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This summer, we ran, for a second year, the scheme of two-month-long summer research placements in DIS offered to our 3rd-year undergraduate students.
The aim of the scheme is threefold: (a) provide undergraduates with experience and skills from working on a DIS research project; (b) raise awareness of the DIS programme amongst our undergraduate students; and (c) give more opportunities and enhance the career prospects of students from under-represented groups. The application process gave the opportunity for students to identify themselves as coming from an under-represented group, one of the selection criteria was 鈥渉ow much the student will benefit from such an opportunity鈥�, and two of the six bursaries (funded by the STFC Impact鈥疉cceleration Account) were ring-fenced from the start for students from under-represented groups. The scheme provided extremely popular, with approximately 25% of the third-year undergraduate students applying for it.聽聽
In the end, thanks to funding from the Royal Society, we were able to fund eight bursaries, with four students being from under-represented groups in STEM/DIS. Three of the eight projects were supervised by our industry partners, and the rest were projects in STFC science. We have asked all students to prepare a short layperson summary outlining the outcome of their experience and are currently collecting feedback about their experience.聽
