Biology super-curriculars: every competition, placement and programme worth knowing about
29 August 2026, for the 2026–27 cycle. Dates move every year, so confirm anything here on the official page before you plan around it.
If you are applying for Natural Sciences at Cambridge, or Biomedical Sciences, Biochemistry or Biology at Oxford, somebody will have told you to do super-curricular work. What they tend not to mention is that most of the best opportunities cost nothing, and that a lot of them stay invisible unless a teacher at your school already knows they exist.
So here is the list. What is actually out there for biology applicants in the UK, when each thing opens, and what you will need to ask a teacher for.
- Free biology competitions
- Research placements and lab experience
- University access programmes
- Independent projects and awards
- Free resources you can use today
- What you need to ask your teacher for
- A rough calendar
- Questions I get asked
Free biology competitions
Cambridge Biology Challenge
Who: Years 10–13 in England and Wales, Y11–14 in Northern Ireland, S3–S6 in Scotland · Cost: free · homerton.cam.ac.uk
Run by Homerton College, Cambridge. Teams work through questions released across the year and climb a national leaderboard, with webinars from Cambridge scientists along the way and prizes that include a visit to Cambridge.
It deserves more attention than it gets, because it is built around the kind of question Oxbridge asks, interviews included. Very little else in biology gives you that from Year 10 at no cost.
In the 2025–26 cycle the first question went out on 20 October. The 2026–27 round had not been announced when I wrote this, so watch the page from September and register your interest early, because sign-ups are contacted on a rolling basis.
Homerton also runs a Bioinformatics Booster Programme, which is even less well known.
British Biology Olympiad
Who: Y12 and Y13 in England and Wales, Y13 and Y14 in Northern Ireland, S5 and S6 in Scotland · When: January · Cost: free to UK schools · ukbiologycompetitions.org
Two 45-minute multiple choice papers, sat online at school, either together or separately. The papers deliberately include material you will not have met, because what they are measuring is whether you can reason from core principles rather than whether you revised.
Everyone who takes part gets a certificate and eligibility for free BioNet membership of the Royal Society of Biology. Gold award winners go into selection for the UK team at the International Biology Olympiad.
The catch is registration. Your school has to sign up, and if nobody has, you cannot enter as an individual.
Intermediate Biology Olympiad
Who: first year of post-16 study, so Year 12 · When: usually June · Cost: free to UK schools · ukbiologycompetitions.org
The stepping stone to the BBO. Sit this in June of Year 12 and the BBO the following January, and you have something to say about how your thinking changed between the two, which interests an admissions tutor a good deal more than a certificate on its own.
Biology Challenge
Who: ages 13–15 · Cost: free to UK schools · ukbiologycompetitions.org
School topics, problem solving and general natural history. Worth passing on to younger siblings, and to the Year 9 and 10 students who already know biology is their thing.
All three of those are run by UK Biology Competitions, a registered charity, and all three are free to UK schools.
BioArtAttack and the Nancy Rothwell Prize
Who: ages 7–18, worldwide · When: entries usually close in early July · rsb.org.uk
A Royal Society of Biology drawing and painting competition. The Nancy Rothwell Prize is the specimen drawing category, where entries need labels and descriptions on the artwork itself. Winners get a cash prize and an invitation to an experience day at the Royal Veterinary College.
It is easy to write this off as the soft option. I would not. Specimen drawing is real biological observation, and a labelled drawing you made yourself is a much more concrete thing to talk about than a book you skimmed.
Research placements and lab experience
Nuffield Research Placements
Who: Year 12 or S5 at state-funded UK schools · When: applications from late November, placements in July and August · Cost: free, with bursaries available · nuffieldfoundation.org
The strongest single thing on this page. Four to six weeks over the summer on a real project with real researchers, at a university, research institute, company or charity, ending in a written report and a poster.
You need at least five GCSEs at grade 6 or B and above, including maths, a science, and English or another humanities subject, plus at least one widening participation criterion: free school meals, low household income, first in the family to consider higher education, and similar. Regional coordinators run the process and deadlines vary by region.
What makes it worth the paperwork is that one placement generates three separate things you can point at. There is the placement itself, then a Gold CREST Award built out of the report, then a Big Bang Competition entry. Nuffield's own evaluation found that 32% of participants went on to a STEM course at a Russell Group institution, against 25% of comparable students who did not take part.
Some placements are hosted at the Francis Crick Institute, though getting onto the Nuffield programme does not guarantee you a Crick placement.
In2STEM
Who: Year 12 or S5–S6, studying at least one STEM A-level or equivalent · When: summer, with applications earlier in the academic year · Cost: free, with a travel and lunch bursary · in2scienceuk.org
Run by In2scienceUK. One to two weeks in person with a STEM professional, plus online workshops and public engagement competitions. Past placements have covered virology, zoology, neuroscience, rheumatology and ecology among many others, and placements are matched within commutable distance.
The eligibility criteria look much like Nuffield's: low household income, free school meals, EMA, Pupil Premium, the 16–19 Bursary, or no parent with a degree. You need a teacher reference, and admission is competitive. A placement can be turned into a CREST Award submission afterwards.
The 2026 programme ran from 20 July to 21 August, so expect a similar window, and run the eligibility checker before you start an application.
University access programmes
UNIQ, University of Oxford
Who: Year 12 at UK state schools and colleges · When: applications mid-December to mid-January · Cost: free, including travel, accommodation and meals · uniq.ox.ac.uk
A subject-specific residential week in Oxford taught by Oxford academics, plus regional events and online contact through the year. There are biology, biochemistry and biomedical sciences strands.
Priority goes to students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and from areas with low progression to higher education. It is heavily oversubscribed. Medicine sees hundreds of applications for around eighty residential places, and a rejection from UNIQ tells you nothing at all about your chances of an Oxford offer.
UNIQ 2027 was not open when I wrote this, and details are expected later in 2026. Join the mailing list so the reminder finds you, because late applications are not accepted.
Sutton Trust summer schools, including Cambridge
Who: Year 12, Y13 in Northern Ireland, S5, at state-funded schools · When: applications early in the year, Cambridge deadline typically February · Cost: free · summerschools.suttontrust.com
Free subject-specific residentials at Cambridge and eleven other selective universities. The Cambridge one is five days with around twenty hours of academic contact in your chosen department. Some partner universities give contextual consideration to students who complete a summer school.
Watch the eligibility layers. There are the standard Sutton Trust criteria, and then for Cambridge an additional Sutton Trust Online eligibility check. Applications for 2026 have closed and the Cambridge page says to check back in January 2027, but you can register interest now.
Cambridge subject masterclasses
Shorter subject-specific events that give you a taste of undergraduate study, genetics among them. Much lower commitment than a residential, and much less competitive.
Independent projects and awards
CREST Gold Award
Who: typically 16–19 for Gold · When: no deadline, assessed year-round · Cost: a per-student application fee, free in Scotland · crestawards.org
Gold is roughly seventy hours of independent STEM investigation, marked by trained assessors. Because there is no submission window it fits around whatever else you are doing, and if you have done a Nuffield or In2STEM placement, most of the work already exists.
The Big Bang Competition
Who: ages 11–18 · When: online submission, prizes at the national event in June · crestawards.org
The British Science Association and EngineeringUK let you submit one project for both a CREST Award and the Big Bang Competition. If you have a project, submit it to both.
The EPQ
Not a programme you apply to, but the most underused thing on this list. An EPQ on a genuinely open biological question, one where you had to weigh conflicting evidence instead of summarising a consensus, gives you something to be interviewed about that nobody else in the room has.
Free resources you can use today
Nothing to apply for, no eligibility criteria, no teacher required.
- HE+, from Cambridge. Super-curricular material written by Cambridge students and academics, with activities and reflective questions rather than another reading list.
- Oxford's list of academic competitions for schools, maintained by the university itself and so more reliable than most aggregated lists.
What you need to ask your teacher for
This is the part that decides who actually gets access, and it is rarely spelled out.
Things your school has to register for. The Biology Challenge, the Intermediate Biology Olympiad and the British Biology Olympiad all need a school to sign up. They are free, but if nobody at your school has registered, you cannot sit them. One email to your head of biology usually covers it, since registration is free to UK schools and takes very little doing.
Things that need a teacher reference. Nuffield Research Placements and In2STEM both require a nominated teacher to complete a reference through an online system, often to a separate and earlier deadline than your own. Ask early, and tell them the date.
Things you can do entirely on your own. BioArtAttack, CREST, an EPQ, HE+, and reading. If your school is not set up for any of the above, these are all still open to you.
If you are the first person at your school to ask about any of this, you are not being difficult. You are doing the thing the system quietly assumes somebody has already done for you.
A rough calendar
| September–October | Cambridge Biology Challenge sign-ups; ask school to register for the UK Biology Competitions papers |
|---|---|
| Late November | Nuffield Research Placements applications open |
| Mid-December to mid-January | UNIQ applications |
| January | British Biology Olympiad |
| January–February | Sutton Trust summer school applications, Cambridge deadline in February |
| Spring | Biology Challenge; In2STEM applications |
| June | Intermediate Biology Olympiad; Big Bang national event |
| Early July | BioArtAttack and Nancy Rothwell entries close |
| July–August | Nuffield and In2STEM placements; UNIQ and Sutton Trust residentials |
| Any time | CREST Award, EPQ, HE+ |
Questions I get asked
Do I need super-curriculars to get into Oxbridge for biology?
You need evidence that you have engaged with biology beyond your A-level syllabus, and that you have your own thoughts about what you found. A named programme is one convenient way to produce that evidence. It is not the only way, and a certificate you cannot talk about is worth less than a book you argued with.
How many should I do?
Three to five threads with real depth beats a list of ten. Admissions tutors can ask you about anything you mention, so only include things you would be glad to discuss for ten minutes.
Are the free ones as good as the paid ones?
For Oxbridge biology, almost everything genuinely valuable on this page is free. Paid summer schools carry very little weight by comparison, and admissions tutors know which programmes select on merit or need and which select on ability to pay.
What if I am at a private school?
UNIQ, Sutton Trust, Nuffield and In2STEM are all restricted to state school or widening participation applicants. The UK Biology Competitions papers, BioArtAttack, CREST, the Big Bang Competition, HE+ and the Cambridge Biology Challenge are open to you.
I have missed a deadline. What now?
Most of these run annually, so note when the next cycle opens. In the meantime start something with no deadline at all: a CREST Gold, an EPQ, or a reading thread you follow somewhere unexpected.
300 ESAT Biology questions, free
If Cambridge, Oxford or Imperial is on your list, the ESAT is the other half of the job.
- Ten skills the Biology module keeps testing, one section each
- Stepped difficulty, so you start where you are and work up
- Answers included, with the reasoning rather than just the letter
Prefer email? Message me at brightfieldadmissions@gmail.com and I'll send the PDF straight over.
Written by Flora, who teaches this. More about me, or email me a question.