Undergraduates may wish to consider research opportunities during the vacation.
It should be noted that it is university policy that students should be paid properly for vacation work within the university, and with companies who should be expected to be able to pay. College will therefore not in general part fund such opportunities, or provide bursaries to “top up” underpayment, but might in future be able to offer some fully funded research opportunities.
Undergraduates taking essential courses in the Vacation may be eligible to receive financial support from the relevant Faculty or Department.
In the context of Vacation Study, it would be appropriate to mention some grants given by organisations other than Churchill for work, particularly scientific work, carried out during the vacation:
The H.E. Durham Fund
The H.E. Durham Fund (King’s College, Cambridge) which provides small grants for medical/biological research. Each year, usually sometime in March, the following notice normally appears in the Cambridge University Reporter. If you intend to apply for an award, you should check for details in the Reporter:
‘The Administrators of the H. E. Durham Fund give notice that small grants may be made for the purpose of advancing, improving, or disseminating knowledge of human or animal life in health or in disease. The Administrators invite applications from individual Cambridge undergraduates for grants to enable them to study or assist in research within the subjects specified above for about eight weeks during the Long Vacation. They do this in the hope that experience of this kind may help undergraduates, as potential research workers, in their choice of subject at a later date. Applications for expeditions will rarely qualify. Some money may also be available to assist graduates with specific research projects of short duration. Application forms are available from the Senior Tutor’s Assistant, King’s College, Cambridge. The closing date for applications is during May of each year however, the King’s College website will state the exact deadline. King’s College hope to inform successful candidates by the end of May.
Wellcome Trust Vacation Scholarships
These Biomedical Vacation Scholarships are intended to provide promising undergraduates with “hands-on” experience of research during the summer vacation and to encourage them to consider a career in research. Several Cambridge laboratories, particularly those in the biomedical sciences, may have one or more of these Scholarships to offer. Ask the Administrator of the appropriate Department.
For International Students
There is a centralised source of funding for international undergraduate students, the Cambridge Overseas Trust, which offers a number of awards each year on its own behalf and on behalf of some other international organisations.
