An opportunity for UKRI-funded doctoral students to undertake a three-month internship at one of a selected group of influential policy organisations, as part of the existing doctoral studentship.
This opportunity is only open to existing doctoral students funded by the research councils of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) (AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC and STFC).
The funding details will depend on the student’s research council, and which host partner is chosen. Some research councils provide additional funding to cover internships costs while students of other research councils should access funds from their existing training grant.
Internships are available with 16 host partners:
- Cabinet Office
- Department for Education
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Northern Ireland
- Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
- Government Office for Science
- Home Office
- Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government
- Ministry of Justice
- Northern Ireland Assembly
- Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
- Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe)
- Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament
- UK Health Security Agency
Further information about each of the host partners and the internships offered by each is available in the Host partner information document (PDF, 351KB)
For full details, see the UKRI Policy Internship 2026 web pages.