Hosting a Nuffield Student Summer 2021

Do you want to inspire the next generation of young people? Do you want to develop your mentoring and teaching skills? Get help with a lab project? The Nuffield Foundation is looking for scientists (staff and students) to offer projects for talented 16+ years old students.

Think back to when you were 17. What did you know about research as a career? How did you get where you are today? It's likely there were key individuals and experiences that motivated and inspired you, and it's those experiences that we want to give to young people through our Nuffield Research Placements.

The Nuffield Foundation’s Research Placement Scheme enables secondary school pupils who are interested in pursuing a career in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) to work alongside a practicing scientist for 4-6 weeks in the summer holidays (beginning end of June). 

What is the Nuffield Research Placement Scheme? 

The Nuffield Research Placement Scheme aims to provide post-16 public school or college students with an opportunity to carry out research or development projects in any of the STEM-related disciplines in universities, industry, conservation or research organisations - projects need not be lab-based. The projects can include subjects/topics such as design, engineering of all types, data science, psychology, chemistry, ecology, geography, biology, computing, conservation, applied maths etc.

The Nuffield Research Placements Scheme is now fully widening access/participation, in that we are only accepting application from pupils/students attending public schools/college who are either eligible for our bursary or first in family to attend Higher Education (not including siblings), in doing so targeting social mobility and social disadvantage. All participating students have their travel costs reimbursed, and many will also receive the £100 per week of placement bursary.

The placements help the students to increase confidence and improve key skills including practical, communication, report-writing and presentation skills.  It also provides them with excellent experiences & skills to include on CV’s and personal statements. By working with professional scientists and engineers in a real-life environment, the students gain an invaluable insight into a wide variety of careers.

Placements take place during summer (end of June through to July) they are 2-3 weeks in length (possibly staggered over a longer period, depending on your projects), or if needed virtual/online projects only, where government guidance and University policies permit or restrict.

Nuffield  will be implementing online research skills modules (which went well in 2020). The students will all undertake and complete the modules before commencing contact with supervisors and beginning projects, as this will help them to gain beneficial research skills, and will also help us to gauge the students’ commitment and interest. As in all previous years student will produce a scientific project report and conference poster from the project they undertake with you.

Find out more information here: https://www.stem.org.uk/nuffield-research-placements#for-employers

Registration for project providers is all online:

• For recent providers – (those that responded to a request to keep your details on the system) please let the Nuffield Scottish Coordinator Jennifer Smith (j.smith@abertay.ac.uk) know if you are thinking about providing a project over the summer of 2021, once you do I can go online and reactivate your account.

• For new providers (and those not involved in the last couple of years – or missed/forgot to respond to staying on the system) willing to provide projects over the summer of 2021 – you can register following the link above. The button is at the bottom of the webpage.

**Once you have registered or reactivated you can access your account here and Jennifer (Nuffield Scottish Coordinator) will send on information about Health and Safety, risk assessments, GDPR and also a confirmed providers guide.

We recommend that you come and have chat with Jayne (jayne.quoiani@roslin.ed.ac.uk) or Nicola (Nicola.Stock@roslin.ed.ac.uk) before submitting a project. 

How will the Roslin Public Engagment Team support me and my student?

We will provide information about the scheme in an informal meeting in the Easter Bush Science Outreach Centre, provide personalised support throughout the duration of the project placement and provide key information through this webpage. We will help support the completion of paperwork such as risk assessments and working with young people forms. 

At the end of June/beginning of July we will invite the students for a 2 day training session which will be organised by the Education & Engagement Officer (Jayne Quoiani). This gives the students a chance to meet and they will then support each other through the placement, meeting for lunch etc. During the training, the students will carry out some basic molecular biology techniques such as PCR, micropipetting, restriction digest and gel electrophoresis. We will also organises a health & safety briefing which has been designed specifically for young people and we will also ask the bio-imaging department to provide some basic microscope training (fluorescence microscopy training may be available on request). You will be invited to meet your student onon these induction days over lunch, and will have a chance to show them the lab and offices, and have a chat with them about the project.  

Following on from this students will b eguided by their supervisors and co-supervisors* to carry out an independent research project that was designed to make a real contribution to The Roslin Institute and the students themselves over a four-six week period.

*we recommend that there is co-supervisor for each placement

Every week Jayne or Nicola (Roslin Public Engagment team) will meet with the students to discuss their progress and keep them on track with their write up. We are also able to help supervisors with any issues. 

What is the time commitment?

STEP 1: You will need to create a project (see list of the 2018 & 2020 projects below for some inspiration!) and ensure that there are risk assessments written for the techniques being used. 

STEP 2: Register or reactivate your Nuffield Research Placements 

STEP 3: Upload your project description and associated risk assessments to the Nuffield website

STEP 4: Choose your student (you will be given 2-3 applications to review) and invite them in for a chat (we will ask you to pass on some forms to the student for completion by their parents at this meeting)

STEP 5: Complete a visitor request form

STEP 6: If you are working alone with the student i.e. in the microscope room, travelling by car to the farm etc. then you need to have a PVG disclosure form. Our HR department can organise this for you. 

STEP 7: Welcome your student and get started with the mentoring process! Have fun!

STEP 8: Come along to a celebration ceremony on August to celebrate your and your student's success! 

Why should I get involved? 

The pupils that get involved with the Nuffield Research Placements typically have a low progression to university and/or have pupil intakes from disadvantaged areas. The time, dedication, guidance and encouragement shown towards them by our scientists will make a lasting impression on their futures. EBSOC keeps in contact with the students and we try to follow how their experience here at The Roslin Institute has helped them move forward in their education. 

Last year we had 5 students, the supervisors and projects they did are listed below so that you can get a feel for the type work that they did. Our researchers felt inspired to host a Nuffield student for some different reasons:

I wished to gain further valuable supervisory experience which I thought would be useful for the future and good for my CV. A previous student in the lab also hosted a student and my main supervisor seemed keen to do it again.

I am keen to encourage the next generation of scientists!

2018 

2020 (online placements)

It should be noted that the researchers felt that they benefited from hosting a student, when asked "Do you feel that the hosting experience benefited you and your group?", here is what they had say:

Yes the student helped produce real meaningful results for my PhD and as explained above was a very useful training/learning experience for me.

Yes - in addition to the data generated, it reminds us of how exciting and challenging doing science research was when we were students.

Your project will been written up by the pupil as report for the Nuffield Foundation and presented as scientific posters at a celebration event . All students will be encouraged by EBSOC staff to write up their projects for a CREST Gold award, a nationally recognised scheme which will also be of value for university applications. All supervisors will be recognised for the contribution through a report that will submitted to SMG in Autumn 2021. 

We are delighted that so many of our scientists were involved in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 scheme, but with the number of applications for Nuffield Placements from talented young people in Scotland far outnumbering the places available, we would like to offer more placements in 2020. So please consider being a 2021 host!