Opportunities Fund

Below are some examples of what we may fund, however if you have an opportunity which doesn’t fall directly under these categories, please feel free to apply anyway so that we can assess your case. 
 

Examples of activities we would support  

• Internships, Work Experience and Volunteering Opportunities
• UEROP/IROP Undergraduate Research Opportunity Project / International Research Opportunity Project *excludes living costs while taking on an UROP
• Attendance at conferences (virtual or in person)
• Accessing Imperial events
• Field trips
• Attendance at an interview or assessment centre
• Attendance at a career insight day
• Attendance at a network event in your field of study/ chosen career area
• Short courses/ training
• Club or society activities
• Attendance at graduation 
   

What we may fund 

• Travel costs  
• Clothing (e.g smart clothes for an interview)  
• Attendance fees for courses, conferences or residential training events  
• Accommodation costs associated with a work experience/placement opportunity  
• Subscriptions/ professional body memberships
• On course materials (not laptops)
• ‘Hidden’ costs associated with your course 

Applications must be made via the Underrepresented Students Opportunities Fund Form where you will be asked for details about what you’re applying for, how it will benefit you, and evidence for it (see below). You must be logged into your personal Imperial email account to use the form. 

Before your application is processed, you must have already registered with our service and met with one of our advisors to confirm your eligibility. You can access the URSS Registration Form here. 

Once you have submitted an application and have had your eligibility confirmed, applications will be reviewed within 3 working weeks, however we aim to provide a decision quicker than this in most cases. 

If you haven’t provided adequate information in your application and/or we need to contact you to discuss your application, it may take longer to provide a decision on your application. 

We require some form of evidence of what the money will be used for. Some examples of what we would accept as evidence are listed below, the list is not exhaustive and if you are not sure what evidence to provide, please contact us to discuss.  

• An email confirming your attendance at an event
• An email from someone from your department confirming your participation in an opportunity within the department
• An email containing an interview invitation
• Photo or email containing tickets
• Photo of what you have bought 

If you receive funding for an opportunity from us, we will ask that you complete a short review to confirm how you spent the fund at a later date after reviewing it.

The deadline for providing this review will depend on when your opportunity is completing/taking place and you will be told this when you receive the fund.

Until you’ve submitted the review, you will not be able to submit another application to the Opportunities Fund.  

You can apply for up to £500 per academic year. Amounts requested above £500 will be considered on a case-by-case basis.  

Yes, if you make one successful application for less than £500, we will consider future applications until your total has reached £500. An academic year runs from 1st August to 31st July the following calendar year. 

We encourage applying for the Fund as far in advance as possible before the opportunity starts, but please wait until the opportunity is fully confirmed (with evidence) before making an application. If your opportunity has already happened in this academic year (since 1 August 2024) then you can make an application to cover expenditure already incurred.  

We will consider applications relating to studying/ working/ volunteering abroad.  
We can only fund activities which can go through and be signed off by the university’s Risk Assessment process for activity abroad. We will contact you with more information about this if you apply. 

In your application to the Fund, you’ll be asked to provide UK bank account details. If your application is successful, you’ll receive payment to this bank account via bank transfer within 7 working days of receiving a successful decision. 

If you have any more questions before submitting your application, please email us at urs-support@imperial.ac.uk and a member of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.