Companies

What this involves

In the final or penultimate year of their degree, students undertake a lengthy individual project. Wouldn’t it be great if you could easily collaborate with them on a topic that could be useful to your organisation? 

That’s exactly what we’re here for – we support you in scoping your project and advertise it to students nationally, leaving you to choose the right student and advise them throughout the process. 

Be it development of a product or strategy, analysis of data, a feasibility study, or something else, there will be a student with the skills to help!

How will it benefit my organisation?

There are so many benefits!

Faster Progress – get ahead of the game and get those interesting extra projects done

Increased Innovation – students bring the theory and methods from university to give you a new viewpoint

Improved Awareness – raise awareness of your organisation among the student body as a potential future employer

New Ties – form links to a universities’ teaching and research environments for future opportunities

Better Recruitment – try before you buy and improve recruitment through a new insight into the knowledge of students from various degree programmes 

What do I need to provide?

This project forms a large part of a student’s degree, and as such, there are things it must provide to meet the requirements of university examiners, as well as things you must do to ensure the student is supported.

Match your expectations

An investment is required from both you and the student – in time, planning, and commitment. Students will have a project supervisor from their university who will provide advice on the general processes related to completing the project, and they will also require a supervisor from your organisation, from whom they can ask specific questions related to the project content. We highly recommend holding regular online meetings with the student for at least half an hour per month, but the more you put in, the more you get out. 

Resources

It is assumed that in the majority of cases, projects will be performed entirely remotely. When submitting a project, you need to have a plan in place for how the student will access any files, data, or computer software they will require. For example, will you provide a laptop, can they remote in to your system? It is important to note that it is likely that students cannot use software licences provided by their university for commercial purposes, and may not be able to download certain software on their personal laptop.

We do not provide any funding for this programme, and any costs incurred by the student will be the responsibility of of the company to cover. There is no requirement to pay the student a salary as the project is a compulsory part of their degree.

Read the handbook below for details on everything you need to provide.

Scheme Handbook

Everything you need to know about this scheme is provided in this handbook. Please read it carefully and get in touch if you have any questions.

PDF version: Link

Propose a project

Projects can be proposed on a rolling basis, however, for you to have the best chance of finding a suitable student, we recommend following the typical university semester and project timelines, roughly outlined below.

The project should enable students to show proficiency in research, design, and/or analytical skills relevant to advanced work in the discipline. Students need to be able to tell a story at the end of it, through the report and presentation they submit to their university. 

Once you have read the handbook above, submit your project through this form. The form assists you in scoping your project, though you may want to describe how the project scope could be shortened or extended to cover the variation in project module logistics across different universities. After we’ve checked the project is suitable and that your advert covers everything, we’ll upload it and send you the link.

By default, IP for projects is vested in the student doing the project, though you may wish to set up your own IP arrangements with the student/university.

GROUP PROJECT OPPORTUNITY: Following successful collaborative projects in the previous years we are again advertising the opportunity to propose a project for a group of motivated Physics students at Lancaster University. Read more details here and contact us at spaceprojects@ukseds.org if interested.

Student selection

After the student application deadline has passed, we will send you the applications for your project. If you wish, we can conduct an initial selection process to narrow down your applicants to three or more. After this, the final selection is down to you.

Once you have selected your student(s), we will provide a template project agreement for you and the student to fill in.

The process

Testimonials

“We enjoyed giving the students the chance to work on an entirely new topic for them and seeing them grow over the course of the project. I believe students should be more exposed to industrial projects like this from the very start of their courses, in order to be better prepared for the world of work once they graduate. SpaceProjects.uk is doing a great service helping them bridge that gap.” 

Lorenzo Conti, Founder of CROVER, who worked with students on the project “A CROVER robot for subterranean regolith sampling/exploration on Mars and other planets”.

“Thanks to SpaceProjects.uk we met Rebecca, who passionately explored the various challenges related to our space research mission concepts. After aligning a search profile for our project, SpaceProjects.uk introduced us to several interesting candidates. With Rebecca we expected the best match the best and we are very happy with her way of working and the results.”

Edgert Edelbroek, CEO of SpaceBorn United, who work with a student on the project “Bio Satellite Sample Recovery Sub-System Design”.

“I’m very thankful for the connection SpaceProjects.uk made through this project. As we are getting various customers with very weird and wonderful mission types, this is where Abdul’s dedication in this field will be really useful and we are planning to give him the experiences to grow his talent.”

Keval Dattani, Founder of Space Power, who worked with a student on the project “Space Based Solar Power Orbital Simulations”.

Contact us

You can reach us at spaceprojects@ukseds.org if you have any questions.