Summer Internships
Find out about internship opportunities to develop your skills.
Internships
Internships are periods of structured work experience. They will help you to develop knowledge and skills which will play a part in the decisions you go on to make about career choice. Typically you will:
- Be offered training and may be assigned to a mentor or buddy
- Work on a specific area of work, or be assigned to a project
- Work for between 6-12 weeks
- Be encouraged to reflect and record your experience
Internships offer benefits in terms of confidence, skills and experience that will enhance any future postgraduate or job applications.
Employ.ed on Campus
Internships for undergraduates in 2nd, 3rd and penultimate years from any School. These opportunities will be advertised around February and will begin in summer. Students taking part in these will gain paid work experience at the University, and can also participate in the Edinburgh Award.
Employ.ed on-campus internships
Information Services Group (ISG) Internships
ISG internships are available for undergraduates (not in their final year). These are paid and recent examples include the Colouring Book Designer Internship and the Media Studio Production internship.
University of Edinburgh Internships
Institute of Ecology and Evolution Summer Studentships (IEE)
The Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) is offering a small number of studentships to allow 3rd year undergraduate students the opportunity to carry out a research project over the summer vacation. They are available to current 3rd year students on any Biological Sciences programme at the University of Edinburgh to do a project with an IEE supervisor.
Professor William Hill Summer Studentships
Up to three internships for UG students in their 2nd or 3rd year of study on a University of Edinburgh School of Biological Sciences degree programme will be funded from Professor William Hill’s legacy gift to the School of Biological Sciences. William Hill was a world leader in population and quantitative genetics who spent nearly all his career in Edinburgh. These internships will provide up to 10 weeks of paid research experience within the School’s laboratories.
More information about William Hill’s life and work can be found on the William Hill in-memoriam page.
EPSRC Vacation Internships
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Vacation Internships provide funding for undergraduate students in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh to gain first-hand positive and practical experience of research at a UK university.
There is more information on EPSRC Internships, criteria and how to apply on the College Vacation Scholarships - EPSRC Internships page. Note that award recipients must submit a brief report to CSE by 31 August.
| Project name | Supervisor | Project code |
|---|---|---|
| The impact of avian influenza viruses on UK seabird populations. | Emma Cunningham | 1 |
| Insulin signalling and life-history variation in wild Soay sheep | Hannah Froy | 2 |
| Host-virus interaction in Drosophila | Darren Obbard | 3 |
| Cemeteries as biodiversity hotspots | Per T. Smiseth | 4 |
| Ageing in a wild mouse population | Tom Little | 5 |
| What makes a parasite superspreader? | Amy Pedersen | 6 |
| Pollination Bioacoustics: Do Bees or flowers determine the frequency of buzz pollination? | Graham Stone | 7 |
| Testing conservation of gene function over 475 million years | Sandy Hetherington | 8 |
| Mapping the causal mutations in classic Barley mutants | Annis Richardson | 9 |
| Testing the roles of structure and surface chemistry on the ability of plant hairs to nucleate dew condensation and ice formation. | Andrew Hudson | 10 |
| Characterising the Role of E3 Ligases in Immune Response Activation | Beatriz Orosa Puente | 11 |
| Computational design of minimal photoenzymes | Chris Wells Wood | 13 |
To find out more about what the projects will involve, and what internships schemes they are eligible for, please read the following document:
No previous laboratory experience is necessary and talented University of Edinburgh students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply.
Check the specific eligibility criteria for each scheme in the 'types of internship section' above.
To ensure all students can take part, the summer studentships will be salaried, to cover living costs in Edinburgh during the summer. Successful applicants will be expected to contribute to impact or promotional activities after completion of their internship. This may involve for example contributing to cohort events focused on research internships and providing feedback about how the internship experience has helped you in your degree, or longer-term how it has impacted your employability.
To apply for any of the summer internship projects above, first identify the project you want to apply for. Then, please complete the two application forms below. Please note, each student can apply for one project only.
Deadline for applications is Monday 18th of March 2024, 12 noon (GMT)
The criteria we take into consideration when matching students to projects will include academic potential and contextual information as indicated in the submitted application.
Candidates will be informed of outcomes in the week beginning the 15th of April 2024.
If you have any questions about the application process, please contact biologystudents@ed.ac.uk
Key Dates
Application deadline |
Monday 18th of March 2024 |
Decisions made |
Week beginning the 15th April 2024 |
External Internships
While not an exhaustive list, the links below may help you to understand the kind of places to look for internships.
| Amgen Scholars Programme | Summer research placements, University of Cambridge. |
| Biochemical Society | Summer studentships (apply via prospective supervisor). |
| Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) | Funds Research Experience Placements for undergraduates to experience work in a research laboratory (apply via prospective supervisor). |
| British Society for Cell Biology | Summer studentships offer financial support for undergraduate students to gain research experience in cell biology (apply via prospective supervisor). |
| British Society for Plant Pathology | Provides modest support for work on specified research projects during the summer vacation (apply via prospective supervisor). |
| EASTBIO | Funded summer research experience placements across four universities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and St Andrews) (apply via prospective supervisor). |
| Edinburgh Neuroscience | Lists undergraduate vacation scholarship opportunities |
| Student-led society, where teams of undergraduate scientists can have access to university labs to design and execute their own research proposals. | |
| Genetics Society | Summer studentships, 10 week lab placements (apply via prospective supervisor). |
| German Academic Exchange Service | Summer Research Internships in Science and Engineering, Germany. |
| Gurdon | Summer internships, British Society for Developmental Biology |
| Royal Society of Biology | Biology/Ecology Undergraduate Research Bursaries (apply via prospective supervisor). |
| UROP | Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme - summer research programme. |
| Equate Scotland | Established in 2006, Equate Scotland is the national expert in gender equality throughout the STEM sectors. |
| ScotGrad | Inspiration hub detailing e-Placements and work placement schemes. |
| Diamond | The Diamond Student Summer Placement scheme allows undergraduate students studying for a degree in Science, Engineering, Computing or Mathematics (and who expect to gain a first or upper-second class honours degree) to gain experience working within a scientific environment at Diamond |
There is some funding available for trips overseas where the opportunity is related to your studies.