The Sanger Prize

About the Prize

The Sanger Prize is an outreach competition aimed at undergraduate students who live and study in low or middle income countries.

The prize was set up in 2002 after John Sulston, Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz won a Nobel Prize for their work on C.elegans. John Sulston wanted to donate his part of the prize money to a charitable trust to be administered by the Sanger Institute and he appointed a Board of Trustees who decided that the money should be used to fund an annual essay competition to benefit students who would otherwise not have access to the facilities the institute has to offer.

The winner of the competition is invited to spend three months at the Institute working in a lab of their choice, hosted by a member of the Sanger Faculty. All of their essential travel, living and training expenses are paid for by the fund, and support and mentorship is given by the Institute, both from the scientific programme they work with and the team who administer the fund.

How to apply

Applications for the 2026 Sanger Prize are now open and information and the application form can be found here.

Testamonials

This experience opens the door to many opportunities for the student, as well as giving them the chance to experience life in Cambridge and the UK which many of them wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do.

Many of the students have returned to the UK after they have graduated to do post graduate studies and often cite the contacts they have made during their experience with the Sanger Prize as instrumental in helping them achieve this.

“The outstanding and unparalleled research environment at the Wellcome Sanger Institute is highly conducive for scientific progress. Working here as a Sanger Prize winner allowed me to be a part of this atmosphere and I also got immense opportunities to connect with world leading scientists from diverse fields of biomedicine. The perfect blend of experimental and genomic approach for solving scientific questions has provided me with new perspectives which I believe will help me lifelong in my scientific endeavours. At the same time living in the majestic city of Cambridge for 12 weeks adds up to this wonderful experience.”

Sushovan Dan, Sanger Prize Winner 2013 – Internship spent with Trevor Lawley 

“Winning the Sanger Prize changed my life. Everything started with an engaging application process that stimulates your scientific thinking from the very beginning, giving you the opportunity to demonstrate your passion for genomic sciences. A few months after I decided to apply, I found myself in a magical moment: I heard from the Wellcome Sanger Institute that I had won the Sanger Prize Competition! Being awarded this outstanding prize allowed me to travel to the UK and to undertake cutting-edge research within an enriching scientific atmosphere. The Institute was extremely supportive and always provided me with the best guidance throughout the whole process. During my 3-month internship I worked with Dr. Sarah Teichmann and her team to understand how the adaptive immunity develops a response against SARS-CoV-2 from the moment that an individual gets infected. I lived in the lovely town of Saffron Walden and had enjoyable trips to Cambridge and London, having an incredible experience in these historical cities. I am profoundly grateful to the Wellcome Sanger Institute for launching the Sanger Prize Competition and enabling students from low and middle-income countries to have this phenomenal research experience. Thanks to the opportunity that I had at the Institute, now I am sorting everything out to return to the UK in October and start my new position as a bioinformatician within Dr. David Adams’ group!”

Jacqueline Marcia Boccacino, Sanger Prize Winner 2021 – Internship spent with Sarah Teichmann

Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and always willing to help. I’ve had the chance to meet so many capable and inspiring people from the HR team, to the postgraduate staff, and senior scientists. Before coming here, I thought the Tree of Life project was such an ambitious idea, the idea of sequencing all organisms in Britain Islands really felt like an incredibly challenging yet exciting goal. Once I arrived, that impression only grew stronger. Getting to know the people, the processes, and the incredible effort behind this project has been extraordinary. It’s brilliant to see how this engine runs, especially because it’s driven by such admirable objectives. I also found it inspiring how the TOL programme encourages us to learn about other labs and projects across the Institute.

The spectacular infrastructure here is truly outstanding. From the computers and clusters to the facilities and all the resources made available to students and visitors, everything is designed to help research thrive. During my time here, I’ve also had the chance to attend great events such as Fireworks Night and the Understanding Life conference, as well as several courses where I learned so much and met wonderful people. I’ve gained new knowledge, new techniques, and new ideas, but I also learned the importance of strong institutional support. Seeing how proper structure and funding make ambitious projects like the Tree of Life possible has been eye-opening. It’s hard not to think about how unfair it is that scientists in low-and-middle income countries often lack the resources to develop research they are perfectly capable of doing.

This has been an incredibly positive and enriching experience. The Sanger Prize is such a fair and admirable project, it’s wonderful that it gives students from low-and-middle income countries the chance to come here and learn about science and everything surrounding it. It’s also quite special to be here founded by the John Sulston Nobel Prize donation and to work, even if just a little, with the same organism that earned him the Nobel Prize.

Beatriz Rodrigues Estevam, Sanger Prize Winner 2024 – Internship spent with Mark Blaxter 

Previous Sanger Prize winners

The prize has grown in popularity and so far we have had 20 winners from 12 different countries.

Contact

The email contact for the Sanger Prize is sangerprize@sanger.ac.uk

Charity Information

The Sanger Prize is registered with the Charity Commission – Number 1091349.