Undergraduate Vacation Bursary – Information for Project Supervisors 2025

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Information for Project Supervisors 2025

BSPP is pleased to announce the continuation of the undergraduate summer research bursary scheme. in 2025. We invite supervisors to submit project proposals for pre-selection by the BSPP Education Committee. The submission window opens on January 6th and closes on February 17^th 2025.

Following pre-selection, we will advertise the approved projects to students, who can then apply directly. The student application period opens March 3rd and closes April 14^th 2025. Supervisors will subsequently receive notification of all suitable applications received for their projects and supervisor preferences will be recorded. Final student selections will be made by BSPP and announced during the first week of May.

Project proposals from supervisors (only) are invited provided the following criteria are met.

Supervisors should:

• be current BSPP members (at least for a year);
• hold an academic position in a research institute or university, (also open to applicants outside of the United Kingdom)
• submit no more than two project proposals per year.
• not have received the same bursary in the past two years (priority will be given to supervisors who did not apply or were not successful in the previous round).
• provide direct support to students throughout the period of the bursary and provide relevant advice and training.

The project must be:

• relevant to plant pathology.

Project proposals should include:

• a short description of the proposed research and how it is relevant to plant pathology;
• how the student will be supervised;
• how the students will benefit from the studentship;
• the institution hosting the project;
• whether the project is lab/field based or remote/virtual;
• proposals should recommend papers and other texts to help bursary applicants identify a suitable research topic.
• the duration of the project can be 6-8 weeks

The project will receive a £500 consumables/project related budget. However, for remote projects which are to be done by a student working in a developing country, additional funds can be provided to up to a total of £1000. Students based in the United Kingdom will receive a sum of £450 per week to cover living expenses. The amount is set with reference to the United Kingdom living wage; amounts granted for any students living outside the United Kingdom will be adjusted to the local equivalent.

The student will be required to submit a short report (500 words maximum) to BSPP via the supervisor. This will be published in the BSPP Newsletter. There is also a requirement for students to provide a short video blog describing their project and their experience: examples from last year are available at https://www.bspp.org.uk/funds/bspp-undergraduate-lockdown-bursary-fund/bspp-lockdown-project-students-share-their-experiences/. A final requirement is that students will also be expected to provide a short presentation of their project at an online symposium run by the BSPP in Autumn 2025.

The deadline for project applications was the 23:59 on 17^th Feb 2025.