IFR Postgraduate Opportunities

Postgraduate training plays an integral part in IFR's culture of encouraging both learning and knowledge transfer across its user communities; we offer PhD students a stimulating 3-4 year period of study which prepares them well for a career within or outside the research community.

Being based on the Norwich Research Park gives students the added advantage of easy access to student life on the University of East Anglia's campus.

Further details of current opportunities and how to apply

Undergraduate Opportunities

Many laboratories at IFR welcome undergraduates to work on research projects during the summer vacation. Students typically work in a laboratory for around eight weeks during the summer vacation. This provides an excellent opportunity to gain first hand research experience in an internationally respected laboratory and is particularly useful for undergraduates who may be considering taking up a PhD studentship after they graduate. The ideal time for this experience is during the summer vacation following the second year of an undergraduate course.

Further details of current opportunities and how to apply

School students

 ‘Inside Science’ enables the Norwich BioScience Institutes, funded by BBSRC, to invite gifted and talented science students from around the region to spend three days on an intensive workshop, hearing about the research we do first hand, meeting students, post-docs andresearch assistants hearing exactly what it’s like to work in science.

We are following the ‘graduands’ to see what impact spending time in a real science environment has on their future career decisions.

Each year, IFR hosts Nuffield Foundation scholars, undertaking research projects during their A level studies.

Further information about 'Inside Science' and the Nuffield scholarships plus other opportunities for school students

We are happy to announce that we will be making some exciting new changes to our Yr10 work experience scheme.

Rather than offering traditional work experience to a small number of students spread throughout the year, we will be running a 4 day Yr10 Science Camp that will run in July . This is being run in collaboration with the John Innes Centre and the Genome Analysis Centre. Further details are available at www.jic.ac.uk/year10

Internships or placements

We are very happy to offer placement opportunities to students at undergraduate and post-graduate level. These can be funded via Leonardo, Marie Curie, Erasmus, your home institution or government, or self-funded. You will need

(a) sufficient funding for your stay in the UK (travel, living costs, bench fees)

(b) the appropriate visa if you are not from the EU – and you must fund any visa costs

(c) interests which fit with the current research programme at IFR (please read the website carefully)

In addition, any placement will be subject to a senior scientist at IFR being willing to host your stay.

How to apply:-
In the first instance, you MUST send a full cv, a covering letter explaining why you wish to undertake a placement at IFR, and the details of your funding, to: ifr.communications@ifr.ac.uk

We will acknowledge receipt of your enquiry but regret that, due to the number of applications we receive, we will only respond further if we have a host scientist for a potential visit.

Related links

IFR's student webpages

Richard Bailey, a 3rd year PhD student at IFR received a British Poultry Council Scholarship Award for his work on investigating enteric health in poultry, focusing on a condition called dysbacteriosis, which is a syndrome of growing importance to animal welfare and industry economics since the EU ban on the use of antibiotic growth promoters. He was presented with his award at a dinner in the Houses of Parliament in December by Dame Deirdre Hutton, Chair of the Food Standards Agency.

In 2008 Vijay Narbad studied with IFR as a Nuffield Foundation scholar, undertaking research projects during his A level studies. Based on his work has been awarded a ‘Gold’ Crest Award by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.