Sanger Institute Prize Competition 2020

The Sanger Institute Prize is an outreach competition for undergraduate students from low and middle income countries and gives the winner an opportunity to experience the very cutting edge of genomic research.

To be eligible to apply, applicants must meet all of the criteria below:

Be from a low or middle income country
Be studying an undergraduate degree relevent to genomics at a University/Institute in a low/middle income country at the time of the first stage application. This could include any biological science degree, bioinformatics or any degree which includes genomics as a large part of the content
Demonstrate an active interest in research in the genomics field
Have a good command of English
Be over 18 at the time of applying
Applicants which do not meet all of the above criteria will not be considered for the second stage of the competition.

The 2020 competition will be run as a two-stage process. Please read all of the information below before clicking on the link to the form.

Stage one: expression of interest

First stage applicants are asked to complete a short application form and write an expression of interest detailing their scientific interests and why they want to come to the Sanger Institute. www.sanger.ac.uk/form/Sanger_Prize

Two academic references are also required at this stage. Academic references should be from the University or Institute which the applicant is currently studying at and at least one of them should include the university tutor or supervisor from the genomics degree course. Contacts details for the referees will be required when completing the form and the referees will then be emailed asking to complete a reference form which will be emailed directly to the Sanger Prize Committee. Applications will not be accepted without two complete references.

Only applications made via the online application system will be accepted. Entries should be submitted online before 6pm UK GMT, 6th December 2019. Entries recieved after this time will not be accepted. Applicants should aim to submit before this date in case of techinical issues on the last day of submission. The Institute is not responsible for applications which are not recieved in time due to last minute technical issues. There will be no technical support available on the 6th December.

The deadline for references is Wednesday 18th December 2019.

Only applications which meet the criteria listed above and have two references by the deadline will be accepted and reviewed.

www.sanger.ac.uk/form/Sanger_Prize

Successful applicants will be informed of the results of this stage at the beginning of February 2020 and be invited to take part in the second stage of the competition. If you have not had a response by the 14th February please assume that your application has been unsuccessful this time.

Stage two: essay

Selected candidates will then be asked to take part in stage two of the process, which is to write an essay with a given title. Details of this stage will be emailed to the candidates at the beginning of February 2020 and they will be given one month to complete the essay.

The judges' decision will be communicated at the end of April 2020, the decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

Information about the Internship

All reasonable expenses will be paid for by the prize fund including travel costs, visa costs, accomodation and reasonable food costs during the three month internship.

The winner will be able to choose the lab and host they work with, subject to the availablity of the host.

The winner will be able to choose the timing of the internship as long as it is taking within a year of the prize being won.