Internship Programme

The Miriam Rothschild Travel Bursary Programme enabled 20 students from developing countries to participate in SCCS 2022, attend a short training course and to take up an internship at a UK conservation organisation. 

Known as the Internship Programme, this scheme has become a significant component of the SCCS series and fulfills an important role by giving young conservation scientists new skills, significantly boosting their careers in the field of conservation.

All participants are required to write a report at the end of their internship and three winners are chosen by the SCCS organisers and awarded prizes of books and journal subscriptions.

The winners from SCCS 2022 are:

Michael Akrasi (Ghana)

TOPIC: Analysing social survey data relating to Conraua species in Ghana
HOST: Dr Olivia Couchman (ZSL/EDGE, London)

Allia Rosedy (Malaysia)

TOPIC:   Diversity of marginal coral ecosystems in NE Borneo
HOST: Nadia Santodomingo (Natural History Museum, London)

Arya Sidharthan (India)

TOPIC: Detecting cryptic freshwater diversity using environmental DNA (eDNA)
HOST: Prof. Stefano Mariani (Liverpool John Moores University)

Are you eligible?

We have broadened our internship eligibility to anyone who is not from a high-income country, regardless of where they are currently based. So if you’re not from a high income country (as defined HERE) but studying in the UK, EU or USA, for instance, you are now eligible to apply for an internship.

Internships are most likely to be awarded to applicants offering a good quality talk or poster.

How to apply

Applicants need to contact a UK-based conservation organisation or research group themselves. We do not supply names of organisations, universities or research groups who could act as hosts. We cannot respond to email requests to source or set up internship placements.

YOU MUST ONLY APPLY IF YOU CAN BE IN THE UK FROM THE END OF FEBRUARY UNTIL THE END OF MARCH 2023

For the full application procedure for applicants and host organisations please view our guidelines.

Commitments

When an internship is awarded SCCS agrees to:

  • Pay the registration fee and accommodation costs associated with the intern’s attendance at the SCCS conference in Cambridge. This will be done directly by SCCS, so the intern does not need to pay anything.
  • Pay the intern’s costs of return travel to the UK, including visa costs, costs associated with attendance at a short course (if any) and travel costs within the UK to the internship location. Usually, SCCS will buy travel tickets and send them to the intern. Visa costs will usually be paid by reimbursement.
  • Pay an allowance of £490 per week for accommodation and food for up to 4 weeks. SCCS will send sufficient funds for this allowance in advance to the host organisation or the individual host.   This money is then disbursed to the intern by the host or used to pay for accommodation and other costs in whatever way is deemed by the host and intern to be appropriate. Host individuals can choose to have the allowance sent to an account in their organisation or to receive the funding themselves in a personal account.  If other costs are incurred by the intern beyond this allowance, additional funding should be sought by the intern or the host organisation from sources other than SCCS.
  • Coordinate logistic and travel arrangements.

Host organisations and individual hosts agree to:

  • Provide assistance with finding suitable accommodation.
  • Manage the intern’s allowance by receiving it into an appropriate account (see above) and using it to pay the intern’s expenses. SCCS should be informed of unspent residue from the allowance, if any, which should either be returned or used for additional expenditure approved by SCCS, such as books. SCCS does not expect to receive an account of how the allowance was spent.
  • Provide facilities, advice and any supervision needed by the intern for one month before the conference.
  • Help with any expenses not covered by the internship (see above).
  • Complete a brief feedback form.

Interns agree to:

  • Attend SCCS for the full three days and the short course they are assigned to.
  • Carry out their internship project to the best of their ability for one month before the conference.
  • Submit a short report on the work done during their internship within one month after it ends.
  • Complete a brief feedback form.

Internship applicants need to submit online applications by 18 August 2022 in order to allow time for host organisations to complete their part of the application by the closing date on 25 August 2022 at 22:00 British Summer Time. Hosts should see a single line confirmation message when their response has been submitted.

Please note that in 2023 the host period will expect to start on 25 February and end on 25 March. Hosts should make sure that they are available during this period before they commit to the internship programme.