Grants and Writing Resources for Imperial College London

Imperial students made up 13 of the 162 finalists at the Undergraduate of the Year Awards 2026. Two of them won their categories. A second-year Design Engineering student took the engineering award, and a second-year Computing student was named AI Innovator of the Year. Felix, Imperial's student newspaper since 1949, has won Newspaper of the Year at the Guardian Student Media Awards.

Summer Research for Undergraduates

Through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme, known as UROP, undergraduates work on research under an academic supervisor. Every UROP now comes with a bursary that the supervisor and host department arrange. For summer 2026, most of Imperial's UROP bursary schemes paid £424 a week for six to twelve weeks, including the Presidential UROP Bursary for Students of Black Heritage and the cross-faculty Imperial College UROP Award. Full-time degree students in any year can apply. Students who haven't held an award before get priority.

Scholarships and Prizes

President's PhD Scholarships cover full tuition, a stipend of £26,500 a year at 2026/27 rates, and £2,000 a year for consumables in the first three years, over three and a half years of doctoral study; 50 were offered for 2026/27. Applicants need an Imperial supervisor's agreement first. Research students can enter the annual Early Career Researcher Showcase, where presenters pitch their work to judges and visitors for first, second, and third place and a People's Choice Prize.

Work outside the classroom is recognised as well. The Student Awards for Outstanding Achievement go to students at any level whose extra-curricular work benefits the wider community, with up to six awards a year of £250 and an inscribed medal presented at graduation.

Writing Support

The Centre for Academic English runs writing and speaking workshops, self-paced online resources, and one-to-one coaching for Imperial students. Doctoral students get coaching and courses at each milestone, from the Early Stage Assessment to the viva and writing for publication. Every doctoral student also completes the Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement. Final-year research students who have started drafting can apply for the two-day Thesis Writing Retreat, run by the Early Career Researcher Institute with the Centre and Library Services, which pairs short talks with long writing stretches and one-to-one consultations with tutors.

Theses and Student Publishing

Research degree theses submitted for examination become open access in Spiral, Imperial's repository, though some are restricted to Imperial users. Imperial's guide to preparing your thesis for submission to Spiral covers the Creative Commons licence and links to how to request an embargo. Student journalists write for Felix, Imperial's student newspaper since 1949. It won Newspaper of the Year at the Guardian Student Media Awards.

For a final edit before submission, our PhD-level editors work with Imperial students at every level. See our Imperial College London dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.