NIHR Undergraduate Intern

We have an exciting opportunity for three ambitious undergraduate students to join the Centre for Psychological Research (PsyCen) on a 26-week, part-time internship funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The successful applicants will work on one of three projects supported by academics across the departments of Psychology and Speech & Language Therapy at Leeds Beckett University. You will work with the specific project supervisors to develop the project details, but the broad topic areas you can choose to work in are:

1. Healthcare communication in smokers and people living with obesity who also have multimorbid conditions. (Supervised by Dr Siobhan McHugh and Dr Zoe Kolokotroni)
2. The fertility and pregnancy experiences of people with endometriosis. (Supervised by Victoria Fisher and Professor Georgina Jones)
3. Exploring the experiences of clinic-based education in undergraduate speech and language therapy students using the Communities of Practice approach. (Supervised by Dr Regina Osterauer and Ben Bolton-Grant)

Each project will give you the opportunity to gain valuable research skills and experience, for example, in developing research questions, literature searching, patient and public involvement and engagement activities, and applying qualitative and mixed methods data analyses. We are also looking for interns to develop their own contributions to our research team, particularly supporting creative dissemination of research outputs.

Are you a current undergraduate student interested in health and social care research?
Do you study a health or social care related degree?,

• Be studying for an undergraduate degree in a subject related to health and social care (e.g. psychology, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, nursing, occupational therapy etc.)


• Have an interest in pursuing a career in applied health and/or social care research.


• Have enthusiasm to learn new skills.


• Be able to manage your time effectively to balance your undergraduate studies with the internship., Disability Confident

About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

The internships will be hosted by the Centre for Psychological Research (PsyCen) within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. PsyCen is an internationally renowned research group comprising over 70 research active staff from Professors to PhD students. You will be hosted primarily within the Health and Wellbeing group; one of the largest of the PsyCen research groups investigating a broad range of applied research related to the quality and safety of healthcare, public and population health, mental health, physical health and wellbeing. As an undergraduate intern, you will join our thriving network of applied health researchers and gain experience of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research in health and social care. You will also have the opportunity during the internship to explore other groups of interest within PsyCen including Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience, and Speech and Language.

At the end of the internship, you will be invited to present a poster or oral presentation at the PsyCen Postgraduate Research Conference, as well as being invited to a joint NIHR celebration event where you will share what you have learned. There will also be potential for conference presentations and publications to stem from each of the respective projects.

You will have access to an extensive training and supervision programme throughout your internship, and there will be opportunities to network with current MSc and PhD students, as well as members of academic staff from across PsyCen.