Energy Futures Lab Excellence Scholarship

Eligibility criteria

The candidate must meet at least one of the criteria below to be considered for this scholarship. As we expect to receive many more applications than places, successful applications would normally meet more than one:

• You have been in public care for a minimum of three months since the age of 11 and will be under the age of 25 on the course start date. Time spent in care could refer to foster care, residential care (mainly children’s homes) or other arrangements outside the immediate or extended family.
• You're from a low-income background evidenced by receipt of a maintenance grant and/or a higher rate of maintenance loan during undergraduate studies. Consideration will be given to the number of years that a maintenance grant was received and the amount awarded, or the rate of maintenance loan received (if you started your undergraduate course following the phasing out of maintenance grants).
• You come from one of the most deprived areas of the UK as indicated by ACORN and LPN data. This is based on home postcode before attending university. 
• You are/were in receipt of a Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) as part of your undergraduate studies or are receiving/received support from your undergraduate university’s disability office.
• You have been recognised as a refugee or asylum seeker or been granted humanitarian protection status by the UK government, or are the partner or child of someone who has been granted refugee, asylum seeker or humanitarian protection status.
• You regard yourself as being of African or Caribbean origin – for example, ‘Black British’, ‘Black-African’, ‘Black-Caribbean’, or ‘Other Black’ background. This includes people of Mixed heritage.
• You are a carer. We define a carer as anyone who has a commitment to providing unpaid care to a family member or friend who couldn't cope without their support. This may be due to illness, disability, a mental health issue or substance misuse. A caring responsibility may be short term (such as supporting someone with their recovery following an accident) or long term (such as helping someone with a long term illness).

You consider yourself estranged from your family (not supported by your family). We define estranged students as under 25 and studying without the support of a family network. You'd usually have been assessed as independent by Student Finance due to estrangement and/or:

• You've had no communicative relationship with your parents/guardians for at least six months and this situation isn't likely to change;
• You've been homeless or ‘sofa surfing’;
• You've been in foster or local authority care but aren't classed as a care-leaver;
• Both of your parents have passed away and you have no alternative family support in place.

Application process

No application is required for this scholarship and it will be awarded on academic merit. Shortlisted applicants may be invited for an interview, possibly by MS Teams. The decision should be made by the end of July 2025.

Applicants for this scholarship need to first apply online for the MSc Sustainable Energy Futures course (H9A1) and receive a College ID number. Once an admission offer is made then email a statement to mscinsef@imperial.ac.uk outlining how you meet the scholarship criteria. The deadline for submission is 1 June 2025.

Shortlisted applicants may be invited for an interview, possibly by MS Teams, and will be notified by email as soon as possible after the deadline. The decision should be made by the end of July 2025.

Additional information

This scholarship is aimed at helping Home (UK) students from underrepresented groups access our Sustainable Energy Future course. This studentship covers the full home tuition fee and a bursary of up to £9,000, which, in combination with postgraduate loans, is expected to enable a candidate to fully fund this one-year full-time course. A number of criteria must be met in order to be eligible for this scholarship. Please note if there are more eligible applications than places, meeting the criteria is no guarantee of an award.

 

Contact

If you have any additional questions, please contact us at mscinsef@imperial.ac.uk.