The Award
Students are provided with a stipend of £3500 to carry out an 8-week project over summer 2026.
What is a digital Research Technical Professional?
Digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs) provide the methods, skills, and facilities that underpin the strategic research objectives of universities. These professionals are known to work as either a Research Software Engineer, Research Data Manager, or Research Infrastructure Engineer.
Research software engineering (RSE) is the development of software (computer codes) enabling researchers to quickly analyse significantly more data, providing major improvements in accuracy and an ability to further their research. The ever-growing power of high-performance and high-throughput computing (HPC and HTC) has provided the potential to analyse increased amounts of data to answer key research questions.
Research data management (RDM) is the effective handling of information created in the course of research. Whilst it is a specific academic activity in its own right, it requires close collaboration with allied professionals across a university, such as researchers, information governance, ethics committees, and research IT.
What kind of projects are offered?
Some examples of project styles:
- The use of high-performance computing (e.g., as provided by the Bede supercomputer)
- Developing software or code that contributes to a research project's aims
- Improving the user experience of digital research infrastructure specific to a research group.
- Improving research data management practices in a research project or institution, showing the value of embedding data stewardship practices.
Not all of these may be offered at your institution, so please look at your university's page to see the projects you can apply for.
Who can apply?
These internships are awarded to penultimate- or final-year undergraduate students at each of the N8 universities (Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, and York). Four internships will be awarded to undergraduates at each institution for 2026, and applications are very competitive.
It is beneficial to have prior knowledge of computing or data management practices, but not a prerequisite, and we welcome applications from all undergraduate degree courses. It is more important that you have a willingness to learn and a genuine interest in the project.
Why should you apply?
Interns will have the chance to:
- Enhance their coding and technical skills through practical applications
- Gain firsthand experience of research methodologies and digital research professions.
- Collaborate with leading academics and professionals.
- Contribute to impactful projects with real-world applications.
- Improve their presentation skills and discuss their projects with researchers from a variety of fields
To understand how you can benefit from our internships, learn more about the Summer 2025 students and their projects on this webpage.
Our expectations of an intern
- Complete their projects for 8 weeks over the summer between 1 June and 11 September, 2026. These do not need to be consecutive weeks.
- Attend an online welcome meeting in June 2026.
- Attend a project showcase on September 11, 2026, where they will present their work.
Application Process
A list of the projects on offer at your university can be found by following the links below. Please apply to one project at your institution.
On the application form, you will be asked about yourself, your degree, the institution you are studying at, and the project you are applying for. We strongly recommend you discuss the project with its principal supervisor before applying, and ask you to confirm this on the form.
Questions?
If you would like clarification on the application process or have any questions regarding your application, please contact us through our enquiries email address: enquiries@n8cir.org.uk
Find out about the projects on offer at your university, their selection process, and deadlines
Each process will vary according to your institution along with opening and closing dates for application submission. So please check these pages before you apply. These links will be live when your university is accepting applications.