The primary aim of BIOL0041 is to enable students to gain a supervised, hands on, extended experience of research currently being undertaken in the Department of GEE (UCL) or affiliated institutions. BIOL0041 provides the opportunity to undertake a bespoke individual research project of 18 weeks duration, under the supervision of an academic in the Department of GEE (UCL) or affiliated institutions. The extended period of time that the student will have for BIOL0041 will enable them to focus more on their research questions, develop methods and carry out more refined and complex research work. It will also provide students a real-life experience of working in a research environment as they will be expected to work as part of a research team with members ranging from PhD students through to project supervisors. Projects can be based on experimental research in a wet or dry lab, and may include field work, theoretical or data analysis.

Learning Objectives

You will develop skills in experimental design, framing of research questions, planning the details and methods to answer the research questions and implementation of the actual practical work involved. You will also be expected to interpret your results and discuss these in the context of other published findings by surveying relevant scientific literature. You will also receive guidance on how to design experiments to test particular hypotheses, analyse results using statistics, and to write up your research in the style of a Masters level dissertation. You will be supported in how to present your project’s findings in both written and oral form and guided on how to organise your time in order to carry out and analyse your experiments within an 18-week period. The specific skills acquired will of course depend on the precise nature of your project. This module does not have lectures beyond an introductory lecture and a ‘how to write up your project’ lecture.

       Please note that you will be asked to indicate your preferred project titles from the list provided by the Project Tutor. Please note that the offered titles of projects to run in Year 4 will be         circulated in the spring term of Year 3. Students will select three preferred projects via a webform. You will be given the opportunity to meet with the supervisors prior to your selections         to discuss the details and potential choices of the experimental work for the project titles they have offered. This will assist you in establishing your preferences. Individual projects will           be allocated with the agreement of the potential supervisor and the Project Tutor.