervisor engagement with elements of the training