Vacancies

Join us and be part of an inclusive, vibrant community of research and innovation.

Current vacancies

We welcome applications from final-year undergraduates and Master’s students (or recent graduates) for paid project research internships that are not part of the degree course requirement.

Our research focuses on the mathematical principles of adaptive intelligent behaviour.
We study (un)supervised and reinforcement learning; inference, coding and neural dynamics; Bayesian and kernel methods, and deep learning; with applications to the analysis of perceptual processing and cognition, neural data, signal and image processing, machine vision, network data and nonparametric hypothesis testing.

The internship (up to 3 months) is full time and in person. During the internship, you will work on a research project under the supervision of experienced researchers. You will develop and apply your research skills, gain hands-on research experience, and connect with researchers at the unit and beyond. At the end of the thesis project / internship, you will write a report and present your work to the whole unit.

We particularly encourage applications from groups that are under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields and/or who have experienced some form of educational disadvantage.

Applications are reviewed twice a year in January and July. If you plan to do a winter/spring internship (for example, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun), please submit your application by the July deadline (of the previous year); if you plan to do a summer/autumn internship (for example, Jun-Aug, Oct-Dec), please submit your application by the January deadline of the same year. If you are unsure which round you should apply to, please contact I-Chun Lin at i.lin 'at' ucl.ac.uk.

Next review round: July 2025.

Please review the information under tab 'Eligibility' and tab 'Applications' carefully before submitting your application. (The page is best viewed on a computer.)

Be in your final undergraduate year, a Master’s student or a recent graduate.
Be enrolled in a relevant subject such as computer science, physics, engineering, statistics, mathematics, neuroscience, or cognitive psychology.
Have a strong mathematical and analytical background and a keen interest in theoretical neuroscience, machine learning or both.
Have proven/potential academic excellence.
Have a good command of the English language.
Be available for the entire duration to work on the project full time and in person.

Applications are now closed. The next review round is July 2025.

You will be asked to provide the following information:

Academic information: Secondary school, university degrees (with copies of transcripts), research experience, awards (incl. prizes, scholarships or other relevant notable achievements), mathematics preparation, and English proficiency.
A brief statement describing your research interests and academic background, explaining how it fits with the Gatsby Unit (up to 300 words). In this section, please also indicate the faculty member(s) you would like to work with and your preferred start date and end date.
References: You will be asked to enter the names and contact information of two academic referees who have agreed to comment on your ability and suitability for the internship. To give them adequate time you should submit the referee information as soon as you know who your referees will be, even if the rest of the application is still incomplete. Once you submit the referee information, an email request will be sent automatically. You will receive an email confirmation when each reference is received. References must reach us by the deadline stated below; it is your responsibility to follow up with your referees to ensure the references arrive on time.

We may also be able to accommodate non-UCL students who wish to carry out their MSc (or similar) academic research projects with us. Applications to do so should be submitted following the same procedure for project research internships as stated above, giving details of your academic programme as well as any constraints or regulations relevant to the research, and specifying that you are applying to carry out a MSc (or similar) research project. (If there is an internal deadline that is earlier than the internship deadline, please contact I-Chun Lin at i.lin 'at' ucl.ac.uk, explaining the situation.) Please note that such academic research visits are separate from our paid internships, and we expect any financial support or remuneration to ordinarily be arranged through your home institution.

MSc and other project students at UCL may make enquiries to their preferred supervisors in line with their usual course schedules.

Updated 2025-01-18

Why join us?

The Gatsby Unit has been at the forefront of theoretical neuroscience and machine learning since its establishment in 1998. We maintain a singular and cohesive research culture, emphasising interaction and collaboration both within the unit and beyond. The unit’s research benefits from tight links to the exceptional scientific communities at UCL in neuroscience and machine learning and AI, with particularly close collaborations with world-class researchers in the SWC and the UCL ELLIS Unit. We are located in the heart of London, sharing a purpose-designed building with the SWC a few blocks away from the UCL campus.

We have an exciting programme of scientific and social events, including an external seminar series and topical workshops, journal clubs, research talks and regular tea hour socials (jointly with SWC on Fridays). Our staff are entitled to UCL's full range of benefits and development opportunities.

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. Gatsby Unit & SWC are delighted to have received an Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2021. We stand by our commitment to positive action to improve equality and accessibility in the workplace. We will provide reasonable adjustments to enable people to work and flourish with us. We are committed to fostering a positive cultural climate where all staff and students can thrive and committed to Wellbeing@UCL.