Finance and Grants
Programme overview
We are excited to offer an opportunity for Year 12 students to gain hands-on experience within our Finance and Grants Department. This work experience placement will provide valuable insight into how financial operations support world-class research and ensure effective resource management across the Institute. Students will gain exposure to finance administration, budgeting processes, and procurement activities while developing key transferable skills such as numeracy, attention to detail, and teamwork.
What you will do
During the placement, students will have the chance to:
- Observe and Participate In:
- Assisting with day-to-day finance administration tasks, such as organizing supplier invoices, raising dummy invoices, and preparing expense claim forms (using non-personalized data).
- Supporting the team with data reconciliation exercises, such as matching mock expenditures to budgets using sample datasets.
- Shadowing team members as they process purchase orders and monitor account expenditures (GDPR-compliant scenarios only).
- Work Alongside Professionals To Learn About:
- How financial records are maintained and monitored to support research budgets and operations.
- The importance of budget reconciliation and variance analysis in keeping accounts balanced and accurate.
- How the procurement process ensures effective purchasing of resources, including raising and approving requisitions.
- Engage In Hands-On Projects:
- Supporting a dummy monthly reconciliation task using anonymized financial data, identifying discrepancies or variances in a simplified budget report.
- Assisting with invoice organization (mock documents) to better understand how supplier payments are processed.
- Participating in an introductory exercise on procurement, such as checking sample requisitions against guidelines and drafting purchase orders.
About the Finance and Grants team
Our team provides essential support to the Institute by managing financial resources, monitoring budgets, and ensuring smooth day-to-day financial operations. We work closely with scientists, Group Leaders, and administrative teams to:
- Process supplier invoices, expense claims, and internal/external payments.
- Reconcile accounts to ensure accurate expenditure reporting and avoid deficits.
- Manage procurement processes to support research needs efficiently.
Students will gain valuable exposure to financial operations in a research environment, building skills that are fundamental for careers in finance, accounting, or business administration.
What students did last year
To give you an idea, some of the tasks included:
- Assisting with mock data entry for supplier invoices and purchase orders.
- Supporting the team with a simplified monthly reconciliation exercise.
- Observing and learning about budget monitoring processes and how financial reports are generated.
- Participating in discussions on financial compliance and the role of accuracy in finance administration.
Risk Assessment:
| List of task | High risk | Medium risk | Low risk | Control measures |
| GDPR/confidential info accessed | X | We won’t allow access to any internal folders or systems. Students will be supervised at all times therefore unable to access restricted paper folders |