- About UNIQ+
- Target audience
- Dates
- Changes for 2026
- Project requests
- Supervision requirements
- Funding
- Summary of key dates
- Optional drop-in Q&A session for prospective supervisors
- Submit a project
About UNIQ+
With effect from the academic year 2025/26, UNIQ+ will expand beyond its current model of a summer internship only to a more varied model of delivery. UNIQ+ will consist of three strands:
- In-person research internship for seven weeks during the summer vacation (similar to the existing model) for 100 – 130 interns;
- Fully remote skills development programme, UNIQ+ PASS (Postgraduate Applicant Support Scheme), for 35 participants wishing to develop knowledge and confidence regarding an application for postgraduate study, run in partnership with Oxford Lifelong Learning. This will be followed with paired mentoring for all participants who wish to apply for postgraduate study in the coming admissions cycle;
- Post-programme support for all previous UNIQ+ participants: information, advice and guidance for all previous UNIQ+ participants in the form of emails and webinars from the Graduate Admissions & Recruitment team.
Target audience
The target audience for all strands of UNIQ+ is the same: current or recent undergraduates from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds who are on an upward academic trajectory, but who would find continuing into postgraduate study a challenge for reasons other than their academic ability.
Please note: UNIQ+ is open to students from all UK universities; although Oxford students are welcome to apply, it is not aimed directly at current Oxford students.
The majority of UNIQ+ is funded by Crankstart, but we do also receive funding for some internships from other internal and external funding sources.
Dates
The internship is expected to run in Oxford for seven weeks from Monday 6 July to Thursday 21 August 2026.
The first few days will consist of induction and cohort training, before interns start work full-time on their project. The programme ends on Thursday 21 August.
Changes for 2026
Supervisors will only need to actively supervise in the middle weeks of the programme (Monday 13 July to Friday 14 August inclusive – five weeks in total). We hope that this will help to address concerns about the time commitment of taking part in the programme. If they wish, supervisors will be able to meet with the interns towards the end of the previous week (Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July), but this is not a requirement.
We are offering funding for each project to pay one DPhil student to act as a mentor to intern(s). We intend the benefits of this to be threefold: to support interns during the programme; to recognise the (thus far) unpaid input from students in supporting UNIQ+; and finally, to relieve some pressure on supervisors who may need to be absent for some of the time that the internship runs. The amount paid will be £260 per mentor, anticipated to be 12 hours’ support over the internship, plus another 4 hours after the programme.
The role of the mentor will be to support the UNIQ+ interns throughout the programme. This may involve taking part in project supervision, and also supporting interns by providing information, advice, and guidance on graduate study at the University of Oxford from a student’s perspective.
Project Requests
The UNIQ+ Management Group invites proposals for projects in any area. Projects can be for one intern or up to four, and should have a tangible outcome that applicants can include on their CVs, or as part of an application to graduate study. Work could include a targeted piece of research or broader experiences across multiple techniques, laboratory studies or clinical analysis, archival study, bibliographic project, written report, data gathering, data analysis, software development etc. Interns will be required to produce a report and deliver a short presentation at the end of the internship.
All project submissions will be reviewed by the UNIQ+ Management Group. You will be informed before the website goes live in January whether or not your project will be going forward, depending on the number received overall. Once the website goes live, UNIQ+ 2026 will be promoted via an extensive marketing campaign. Candidates will be able to select at least one and up to three preferred projects on the application form.
We are likely to have more projects offered than places, and more eligible and competitive applicants than places. This means that even if your project does go forward, there is no guarantee that the project will be able to run. Supervisors will be informed by early May at the latest whether their project is going ahead.
New for 2026: We encourage you to offer more than one place, if appropriate for your project. This means that your project is more likely to go ahead, in the event that one intern withdraws. However, we recognise that this might not be viable or appropriate in every instance, so all projects will be considered, regardless of the number of places offered.
Please note: as last year, each supervisor may only submit one project.
Supervision Requirements
Projects should have a primary supervisor who is a member of academic staff (NOT a DPhil student) and at least one other supervisor (who can be a DPhil student). The reason for requiring at least two is in case the primary supervisor is unwell or otherwise unavailable at short notice during the programme, which has happened in previous years.
There can be up to three supervisors in total. DPhil students can be named as one of the additional supervisors, but applications will only be shared with staff for assessment, due to the confidential nature of information.
New for 2026: On the form, we will ask you to specify who is the project lead and who is the day-to-day supervisor (which may be the same person), as well as any other supervisors involved.
There are three main periods of time commitment for supervisors.
1) Assessment: Applications will be pre-sifted for eligibility before being sent to supervisors for review. You would need to be available between Wednesday 25 March and Tuesday 7 April to review prospective interns that have been allocated to your project by the lead academic assessors for your division. We do not anticipate that it will take more than a few hours to review your applications. Please note that interviews do not form part of the assessment process.
2) Pre-project: Supervisors should be prepared to contact their interns in early June (before the internship starts) to arrange an online meeting. The purpose of this call is to reassure them as to what is expected of them during the project, agree a suggested weekly schedule, and answer any questions they may have, as well as taking the opportunity to gauge their knowledge of any techniques etc. required from the project, in order to adjust any training needs accordingly.
3) During the project: During the time that interns are working with you, you are expected to have relatively frequent contact time with them, particularly at the beginning of the project. This could either be by you as their supervisor directly or a broader ‘supervisory team’, such as other academic staff, post-docs or DPhil students. Supervisors (or their delegate) will need to meet interns at least once a week, and there should be someone available to work with the intern and answer their questions on a day-to-day basis, or to provide laboratory-based work. Please discuss with others who will be involved in your project and provide the names of those involved in assessment and supervising the intern on the project submission form.
Supervisors will also be expected to take on a career mentoring role, interacting with the students to discuss their aspirations and career plans, and providing insight and advice into the process of applying for graduate study.
Funding
The programme is fully funded centrally by Crankstart and other sources. Student participants will be paid around £3,300 to cover food, living and travel costs, and accommodation will be provided free of charge. Up to £500 per intern will be available to supervisors to cover the cost of consumables or other essential project-related expenses where required.
Summary of key dates
- Deadline for submission of project title and outline: Wednesday 12 November 2025 *
- UNIQ+ applications open: Monday 12 January 2026
- UNIQ+ applications close: Wednesday 18 February 2026
- UNIQ+ team carry out eligibility checks; contextualised scoring applied: Thursday 19 February to Tuesday 3 March 2026
- UNIQ+ academic assessment: lead assessors: Wednesday 4 to Friday 20 March 2026
- UNIQ+ assessment: supervisors: Wednesday 25 March to Tuesday 7 March *
- Offers sent out: Mid to late April 2026
- Deadline for confirmation of final offers: Friday 15 May 2026
- Pre-meetings with interns, and optional 'mentoring inexperienced researchers' workshop: During June 2026 *
- UNIQ+ programme runs: Monday 7 July to Friday 22 August 2026
* indicates supervisor involvement
Optional drop-in Q&A session for prospective supervisors
If you have any further questions before submitting a project, please attend one of our drop-in sessions on MS Teams, hosted by Graduate Admissions and Recruitment staff:
- UNIQ+ supervisor drop-in Q&A session 1: Friday 10 October: 12:00 – 12:30pm
- UNIQ+ supervisor drop-in Q&A session 2: Tuesday 14 October: 11:00 – 11:30am
- UNIQ+ supervisor drop-in Q&A session 3: Wednesday 22 October: 11:00 – 11:30am
If you can’t make any of those times but would like to speak to a member of the team before submitting a project, please email uniqplus@admin.ox.ac.uk, and we will be happy to arrange a separate call.
Submit a project
Submit a project for the 2026 UNIQ+ research internship. The submission deadline is Wednesday 12
November 2025.
If you wish to change a previously submitted project, please do not resubmit the form. Please email uniqplus@admin.ox.ac.uk and let us know what you would like to change.