Typically, a summer school will start Monday morning and end Friday lunchtime with an afternoon off during the week. We request that, in each school, there is a ‘core’ curriculum which the hosts can then add to with topical lectures perhaps reflecting their own group’s activities, have hands-on activities and schedule student talks.
STFC’s own guidance reads: “Courses or schools must be held in a core research activity supported by the STFC studentships programme (astronomy, solar system science, particle astrophysics, particle physics, nuclear physics) and must be aimed primarily at STFC-funded PhD students. Courses of a specialist technical nature will not be supported.” Our schools therefore fall within this remit.
The organisers of each school need to put in an application to STFC about a year before the summer school. We strongly recommend contacting the previous organizers for information and advice. Please note that funding is increasingly competitive and is not guaranteed.
Bids are normally to be submitted as an e-mail attachment to, by 1 October in the year before the summer school. The points of contact are Clare Heseltine and Susan Blackwell in the STFC Studentships office, contactable at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .