NEWS: read the Summer 2026 update here.
A UROP is considered to be an extra-curricular educational activity at Imperial, and it is not work nor employment.
NEWS: For any UROP undertaken from 1 January 2026, a supervisor (and therefore the host dept, and this is the case for all academic departments at Imperial) must provide or facilitate a bursary (financial support) for the student. Proposed supervisors who are unable to provide a bursary from funds they have access to ought to be willing to support a bursary application to a third party, including Imperial’s scheme, any dept-level scheme or an external scheme where they exist. Please note that family and personal resources are not valid sources of a bursary. The host dept must identify the bursary when completing the registration procedure (form). Further guidance will be published on 1 January 2026.
NEWS: Imperial's UROP bursary scheme (for UROPs to be undertaken in summer 2026 by Imperial undergraduates on degree programmes) will open in January 2026.
This section helps to answer some frequently asked questions surrounding the issue of funding, and points to some third party sources of funding. It will be updated further by January 2026, so please revisit.
There are two aspects to funding a UROP.
- the costs to the academic supervisor of providing a research experience, which may include consumables (e.g. materials, software, hardware, chemicals, licences) and space (e.g. desk, workshop, bench, laboratory). Normally these costs are borne by the host department in agreeing to host a student.
- the provision of a bursary: For any UROP undertaken from 1 January 2026, a supervisor (and therefore the host dept, and this is the case for all academic departments at Imperial) must provide or facilitate a bursary (financial support) for the student. Proposed supervisors who are unable to provide a bursary from funds they have access to ought to be willing to support a bursary application to a third party, including Imperial’s scheme, any dept-level scheme or an external scheme where they exist. Please note that family and personal resources are not valid sources of a bursary. The host dept must identify the bursary when completing the registration procedure (form). Further guidance will be published on 1 January 2026.