Undergraduate Vacation Studentships
Ever wanted to find out what research is really like?
Vacation Scholarships provide paid opportunities for undergraduates to work on their own research project during the summer. They are a great way to get experience, and can help you decide on your future career path.
New for 2012 is the Research Summer School scheme! Further information on this exciting opportunity can be found on the Research Summer School webpage
Student Success Stories: Read about the successes of past vacation scholars.
You will be guided and supervised by Institute members in the design of your experiments, collection of data, analysis, and possibly even writing up your study for publication in a journal! However, the research will be done by you, and you will be encouraged to think independently about the direction of your project.
Projects for 2012
Do brains of hungry chickens show signs of depression?
Chickens bred for meat (broilers) grow at an amazing rate. However, this has effects on their reproductive system. So in order to have a next generation of broilers, a proportion of the birds (the broiler breeders) are severely food restricted to keep them reproductively healthy. But how do these birds feel about being chronically hungry? In this project in collaboration with the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, you will be looking at the brains of food restricted and well-fed broiler chickens to look for markers indicating whether the chickens were in a depressive-like state or not. The project involves sectioning brains, staining them, and counting cells under a microscope.
Supervisor: Tom Smulders, tom.smulders@ncl.ac.uk
If the above project is not what you are looking for but you are still interested in doing a project at the Institute of Neuroscience, please contact Laura Pereira on laura.pereira@ncl.ac.uk answering some or all of the following questions:
- What are you currently studying?
- Are you interested primarily in psychology or neuroscience (clinical or basic)?
- Are you most interested in humans as subjects, 'wet lab' work with chemicals and cultures, or animal behaviour?
- Are you happy with heavily computer-based work, or would you prefer nothing to do with computers?
The answers to these questions will help us determine what areas you would fit into and who to approach about a summer project.
The Centre for Behaviour and Evolution website has a list of projects relating to animal behaviour.
How to Apply
When projects are advertised above, email one of the project supervisors to check your eligibility for the scheme, and that places are still available. They will then discuss the schemes with you and help you develop your own research project in these areas. The deadlines for these schemes are early in the New Year, and you need to fill in an application form that outlines the aims of the project and the methods you will use. So you need to start the process as soon as possible, and ideally contact a supervisor before Christmas.
For more details of the schemes and application procedures, see the following pages:
- Wellcome Trust Biomedical Vacation Scholarships- £180 per week for up to eight weeks work. Deadline 17th February 2012.
- Nuffield Undergraduate Bursaries in Science Scheme for students in their second year - £180 per week for between 6-8 weeks. Further details for 2012 application deadlines will be available in January.
- Newcastle University Vacation Scholarships Students should preferably be in their second year - £180 per week for projects lasting between 6 and 8 weeks. Deadline March 2nd 2012.
- Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Undergraduate Project Scholarships open to all undergraduates - £150 per week (+£40pw research expenses) for between 1-8 weeks.
- Universities Federation for Animal Welfare Student Scholarship open to all undergraduates - £170 per week (+£30 pw research expenses) for up to eight weeks. Deadline 28th February 2012.
- Experimental Psychology Society Undergraduate Research Bursary Scheme: supervisor must be a member of the EPS - £200 per week for up to 10 weeks.
If you have any general queries regarding the vacation studentships, please contact Laura Pereira on laura.pereira@ncl.ac.uk for more information.
