FAQ

Selection of host universities and subsequent student recruitment will be organised as follows:

Stage one

• Prospective host universities submit a proposal with details of an undergraduate research placement in AI to take place in the summer of 2025. Successful university host applicants will receive funding to deliver their proposed research programme.

Stage two

Once awarded, successful university hosts must organise:

• the outreach and recruitment of research supervisors that will deliver their proposed research placement programme
• the call for student applications, review, and selection of students
• issuing of awards to students, drafting appropriate placement agreements with them, and providing training.

Stage three

• Placements take place in the summer of 2025, concluding with a celebration event in September 2025.

Any UK university is eligible to apply to host a Google DeepMind Research Ready placement.

Proposals must be primarily focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, though they can include applicability to other disciplines. We encourage universities to be creative and deliver a programme that works and builds on the strength and capacity of their staff and students, as well as delivering maximum value to the undergraduate participants. We anticipate that universities will offer between 10 and 12 student placement opportunities each

The programme is primarily aimed at students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. However, depending on the demographics of the university’s student body, universities may broaden the eligibility criteria to include other underrepresented groups, such as (but not limited to) women, and individuals from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

The programme aims to widen participation in AI research by addressing barriers encountered by these groups in progressing to advanced degrees and careers in AI.

The programme will fund research placement opportunities for eligible undergraduate students in the summer of 2025, to be hosted at selected universities.

Across universities, we will standardise some costs including:

• The student stipend: £400 per student per week.
• Student travel: £225 per student to cover the entire placement.
• The costs of events and activities: £250 per student to cover the entire placement.

In addition, we will provide universities with the accommodation costs (per student) and administration cost to plan and deliver the programme. In your proposal, please provide us with the cost of the programme including the stipend, travel and events costs.

• Academy’s request for proposals open: 1 August 2024 - 26 September 2024
• Awards confirmed: w/c 4 November 2024
• Agreements circulated for hosts’ signature: w/c 7 November 2024 - 12 December 2024
• Universities open a call for student applications: January 2025
• Research placements take place: June 2025 - September 2025
• Celebration event: September 2025

Applications should be submitted by the primary point of contact for the proposal via the Academy’s online grant management system. All applicants must first register to create an account.

If you have questions about the scheme that are not covered in this FAQ section or the guidance notes, please email the Research team.

If the proposals are completely different and do not negatively impact each other, your department can submit up to two proposals. However, if the purpose of multiple applications is to support more than 12 students, we suggest indicating this in your application instead of submitting two separate proposals. Please note that we cannot guarantee funding for additional placements due to budget restrictions.