Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP)

The UROP programme  is a fantastic opportunity for UG students (at Imperial and external universities) to have a taste of the incredible research undertaken within our Department.

We are proud that we pay our UROP students for the work that they do (through either supervisor funds or an external funder), supporting fairer access to these opportunities. This topic was reported on the BBC earlier this year.

Please see our profiles of two of the 2025 UROP students here (or below) to learn more about the student experience.  

Student experience

The Department of Brain Sciences complies with the university-wide policy in that for any UROP undertaken from 1 January 2026 a student must be in receipt of financial support to undertake a UROP. Please see further details on the UROP webpages.   

Darcy Gabriel 

What is your home university and what are you studying? 

My home university is City St George’s University of London, and I am in my 4th Year of the Medicine MBBS course. 

What attracted you to take a UROP placement at Imperial? 

After the second year of my medical degree, I chose to intercalate in Neuroscience and Mental Health at Imperial College London. As part of this, I completed a dissertation with the Barnes Lab at the Dementia Research Institute, focusing on neural plasticity and Alzheimer’s disease. This experience was invaluable – not only did I greatly enjoy being part of the team, but I also developed important skills in data analysis and research writing. It was a highly rewarding introduction to academic research, and I was eager to build on it. The UROP scheme offered the ideal way to continue working with the lab, providing the structure to support a summer placement where I could further contribute to ongoing projects. 

What is the focus of your UROP placement? 

During my placement, I worked alongside MSc and PhD students to investigate how aging affects the distribution of alpha-synuclein within the motor cortex and its colocalization with other synaptic proteins. Our work contributes to the Edmond and Lily Safra Foundation project, which focuses on age-related mechanisms in Parkinson’s disease. 

What has been the most enjoyable aspect so far? 

I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to develop new research skills during this placement. In particular, I gained hands-on experience with practical lab techniques, confocal microscopy, and coding using ImageJ and MATLAB skills I hadn’t had the chance to focus on during my intercalated year. Returning to the lab and being able to learn these was both exciting and rewarding. Most notably, learning to code has been transformative; it has opened up many new opportunities for me and I’m now applying it in other areas of my university work. I’ve come to appreciate how valuable this skill is, and I believe it’s something everyone should dedicate time to learning. 

What has been the most surprising aspect or biggest insight during your visit so far? 

I feel that my biggest insight has been experiencing the research process from much earlier on. In my previous project, I was mainly involved in the data and statistical analysis stages, whereas during my UROP project I contributed to the initial experiments and image acquisition. This allowed me to appreciate the complex process of optimising each step of a method to ensure accurate results later on. It also highlighted for me how essential persistence is in research, as setbacks and unexpected results are an inevitable but important part of making progress. 

What are your plans after you graduate? 

After graduation, I hope to join the Specialty Foundation Programme for resident doctors, which provides the opportunity to balance clinical practice with research. Following this pathway will allow me to begin shaping a career as an academic clinician, potentially leading research teams while continuing to practice medicine. I am also interested in pursuing a PhD in my chosen area of medicine to further develop my skills and advance my progression as an academic clinician.  

Any final comments?

If you’re considering applying for the UROP programme, I would definitely say go for it. It has been an excellent experience, allowing me to develop many new skills and build valuable relationships in the area of research that I’m passionate about. I received funding from the Royal Microscopy Society and plan to present my work at their annual Beginners’ Competition this December. 

Feedback form Supervisor

As Dr Radulescu also emphasised about Darcy: "She contributed to the collection of key pilot datasets and showed great initiative in learning advanced data analysis techniques, including processing imaging data with ImageJ and MATLAB. She is now continuing to develop custom code that will support ongoing and future work in the lab. Finally, Darcy will be presenting her work at the RMS Beginners' Competition, reflecting the quality and impact of her contribution."

Lucy Robinson 

What is your home university (ICL)  and what are you studying?
I am studying Biomedical Sciences (MSc) at the University of Oxford.

What attracted you to take a UROP placement at Imperial?
I was keen to learn more about what a career in academic research would look like and was extremely interested by the research area of the Matthews Group.

What is the focus of your UROP placement?
My project focused on investigating the mechanistic effects of a common genetic variant in Alzheimer's Disease through immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence.

What has been the most enjoyable aspect so far?
I have loved learning new experimental and analytical techniques.

What has been the most surprising aspect or biggest insight during your visit so far?
How rewarding results can be following technical difficulties. 

What are your plans after you graduate?
I am hoping to pursue a career in research.

Any final comments?
I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn from such an incredible group of academics. It was an absolutely fantastic experience.

Raghul Rajchandar

What is your home university and what are you studying?

My home university is Imperial College London, and I am studying medicine. 

What attracted you to take a UROP placement at Imperial?

I was made aware of the wide range experiences that a UROP can provide from previous students, especially in a specialty of interest, so I pursued a UROP placement in the hopes of making use of a longer summer and learning many transferable skills that I am now able to confidently apply in my BSc year. 

What is the focus of your UROP placement?

My UROP placement was placed within the Hydrocephalus Group of Charing Cross Hospital, where I was working with a team carrying out an observational study looking at ventriculo-peritoneal (VP) shunt surgery and its responsiveness in terms of alleviating the symptoms of individuals with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). 

What has been the most enjoyable aspect so far?

The most enjoyable aspect has certainly been the active involvement in participant recruitment and the refinement of my communication skills as a result of this. I loved practicing my cognitive examinations on patients and building a strong rapport by actively listening to their experience with NPH. 

What has been the most surprising aspect or biggest insight during your visit so far?

I was most pleasantly surprised by the significant coding exposure I received, particularly in the context of R Studio. I was heavily involved in secondary data interpretation and enriched myself with a wide range of statistical tests and using programs to analyse large datasets; this was an immensely useful skill and something I did not expect to learn in such detail. 

What are your plans after you graduate?

I am currently undertaking an intercalated BSc in Neuroscience and Mental Health. My future plan is to pursue neurology/neurosurgery as it is the body system I am most passionate about; surgery is a field I wish to explore as I am keen on a hands-on career, so combining the two would be ideal. 

Any final comments?

I would wholeheartedly recommend a UROP to anyone interested in making the most out of their academic experience at Imperial. Speaking on behalf of the Department of Brain Sciences, they have been incredibly supportive throughout my journey and I look forward to continuing my work with them in the coming years. 

I was extremely fortunate to receive funding throughout the duration of my UROP, receiving the funding meant that I didn’t have to spend as much time working outside the UROP during summer to save up: I was able to spend more hours in the office and hence invest more into my education, which was a huge relief.