Wellcome Biomedical Vacation Scholarships

The scholarships provide promising undergraduates from underrepresented groups with hands-on experience of research during the summer holidays with the aim of encouraging a career in research.

PLEASE NOTE: Student applications are now open! Please complete the application form by the 15th of May 2024. Please review the project descriptions in the summer project listing for details on which projects to rank in your application.

Placements will run from Monday, 22nd July until Friday, 30th August 2024.

Each year we offer undergraduate students from universities across the UK the opportunity to undertake a paid Biomedical Vacation Scholarship during the summer holidays funded by the Wellcome Trust.  The scheme provides research opportunities for groups that are currently underrepresented in postgraduate research.

Find out what our students had to say about their experience on the programme:

You can read more about the Wellcome Trust’s initiative on their website: How we can give a more diverse group of undergraduates hands-on research experience.

Applications for the Wellcome BVS Summer Programme 2024 are now open. 

If you have any queries about the scheme, please contact Tom Muzyka via t.muzyka@ucl.ac.uk 

Information for Applicants 

Why Apply?

Through the Wellcome Biomedical Vacation Scholarships (BVS) at UCL you will gain professional experience through a funded internship, gaining knowledge and experience in your chosen research field. The experience will support your applications for postgraduate study and other research careers.  As a BVS student, you will be part of a cohort of 10 students and will be given the opportunity to meet each other through UCL BVS welcome and closing events. 

Research & Supervisors:

Research projects may be done in the laboratory, office, clinic or field and may involve experimental or theoretical approaches, depending on the type of research a supervisor undertakes.  For summer 2024 students may choose from a number of projects, within the Wellcome Discovery Research remit, and based across more than 4 of UCL’s faculties.

Summer 2024 project & supervisor list is attached below: 

summer_project_list_2024_.pdf

summer_project_list_2024_.pdf

 

Each supervisor is permitted to host only one Wellcome Trust funded student therefore you may wish to select your top three projects and supervisors when submitting your application.

Essential Information:

The BVS students will be paid at the real Living Wage for working 37.5 hours per week for the 6-week internship. 

The internships will start on Monday 22nd July 2024 and finish Friday 30th August 2024.

If travel/accommodation is a barrier to you taking up the internship, then there may be additional funding to support this.

Eligibility Criteria and Suitability:

To apply you must:

• Be registered on a relevant undergraduate course in the UK or Republic of Ireland. Examples of relevant subjects include: science (biomedical, natural, computing or physical sciences), medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, engineering, mathematics and psychology;
• Be in the middle year(s) of your degree
• Have not yet undertaken a substantial period of research.

Applicants will be assessed on the basis of scientific and academic merit. In the circumstances where all things are equal, priority will be given to those from groups that are currently underrepresented in the biomedical postgraduate research student population at UCL* and/or who have come from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds, using positive action under the Equality Act 2010 where appropriate.

Students from the following communities:

• Black or Black British – African
• Black of Black British – Caribbean
• Other Black Background
• Asian or Asian British – Bangladeshi
• Asian or Asian British – Pakistani 

Applicants who do not meet any of these criteria are still eligible to apply.

Please note, you are ineligible to apply if you:

• Are in your first or last years (please note you are considered a first-year student during the summer after your first year at university and you are considered to be in your last year of university in the summer after your final year);
• Have previously undertaken a vacation scholarship from Wellcome or another funding body, or have had significant research experience;
• Have completed or are currently undertaking an intercalated year;
• Have completed or are currently undertaking a one-year placement in research as part of their degree (e.g. a sandwich year);
• Are a graduate-entry medical student who has completed a previous undergraduate degree in a science-related subject;
• Are enrolled on a course outside the UK or the Republic of Ireland.

How to Apply:

Complete the application form here. Please be aware that we will collect equality, diversity and inclusion information as well as information to inform whether applicants meet any of the widening participation criteria.  Please note that this information will only be accessible to those staff involved in assessing widening participation criteria following the assessment process, and will not be made available to those engaged in the BVS application selection process. Once all applications have been ranked on scientific and academic merit by the selection panel, personal details (ethnicity & socioeconomic information) as entered on the application form will be used to prioritise funding in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 only where there is a tie-break i.e. applicants are deemed to be of equal merit to one another. We will retain your personal information in accordance with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which obliges us to keep it only for as long as is necessary. If we do not have any requirement to retain personal information for business, regulatory, or legal reasons, we will delete it.

Selection Criteria:

All applications will be assessed on the basis of academic and scientific merit and the potential to undertake research in biomedical sciences, as evidenced on your academic record and your answers provided in the application form. Decisions will be made and communicated to all applicants no later than 28 June ­­­2024.

If you have any queries about the scheme, please contact Tom Muzyka via t.muzyka@ucl.ac.uk for more information.

Information for Supervisors

Applications for supervisors are now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted an application!

Projects are to run from Monday 22nd July 2024 until Friday 30th August 2024 (6 weeks). Supervisors must ensure there is a designated point of contact for the students for the full length of the scholarship. 

Projects Requirements:

Projects must be within the Wellcome Discovery Research remit  Projects can be done in the laboratory, office, clinic or field and may involve experimental or theoretical approaches.  Projects must be feasible for students, with little or no previous research experience, within a 6-week placement.   Projects are not suitable if they are part of a degree course or involved a clinical audit or are comprised entirely of a literature review.   Projects should be a self-contained piece of research with clear aims or research questions and offer excellent training opportunities. 

 

Funding will be available for up to 10 Biomedical Vacation Scholarships. Applicants to the BVS scheme will be asked to select their preferred supervisors (and projects) when they apply.

A review panel, comprising of departmental graduate tutors (research), will review and rank student applications. The ranked list will be used to assign students to specific projects and supervisors. 

A list of all available supervisors and projects will be made available on the website once all the submissions from prospective supervisors have been checked. 

• Wellcome encourages supervisors to involve students in the design and planning of the project and encourage students to write up their projects for their supervisors. 
• Projects requiring ethical approval must already have this in place at the time of application in order to be eligible for consideration
• Experimentation on animals protected by UK/EU legislation should not be carried out by the student. A member of staff with the relevant license should undertake this work. See Wellcome policy on animal use in research. 

Links 

• Wellcome BVS scheme 

• applicant_guidlines.pdf

  applicant_guidlines.pdf

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