Research experience placements

The EastBio partnership announces the deferral of its 2024/25 UKRI BBSRC-funded REP scheme (UG Research Experience Summer Placements) for 2025/26. EastBio has delivered the scheme successfully with a core Widening Participation remit since the end of the pandemic restrictions in 2021/22. We are aware of the popularity of the scheme with UG students interested in lab experience and a doctoral direction in their careers. In addition to funding students to help them to gain lab experience in one of the EastBio partner institutions, we have coupled the scheme with a mandatory residential Induction giving REP students the opportunity to meet as a cohort before the start of the placements, demystify the PhD route, receive transferable skills training, and engage as a cohort with past REP cohorts, currently funded students, EastBio supervisors and industry reps. 

In line with our commitments to BBSRC, the EastBio Management Group seeks to achieve the scheme’s key objectives across this final cohort but acknowledges the reduced benefits of launching the scheme this year. Therefore, the Management decision was dictated by the small number of available awards for this year and the limited impact the cohort size would have in terms of the WP focus of the scheme. Instead, we will integrate the remaining REP awards with the similar WP scheme to be funded from October 2025 with the BBSRC DLA funding EastBio secured. To this end, we will team up with new, award-winning EastBio partner In2Science to deliver the placements within a fully-supported Widening Participation programme that will benefit from the In2Science expertise and resources.