Digital Research Ambassadors is a fully funded internship scheme benefiting postgraduate research students and research groups/professional staff across the University. It is developed and supported by Digital Research Services and has been running since 2019.
Interns - postgraduate students with strong data and computing skills - are matched with host projects across the University. They will bring in digital research expertise, contributing to skill development and project planning. They also gain hands-on interdisciplinary research experience.
Hosts - research or professional staff across the University - propose a project and will receive support from the intern. They will gain new perspectives and hands-on support in using digital tools and services, develop additional dimensions to digital research planning and inspire a new generation of researchers.
Further Details About the Program
The intern works 7-9 hours per week for a maximum of 12 weeks. This means the internship can run alongside their studies. The pay grade is UE05.
The internship usually runs from April/May up to 31st July of any academic year, subject to funding.
No financial contribution is expected from the host.
Selection process & Timeline
Still got questions?
Have a look at the FAQs on the Ambassador Internship scheme.
FAQs2024 -25 Registration of Interest
If you are a research staff and you are interested in having a PGR Intern to work on your research project, register your interest for the next cohort of the DRS Ambassadors Internship Scheme.
Register your InterestPrevious Projects
2023-2024
Robust Quantification and Assessment of Variation of Entry Requirements for Mathematical Sciences Across Medical Schools in the UK, 2016-2023
Intern: Ricardo Valencia Albornoz, PhD Student at the School of Biological Sciences
Host: Margaret MacDougall, Usher Institute
Program ReportCreating a Sustainable Data Management Flow for Medical Research Expeditions
Intern: Clara Lopez Velasco, MSc Student at the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences
Host: Ian Maccormick, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS)
Program ReportVisualising Datasets and Optimising The Use Of Eleanor
Intern: Jesko Wagner, PhD Student at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer
Host: Julie Rodor, Centre for Cardiovascular Science
Program ReportDeveloping a Programme of Learning Analytics Work for Data Science Teaching
Intern: Hollie Hindley, PhD Student at IQB3 – School of Biological Sciences
Host: Dr Kasia Banas, Data-Driven Innovation, Usher Institute
Program ReportData-Driven Natural Language Analysis to Predict Outcomes in Psychological Therapy for Depression
Intern: Kaitlyn Louth, PhD Student at Maxwell Institute Graduate School, School of Mathematics
Host: Laura A. Cariola, School of Health in Social Science
Program ReportGOAL Football Project
Intern: Yasmin Hengster, PhD Student at the School of Mathematics
Host: Gian Marco Campagnolo, School of Political and Social Sciences
Program ReportStudents’ Approach to the Use of Generative AI.
Intern: Vidminas Vizgirda, PhD Student at the School of Informatics
Host: Jordana Viotto Da Cruz, Business School
Program ReportSPSS Research Grants Dashboard
Intern: Niamh Graham, PhD Student at the School of Mathematics
Host: Caroline Laffey, School of Social and Political Science
Program ReportRNA Sequencing Analysis for The Design of Splicing-Based Devices for Gene and Oncolytic Therapies
Intern: Lea Soler-Clavel, MSc Student at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Sciences
Host: Adam Mol, School of Biological Sciences
Program ReportFront End for Scientific Code on Earth and Wave Modelling
Intern: Sarah Dunn, PhD Student at the School of Informatics
Host: Giorgos Papageorgiou, School of GeoSciences
Program Report2022/23
Upgrading an existing R Shiny app to portray research findings in area interaction point process models
Intern: Fabian Yii, PhD student in Precision Medicine
Host: Glenna Nightingale, School of Health in Social Science
Presentation App‘Supporting digital humanities’: review discipline-specific support needs, and assess existing and potential inter-disciplinary research related to digital humanities.
Intern: Dandian Yang, PhD student in Architecture
Host: Robin Bendrey and Sue Coleman, School of History, Classics and Archaeology
PresentationEstablishing a metadata storage service for granular materials
Intern: Vidminas Vizgirda, PhD Student in Informatics
Host: Jin Ooi, School of Engineering
Presentation
A robust system for measuring antibiotic data use over time
Intern: Liangkai Sun, MSc student in Psychology of Mental Health with background in Engineering
Host: Špela Oberstar, Hospital for Small Animals
PresentationReviewing and redeveloping the Digital Research Services website
Intern: Jenny Long, MSc student in Design Informatics
Host: Digital Research Services
Presentation
Mapping the different interest groups involved in health policy-making in the European Union
Intern: Fabian Yii, PhD student in Precision Medicine
Host: Eleanor Brooks, School of Social and Political Sciences
Presentation2021/22
Analysing Twitter Data for Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
Intern: Paola Tiranti, MSc Theoretical Physics
Host: Suzanne O'Rourke, School of Health in Social Science
PresentationDiversity and Cohesion in Premier League Football performance
Intern: Rhys Maredudd Davies, PhD student in Clinical Psychology
Host: Gian Marco Campagnolo, School of Social and Political Science
PresentationUsability evaluation and user experience for the PeaceRep and PA-X web platforms
Intern: Shivangi Bansal, MSc in Advanced Design Informatics
Host: Devanjan Bhattacharya, School of Informatics and Sanja Badanjak, School of Law
PresentationMany thanks to intern Tianyi Yang, PhD student in Physics and Astronomy, who supported all three projects in 2021/22.
PresentationTestimonies
“Sarah is great by the way and the three of us
working on technical stuff have gelled from day 1 - this is a great program!”
Dr Giorgos Papageorgiou, PDRA in Seismic Rock Physics, School of Geosciences
“What better way to gain work experience than in your home university? See what people are up to while you study, and learn about the importance of every role behind the scenes of the university. This role has given me the confidence to start my career once I graduate, and provided the hands-on experience I was looking to gain to embark into my future.”
2024 DRS Ambassador
“We have learnt much from [our intern's] knowledge and detailed review so far, which is also helpful for the new European project we are planning to submit this year which has a much larger ML database component.”
Prof. Jin Ooi, Chair of Particulate Solid Mechanics, Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, School of Engineering
"It was an absolute pleasure to be a host for the Digital Ambassadors Internship Scheme. The intern (...) created a sophisticated R Shiny app for my project and I have included the app in a grant application (Big Ideas Accelerator, 2023). The app currently allows users to upload data and to run a univariate area interaction point process model on the data. A link to a tutorial on point pattern data is also provided on the app. If our grant application is successful, we will include the facility to run bivariate point process models as well. During the project [our intern] was self-motivated, was highly organised and delivered a great product."
Dr. Glenna Nightingale, Chancellor's Fellow, Nursing Studies, School of Health in Social Sciences
“This was my first [interdisciplinary] internship (...), and it provides me a valuable opportunity to apply my data analysing skills in industry and allows me to work with colleagues from different backgrounds.”
Tianyi Yang, DRS Ambassador 2022
Next steps
Questions? Read through our FAQs or get in touch with one of our Research Facilitators.
FAQs Research FacilitatorsWant to take part as a host or intern? Register your interest now!
Register your interest