Lydia van den Dries, Corporate and Foundation Philanthropy Relationship Manager at the University of York.
We’d love to tell you about a new initiative in our region, GenerationResearch (GenRes). We often hear how important it is to support the highly-skilled science workforce of the future, but how do we do that in a way that engages the best talent and develops the most diverse community with equity in mind? At GenRes we are obsessed with the question, ‘Who will be our next generation of researchers, technicians, and science policy and support staff?’
We started in 2021 to forge a practical solution to generating an impactful and inclusive future for Yorkshire and the UK Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, and Medical industries (‘STEMM’), with the aim of providing tools to empower diverse communities of highly-skilled individuals. Investment in these early career stages has been made many times before, but consistently fails to reach some of the most talented undergraduates, perpetuating the loss of talented, diverse young students in STEMM careers.
Students from underrepresented groups often self-select out of early skill-building opportunities, such as internships, research masters, and other postgraduate programmes due to barriers including:
- Finances
- Lack of awareness of opportunities
- Lack of confidence to apply and feel these opportunities are ‘for them’
- Location (not as many opportunities exist outside of London/South East)
GenerationResearch breaks down financial and social barriers to a career in STEMM by making paid technical, research, and policy opportunities accessible to all students, regardless of their background. This not only promotes diversity in scientific fields but also ensures a broader range of perspectives, driving innovation.
GenRes provides six to ten week paid summer studentships in STEMM projects at universities across Yorkshire and the Humber, institutions in the USA, and employers across the UK, along with an accommodation bursary. These studentships are open to any undergraduate at university in Yorkshire and the Humber (second year onward) from any background, but with a focus on underrepresented groups, with the right to work in the UK. Students receive mentorship from dedicated supervisors and join a community of diverse alumni who have benefitted from the programme, creating connections that they otherwise would not have had access to. We also provide stipended Masters by Research and PhD degrees for graduates from any UK university.
Since 2021 we have worked hard to build relationships and secure funding from research councils, employers, and philanthropy, allowing us to fund over 140 summer studentships, four Masters by Research, and two PhD opportunities to future STEMM professionals from a diverse array of backgrounds. Our ambition is to drive regional change by providing a sustainable, long-term programme of paid opportunities for underrepresented students at universities across the North of England.
Our largest cohort so far
So, you now know our hopes, dreams, and history, and so onto what we are up to this year. Everyone at GenerationResearch has been working hard to shape our summer 2025 studentship programme and we had so much interest from students across nine members of the Yorkshire Universities network.
After 630 applications, across 39 STEMM-related projects and 217 interviews (where all students get individual feedback and tips for future interviews) we chose our 44 students for 2025. These GenRes-ers will spend six to ten weeks being paid to work on research, technical, and science policy projects that are crucial to our UK STEMM industry, picking up skills such as large data set analysis, laboratory work, and project management across subjects including Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Medicine, and Technology.
The GenRes-ers this year will find themselves in York, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Durham, Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Yale and the Mayo Clinic in the US. We supported these projects this year through our collaborative relationships with research councils (White Rose BBSRC and DiMeN PhD doctoral award schemes), universities (York, Leeds, Leeds Beckett, and Sheffield), academic institutes and initiatives (MRC Mary Lyon Centre, Oxford, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, Fix Our Food, Bioimaging UK, Physics of Life), and private/charity sector (Biostatus, Sense About Science). We wouldn’t exist without these funding partners, the support of University of York who allowed us to build GenRes from scratch and the hard work of our GenRes family that consists of seven core volunteers from the University of York and approximately ten ‘Friends of GenRes’ who read applications for us and run interviews.
Find out more
GenerationResearch is looking for more partners to expand our network of placement opportunities, to enable us to meet demand from our applicants for experiences across Yorkshire and beyond. If you would like to explore how partnership with GenerationResearch can benefit your organisation, please reach out to us at: gen-res-project@york.ac.uk
You can also follow the GenRes LinkedIn page for regular updates and stories from students, visit the GenRes website, and read more in the case study spotlight on the Yorkshire Universities website: Case Study – Generation Research: paid technical research opportunities for students.
