The prize

The winner of the Sanger Institute Prize will be offered a three-month internship with a research group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Travel, living and research expenses are all covered by the award.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for the Sanger Prize applicants must meet all of the criteria below:

• Be from a low or middle income country (a full list of eligible countries is available below).
• Be studying an undergraduate degree relevant to genomics at a University/Institute in a low/middle income country at the time of the first stage application. This could include any biological science degree, bioinformatics or any degree which includes genomics as a large part of the content.
• Demonstrate an active interest in research in the genomics field
• Have a good command of English (demonstrated by the clear writing within the application form, no certificate of English is required).
• Be over 18 at the time of applying

Applicants who do not meet all of the above criteria will not be considered for the second stage of the competition.

Please note that no exceptions can be made to the above criteria, we do not offer the prize to any one who is doing any post graduate course, whatever the circumstances may be. 

Application process

The 2022 competition will be run as a two-stage process. Please read all of the information below before clicking on the link to the form.

https://www.sanger.ac.uk/form/Sanger_Prize_Application 

Stage one - Expression of interest

Submissions for the Sanger Prize Competition will open in Mid November and close on Friday 7th January 2022 at 5pm UK time. Entries received after this time will not be accepted.

First stage applicants are asked to complete a short application form and write an expression of interest detailing their scientific interests, their interests in genomics and why they want to come to the Sanger Institute. The maximum word count for the expression of interest is 500 words, applicants should aim to write close to this amount in order to fully demonstrate their interest and suitability in the prize and any applications with a word count of less than 250 will not be reviewed.

Two academic references are also required at this stage. Academic references should ideally be from the University or Institute which the applicant is currently studying at and at least one of them should include the university tutor or supervisor from the genomics degree course. Contacts details for the referees will be required when completing the form and the referees will then be emailed with a form for them to complete which will then be emailed directly to the Sanger Prize Committee. Applications will not be accepted without two complete references so applicants should chose references who are available to supply a reference and ensure, to the best of their ability that the reference is submitted on time. Due to the large number of applications received we cannot review any applications which do not have the full set of references.

The Institute is not responsible for applications which are not received in time due to last minute technical issues. There will be no technical support available on the 7th January 2022, you are advised to submit your application well before this date in case of any problems.

The deadline for references is Friday 14th January 2022 at 5pm UK time.

Only applications which meet the criteria listed above and have two references submitted by the deadline will be accepted and reviewed.

The link to the online form can be found here: https://www.sanger.ac.uk/form/Sanger_Prize_Application 

Successful applicants will be informed of the results of this stage at the beginning of March 2022 and be invited to take part in the second stage of the competition.

If you have not had a response by the 28th March 2022 please assume that your application has been unsuccessful this time. Due to the high number of applications received we do not contact unsuccessful applicants to inform them of the decision.

Stage two - Essay

Successful candidates will then be asked to take part in stage two of the process, which is to write an essay with a given title. Details of this stage will be emailed to the candidates at the beginning of March 2022 and they will be given one month to complete the essay.

The judges’ decision will be communicated by the end of May 2022, the decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

Stage two participants who have not won will be informed by email and offered a Certificate of Participation. No further feedback on applications will be available.

Information about the internship

All essential expenses will be paid for by the prize fund including travel costs, visa costs, accommodation and reasonable food costs during the three month internship.

The winner will be able to choose the lab and faculty host they work with, subject to the availability of the host.

The winner will be able to choose the timing of their internship which should be taken within a year of being awarded (travel restrictions due to Covid -19 or other unexpected events will be taken into consideration and exceptions made).

Questions

If you have any questions, which are not answered within the information above please contact: sangerprize@sanger.ac.uk

Help with CV’s and Expressions of Interests cannot be given by the Sanger Prize Committee, please seek this help from your University tutors or mentors.

Only applications submitted via the form linked above will be accepted. Please do not email CV’s and reference letters directly to the Sanger Prize Committee as they will not be accepted.

All applications must be completed in English.

Eligible countries