What is a UNIQ+ Research Internship?

What happens during a UNIQ+ Research Internship?

You will receive an induction during the first week of UNIQ+, which will introduce you to the University, your college, the programme and your fellow interns, as well as receiving training specific to your research project.

Your induction and training will be followed by a research project that will take place in a department within one of our divisions: Medical Sciences, Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS), Humanities, or Social Sciences. During the remaining six weeks of the internship, you will be expected to undertake research full-time in Oxford. Our dedicated projects page provides information about the projects that may be available this year.

Over the course of your project you will have many opportunities to apply and develop your research skills and gain real-life research experience. While working on your project, you will receive regular supervision from an academic member of staff, post-doctoral staff and/or current DPhil (PhD) students. You will also receive training in transferable skills (eg presentation skills, how to prepare a CV), and information on how to make a competitive application for graduate study.

At the end of the programme, you will write a report on your project and give a short presentation to other UNIQ+ interns.

We will seek to deliver this programme in accordance with the description set out in this page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes, either before or after the start of the programme. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic (including Covid-19), epidemic or local health emergency.

What did previous interns learn from the programme?

Read about Abigail's work on microbial pathogens 
Supervisor: Dr Rachel Wheatley, Department of Biology

What new methods, if any, did you learn about?

"I learned about the concept of a Boolean Search Term, as well as how to create and test one as part of an iterative process. In addition to this, I was also taught about inclusion and exclusion criteria to filter through relevant literature for a study. I also learned how to carry out a standardised literature review, and how to conduct a full paper review using NVivo software."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"The most important thing I learned throughout my project was how to plan a project from beginning to end and manage my time effectively in order to stick to this plan. I’m a neurodivergent person so having a set schedule which breaks a big project down into smaller more manageable parts means motivation and goal setting is much easier. It will also be a useful insight to have when going on to complete both my undergraduate and hopefully postgraduate final projects."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"The most important thing I learned in my internship was the unpredictability of research and that just because results are not what you expected them to be it does not mean they are any less valuable. In our experiment, we expected to see similar results for each antibiotic, even though they use different modes of action. This was not the case and suggests that antibiotic resistance can be individual and much more complicated than previously thought. I learnt the importance of perseverance in these situations, and to approach research with an open mind. I also learned the importance of teamwork and collaboration, as approaching issues from several points of view can often reach a solution sooner than individually."

How has the project affected your approach to graduate study/thoughts about your area of research?

"This project has highlighted to me the importance of research in the area of antibiotic resistance, and how there are so many factors that are involved in it. It has made me even more interested in research on antibiotic resistance and the importance of this research in order to develop novel therapies to tackle this issue. This placement has also highlighted to me the different routes that can be taken in further study, and that taking time away from study will not be disadvantageous for career progression and success. Throughout my project, I have realised that graduate study, particularly PhD programmes offer a lot more freedom than I originally thought, with independence being encouraged and often research questions develop and change throughout the project."

Sky's work focussed on the Social and environmental determinants of sleep patterns 
Supervisor: Dr Melinda Mills, Department of Sociology

What new methods, if any, did you learn about?

"I had never used Python before, and had no programming experience whatsoever. So I started learning it from scratch. This was quite a steep learning curve, as I found it quite difficult to remember how to format all of the code in order to make it work as intended. Having an intensive three day introduction to the language was incredibly useful as it allowed me to get to grips with the basics of programming and understand how loops worked, which ended up being very crucial to being able to effectively scrape the data from websites."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"I think there was a huge amount of value in being able to get to grips with using Python. It is such a versatile tool that will be incredibly useful for many different applications within my studies as well as in work. As well as this, being able to get an in-depth presentation of how research projects within the social sciences are designed from the very first conception of an idea was really important to experience as this has very much changed and reshaped my understanding of how academia in the social sciences works."

How has the project affected your approach to graduate study/thoughts about your area of research?

"The project has certainly impacted my approach to graduate study in that I now have a greater understanding of the levels of self-discipline and drive that one needs to have in order to make the best use of their time. I also have found it incredibly interesting to see the level of passion many graduate students have for their areas of research."

Read about Nusaybah's work documenting cultural heritage in classics 
Supervisor: Dr Miranda Williams, Faculty of Classics

What methods did you use in your project?

"Several skills were used in the duration of my project. My project was primarily split into two parts – for the first half of the project, I was editing and labelling photos, whilst for the second half, I was doing my own research into something I had come across in the photos. Each part required different skills:

1. Photoshop editing: using Adobe Photoshop and Bridge to edit photos to be published, filling in metadata and labelling photos using a hierarchical system. This was with software and using skills I had not used before.
2. Library-based research: using reading lists given to me by my supervisor, as well as compiling my own reading lists to do research, both for my photo labelling and independent research project. Using physical and online maps, images online, and travel/ tourism blogs to aid labelling and filling in gaps.
3. Arabic translation: using my own knowledge and vocab lists provided by my supervisor to translate labels into Arabic.
4. Using Arc GIS StoryMaps: using the online software to make a StoryMap which would interest the general public. This involved learning to use the various features the software offers effectively, including maps and various formats for text/ images, as well as being aware of copyright issues etc.
5. Writing: writing an article of around 1500 words, and redrafting several times to make it as clear and accessible as possible - the piece was on a niche topic but aimed at secondary-school aged readers, so writing and editing for length and clarity was an especial challenge.
6. Group work and presenting: effectively combining the research of four people and condensing it into a twenty-minute presentation delivered as a group. This involved synthesising the information we had about the Manar al-Athar archive; summarising our own research into a few minutes, while still ensuring it would interest our audience, and designing a StoryMap to present cohesively as a team.

‘Digital humanities’ skills were used primarily – whether this was in the use of photo editing software and filling in metadata for the photos to be used on the archive, or ArcGIS StoryMaps, which is frequently used to display information and visually illustrate articles in both academia and the media, more widely. Although perhaps not so much a method or skill, ensuring that our research piece would interest the general public was also crucial – a level of relevance and interest to the public had to be maintained – for example, through length, use of terminology and level of detail/ nuance, whilst also conveying the depth of research that had been carried out."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"The most important thing I learned throughout my project was how to plan a project from beginning to end and manage my time effectively in order to stick to this plan. I’m a neurodivergent person so having a set schedule which breaks a big project down into smaller more manageable parts means motivation and goal setting is much easier. It will also be a useful insight to have when going on to complete both my undergraduate and hopefully postgraduate final projects."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"Perhaps the main thing, beside the new academic content I came across, was that there is work available like this which I genuinely really enjoyed. I had a very limited idea of what careers in academia could look like, and the approach that the Manar al-Athar archive is taking has interested me greatly – both in temporal and spatial scope, as well as the digital humanities and open-access approach. Another important thing I learnt about how important it is for academic work to be accessible to the wider public – many people have little idea what goes on in a university besides lectures and teaching, and I think research especially can be hard to understand, perhaps more so in the humanities field."

How has the project affected your approach to graduate study/thoughts about your area of research?

"I am definitely more interested in studying for a Master’s degree, simply because I enjoyed the experience so much. The content of my project was very interesting, and I feel that certain elements of a Master’s would be similar to this, in terms of carrying out independent research on a topic that I have come across. I liked the freedom and independence of this research, as we essentially had free-reign to take our research wherever we were interested, but with the guidance of a supervisor who could help wherever we needed it, whether that was recommending books, or identifying gaps within our writing, so the experience of research was certainly a positive one. Career-wise, I am also more confident about looking onto the heritage and humanities more widely, sectors, as I realised from this, that there is great variety in what work in these sectors can look like, and they can be very rewarding. More informally, I am excited to continue to read more around what I was researching in Oxford, as well as around other things that I saw on the Manar al-Athar archive that piqued my interest."

Megan shares her experience working on a species diversity project
Supervisor: Dr Stephanie Brittain, Department of Biology

What new methods, if any, did you learn about?

"I learned about the concept of a Boolean Search Term, as well as how to create and test one as part of an iterative process. In addition to this, I was also taught about inclusion and exclusion criteria to filter through relevant literature for a study. I also learned how to carry out a standardised literature review, and how to conduct a full paper review using NVivo software."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"The most important thing I learned throughout my project was how to plan a project from beginning to end and manage my time effectively in order to stick to this plan. I’m a neurodivergent person so having a set schedule which breaks a big project down into smaller more manageable parts means motivation and goal setting is much easier. It will also be a useful insight to have when going on to complete both my undergraduate and hopefully postgraduate final projects."

How has the project affected your approach to graduate study/thoughts about your area of research?

"The project has made me more confident in both applying for and carrying out graduate study, as it was an invaluable insight in what day to day life at postgraduate level would be like at Oxford or any university. It has confirmed my belief that I would enjoy postgraduate study and made me more excited to progress onto it."

What are your current plans for graduate study/next steps for your career? Have your plans changed since you started your placement?

"I am planning to apply for graduate study at both my current university and Oxford; I am very interested in doing my PhD at Oxford, however after looking at the Masters courses I am going to apply to multiple universities. My plans haven’t changed since I started my placement at Oxford, however they now have a much more realistic and clearer direction than previously."

Read about Pavan's work at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences 
Supervisor: Dr Ghada Alsaleh, NDORMS

What were the initial aims of your project?

"The main aim of this project is to determine autophagy expression (via the primary markers TFEB and LC3)and the senescence phenotype (via the primary markers) in Osteoarthritis subsets in synovium and cartilage. The primary technique/method used for this project was western blotting to quantify protein expression levels of primary and secondary markers involved in autophagy such as TFEB and senescence."

Did you need to learn any new methods? If so, what were they?

"The main technique I used for this project was western blotting which was a new method for me in terms of physically carrying it out as I had lectures behind the use of western blotting, but it was my first time using this technique during the project. I also learned the main principles of cell culturing using chondrocyte and fibroblast cells. I was also able to watch the process of immunofluorescence staining via a confocal microscope using OA and RA tissue samples from mouse and humans."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"My overall work ethic in the laboratory has improved from applying the advice from my supervisor so that I can work more efficiently in the lab and also minimise errors. Learning to find experimental mistakes when I am conducting experiments was extremely helpful as it allowed me to work on troubleshooting techniques and reflect on previous mistakes so that I would not repeat them. I have also experienced the reality of working as a research scientist daily and understanding that not every experiment will produce the expected results; however, it is essential to reflect on these experiences to have a better view on improving and planning future experiments. Also, I have had the opportunity to hear about what life is like as a researcher and tips on progressing further in academia/research."

Charles's work focussed on the transfers of Power in Early Modern England and Europe 
Supervisor: Prof Paulina Kewes, Faculty of English

What were the initial aims of your project?

"The aim of the project was to contribute to the wider research project, ‘Parliamentary Cultures in Early Modern Europe’, which Paulina Kewes is leading. Specifically, the aim of my research was to investigate the representation of parliaments within Spanish and/or Italian writings of the time. Given that this is an understudied area, and not within the linguistic expertise of the staff members, it was left to me in consultation with Paulina as to which texts I would specifically research."

Did you need to learn any new methods? If so, what were they?

"Both from the training sessions and the guidance of my supervisor, I learned how to better navigate the collections of Early Printed books that were available both at the Weston and at the Taylorian libraries, which allowed me to better compare the paratextual elements of the books that I was using, such as their size and their typeface. Furthermore, as this was the first time that I directly delt with such books, I was taught how to reference them in formal writing, something that had previously confused me when reading about rare collections. Overall, I would say that my ability to deal with early printed books massively improved across the course of the research project."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"The most important think I learned was how to properly navigate and make use of Early Modern texts, which is something that I haven’t been taught how to do at undergraduate level. Beyond this, it was good to be exposed to the specific writing and printing styles from the early modern period, which is a period that I do not study in Spanish at undergraduate level. Through this, I have greatly improved both my linguistic ability as well as my general historical knowledge of Spain and Europe more widely during the second half of the 16th Century going into the first decades of the 17th. This is brilliant because too often, I believe, history and literature is taught by country rather than taking into account the wider intellectual networks in which writers were operating, even if it is beyond political or linguistic borders."

How has the project affected your approach to graduate study/thoughts about your area of research?

"I feel like I’ve gotten a taste of what it would be like to work on a Master’s/DPhil dissertation/thesis as a lot of my work was self-led and spent in libraries, something that is very different to tutor-led undergraduate papers. I now know that I enjoy this self-led approach to academic life and that there are plenty of resources in Oxford, even for texts written in foreign languages. In terms of the area of research that I’d be interested in, this has introduced me to earlier forms of Spanish and earlier Spanish history that I’ve previously studied, which means I am now considering a research path into this area."

Read about Rose's work that investigated molecular architecture of bowel and womb cancer 
Supervisor: Dr David Church, Nuffield Department of Medicine

What were the initial aims of your project?

"The initial aims of the project were to investigate the effect of knocking out chromatin remodelling genes on the expression of other proteins in endometrial cells. This was to be assessed using qPCR and nucleic acids from pre-existing knockout cells (ARID1A, ARID5B, SETD1B, KT2C and SETDB1) The knockout cells were generated using CRISPR/Cas9 and two guide RNA molecules. The gRNA was expressed by the wild type cells. The cells were sorted and a single cell was cultured in each well of a plate to generate the clone cell lines. These were maintained in culture to use for protein extraction etc. to examine the knockout status."

What do you think were the most important things you learned?

"I learned to be confident in my actions and that it’s okay to get a second opinion/double check during experiments. I also learned that making mistakes in the lab isn’t bad as it helps you remember what to do and what not to do during a particular experiment. I also, most importantly, learned how to apply/test my own theories and ideas during experiments without being apprehensive, as well as share these ideas with colleagues. "

How has the project affected your approach to graduate study/thoughts about your area of research?

"It has definitely confirmed that I would like to continue with graduate study to achieve a career in research as I highly enjoyed my time in the lab. It also confirmed that I would like to focus on a different area of research as the one I was looking at during this project. Before I started I enjoyed both parasitology and cancer research, however, while I really enjoyed this project, I realised I would like to apply these techniques to parasitology research so have begun to research graduate study in this area."