Each internship project has a clearly defined programme of work, with a valuable impact for both the company and the Intern's research group. The internship project is a stand-alone project and is not intended to contribute directly into the PhD thesis.

For current vacancies please visit Internship vacancies page. New vacancies appear regularly and you can register to receive updates about new internships opportunities.

Application

If you would like to apply for any of the internship projects or register your interest for future vacancies, please send your CV to Vera Hazelwood with a covering letter indicating the project you are interested in or the area of your expertise.

The application is also possible if a university is already working with a company and would like to use an Internship to develop the relationship further. In this case, a company and a university can apply together. For the application form, please email Vera Hazelwood.

Requirements and conditions

To apply for an internship a student must be

• A current PhD student enrolled in a UK university preferably in the second or further year.
• Be prepared suspend their studies for the period of the project and to be based at the company during the project.
• Have an interest and expertise in the area of the internship.
• The Intern remains a student at the University; he/she will not be an employee of the company during the Internship.

The following conditions apply for an internship project:

• A student will receive £1,500 per month for the duration of the project. All travel or relocation expenses are paid for separately.
• The PhD funding is extended at the end of the PhD for the duration of the project, so an intern still has the same amount of time to finish their PhD studies.

“It has been a really great experience being able to take my research and contextualise it within an industrial application. I believe the validity of my PhD work will be improved by the insights I have gained of the current industrial viewpoint and requirements of my research area - reliability modelling; I look forward to completing my thesis with this newfound source of inspiration! I now feel better prepared for life post-PhD, for this I am grateful to LSC for providing me with the opportunity, and my colleagues at LSC over the past six months for their support,” said intern Rhys Kearney, University of Salford.

Fei Yu, Intern & PhD student at Heriot-Watt University said, “It is really good for me to gain some industry modelling experiences, which have a different taste compared to the academic modelling. It is also a good contribution to my knowledge on mortality modelling, and gives me a real insight into actuarial modelling in industry.”

“My internship at ACE gave me the opportunity to get insight into the insurance industry. The mathematical skills gained at university, current academic research and an interesting project problem given by ACE managed to bridge the gap between academia and industry. The whole experience was for me very interesting and challenging and I had the feeling that my work made a difference,” said Katharina Schwaiger, Intern and PhD student, Brunel University.

Nilgun Canakgoz, Intern & PhD student at CARISMA, Brunel University said, “Having 5 months internship at Lloyd's has been a great experience for me. I worked on "Optimal Portfolio Project" where the aim was to define the optimal mix of business for Lloyd's and the syndicates. I have developed two models to optimise the risk and the profit of both Lloyd's and the syndicates. Using my knowledge, analytical and technical skills, which I gained in the academia, in a real life project and seeing that my work has added value to Lloyd's is invaluable. I am also grateful to KTN for being a bridge between industry and academia as I was offered a job at the end of the internship, to complete the good work that I have started. I would highly recommend PhD students to take the opportunity to get involved with industrial projects.”

“I recently completed a six month internship at Unilever with the Industrial Mathematics Internship Programme. The internship took place half way through my PhD and gave me the opportunity to work in an unrelated subject area over the summer term. I found this very helpful for a number of reasons. Firstly it allowed me to broaden my mathematical knowledge by exposing me to an area that I was not so familiar with, yet still allowing me to apply skills I had developed during my time at university. It also gave me the chance to experience working in an industrial research setting, which is a great help with choosing the kind of career I would like to pursue after completing my PhD. The internship allowed me to strengthen team working skills through working collaboratively with others in industry and also gave me the opportunity to present work during team meetings. There is also, now, a possibility for future collaborations and the work may even be useful in my final thesis write up. Overall I really enjoyed my six months with Unilever and was offered a lot of support and help by my industrial supervisor, academic supervisor and also the technology translator supplied by the KTN,” said intern and PhD student Stephen Glavin, University College London.

“It has been a great experience being able to take my research and contextualise it with actual diving coaches as Adam Sotheran. I believe I will be able to use the developed model to improve the research in my PhD which will use sensors to inform models such as the ones developed here. I now feel better prepared for dealing with complicated mechanical models, for this I am grateful to Sheffield Hallam University and British Swimming for providing me with the opportunity and support I required these last six months,” said intern and PhD student Jose Luis Gomez Esteve , Sheffield Hallam University.

“Working in Lein Applied Diagnostics enabled me to certainly gain a better understanding of how research in industry differs from that in academia. I learnt many valuable lessons during my time at Lein which not only will help me with my PhD project at Southampton, but help me with my life and future career. Being able to work with experienced consultants also formed a great part of my learning curve at Lein as I became more familiar with the physics of optics (by working with Professor Tony Wilson), and experiment design and experimental result interpretation. I also learnt to work as a part of a group and that will indeed help me with my future experiences. In short, my time was well spent at Lein,” said intern and PhD student Shayan Motamedi Fakhr, University of Southampton.

“Working with a company at the forefront of the industry has been a fantastic experience. I will be able to take the knowledge gained during the internship back to Edinburgh and apply it not only to my own PhD, but also to provide useful input to other research projects. I have also been given the opportunity to visit both the National Grid control room and a large 400kV substation, both of which were very enjoyable experiences, ” said Dan Eager, intern and PhD student, University of Edinburgh.

“I had a wonderful internship experience with Roxar. I have learned a new skill, practical knowledge of applied mathematics, and its application in real-time simulations. This experience will help me to understand the advanced mathematics in solving computational problems. I have gained knowledge in new technology of GPU. I have been provided with an opportunity to work on the top of range hardware. I will use this expertise in my future PhD work,” said intern and PhD student Ehtzaz Chaudhry, Bournemouth University.

“The main benefit of the internship was the opportunity to work on a rendering system in a real-world situation outside the academic software-developing world where important, practical details are not always considered. For example, interoperability between 3D modelling packages and a renderer is usually not seen as a high priority task during the development of a renderer in an academic context whereas in an commercial or industrial situation this is a crucial aspect,” said Francesco Banterle, the intern for the project from the University of Warwick.

"This was an exciting opportunity to make the connections between probability theory and the practice of statistics in business decision-making," said Jack Grahl, University College London.

“For the duration of the internship, I was able to gain valuable knowledge and experiences, which I believe are not only useful for my PhD study, but it also provided me an excellent insight into the work involved in this industry. I was also able to learn the programming languages Python and C and understand the method and style of writing programs so that it can be read and run efficiently,” said intern Peter Tam, University of Birmingham.

"The internship project has given me the opportunity to apply techniques and skills developed through my PhD in practical situations for a leading Aerospace company. The landing gear and braking group at Airbus have been an excellent team to work with and have been central to the success of the project. My industrial supervisor gave the opportunity to get involved in a wide range of tasks and has been enthusiastic about using my techniques in a formal manner in assessing braking performance. I consider myself privileged to have worked with such an excellent team and supervisor, and look forward to working further with this group in the future. I would recommend an PhD Internship to a student as an excellent opportunity to make contacts and gain experience in their chosen field," said intern David Reid, Glasgow Caledonian University.

"While the progress of science and mathematics is an academic pursuit, the real test of science is the ability to implement and apply these new ideas and methodologies to actual problems. Through the collaboration with Willis we have be able to establish connections between techniques and methodologies developed within the University of Oxford and the needs of the insurance sector to address problems of both a scientific and industrial nature. Through the KTN internship I have had the opportunity to engage with practitioners in the field and focus the scope of my research to deal with problems relevant to industry," said intern Shilan Mistry, University of Oxford.

"Working on the internship at the Met Office allowed me to engage directly with decision-makers who are faced with decisions that are sensitive to climate model information. The experience has given me valuable insights that I can apply in my PhD research," said Joseph Daron, Intern (London School of Economics and Political Science).