the
CCIR Pre-PhD
Research Programme
Build Your Advantage for a Career in Academia
The CCIR Pre-PhD Research Programme is a fully online, non-residential, and highly selective seven-month programme offering intensive one-on-one research mentorship from a current faculty member at an Oxbridge or Ivy League institution.
Each year, CCIR admits a small cohort of academically exceptional students who aspire to pursue serious academic research in leading PhD programmes and to distinguish themselves within the academic communities.
Admission to top PhD programmes is increasingly competitive worldwide. Therefore, CCIR helps aspiring researchers build a distinctive academic profile. Through rigorous research preparation, advanced inquiry, and original intellectual work, students can strengthen their preparation for future academic study.
Watch this video to learn more about the 1-on-1 Research Mentorship programme.
The Programme Structure & Outcomes
One Student. One Faculty Advisor.
One Project in 7 Months.
Through personalised academic guidance and rigorous research training, each student develops a project that reflects their interests and academic goals. In addition, students can explore publication opportunities when their research is ready.
Conference / Journal Publication Guidance
Our academic team draws on years of experience helping students publish in leading journals and conferences. We guide each student through the publication process and help them understand the requirements for submitting their research.
Signed Evaluation Report
Upon request, CCIR issues a formal evaluation report prepared by the student’s Oxbridge or Ivy League faculty advisor.
Letter of Reference (Upon Request)
Students may receive a letter of reference from their faculty advisor that reflects their research engagement, academic growth, and performance throughout the programme.
Research Mentorship from current
Oxbridge and Ivy League Teaching Faculty
Students work one-on-one with a faculty advisor from Oxbridge and Ivy League institutions, gaining direct insight into the standards, expectations, and research culture of world-leading universities.
All CCIR faculty advisors are current faculty members at Oxford, Cambridge, Ivy League institutions, Stanford, or MIT.
Download
the Fall 2026
Prospectus for
• Programme structure
• Research course catalogue
• Mentor biographies
• Tuition & Scholarship
Publication
Over the years, CCIR alumni have developed an impressive publication record in leading journals and conferences. As an institution, our mission is to cultivate the next generation of scholars and intellectual leaders whose work contributes meaningfully to academia and society.
Diverse areas of research
Endless possibilities
In the past our students have embarked on mentorship experiences in the following areas:
- Architecture
- Artificial Intelligence
- Astrophysics
- Biochemistry
- Bioinformatics
- Business Management
- Computer Vision
- Economics
- European History
- International Relations
- Machine Learning
- Philosophy
- Political Economy
- Pure Mathematics
- Sociology
- US History
Conducting In-person Research
at CCIR Lab in Boston
The Cambridge Centre for International Research (CCIR) is proud to announce the opening of the CCIR Lab in Boston, surrounded by R&D centers of Pfizer, Novartis, and the MIT campus.
Starting in Spring 2025, current and future CCIR student researchers from both the Cambridge Future Scholar Research Programme and the 1-on-1 Research Mentorship Programme will be able to conduct their own research and experiments (or choose from a list of pre-approved experiments), at the state-of-the-art lab near the campus of MIT and major biotechnology hubs.
CCIR student researchers can reserve the CCIR Lab in Boston through the CCIR Academics Team at no additional cost.
CCIR’s PhD level lab managers will also be on site to supervise each student researcher’s project.
Located in the vibrant Kendall Square, the CCIR Lab in Boston is situated next to the R&D center of global pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Novartis, Google’s Boston office, and the iconic MIT Great Dome, on the busy Main Street in Cambridge, MA.
Founded in 1832, the building have became home of a host of innovations of technology advancement, including the original birthplace of Polaroid and the world’s first long distance phone call between Thomas Watson and Alexander Graham Bell.
With millions of new funding from leading life sciences corporate sponsors (including Johnson & Johnson, Biogen, Pfizer, and Bayer), the lab has become a hub of innovation for mostly Harvard and MIT affiliated startups. Recent ventures at the lab included Affinivax, later acquired by GSK for $3.3 billion for its groundbreaking vaccine design.
For nearly 200 years, this facility has been the forefront of driving revolutionary advancements in life sciences.
Exceptional Graduate School Placement
Through rigorous research training and close faculty mentorship, CCIR alumni have earned admission to some of the world’s most prestigious graduate programmes.
Our alumni have progressed to graduate programmes at institutions such as Harvard University, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, and Cambridge. In addition, alumni have pursued career opportunities at international organisations such as the United Nations and companies such as UBS and Meta.
Admissions
How to Apply
Step 1
Intake Meeting
First schedule 30-minute Intake Meeting with our Academic Coordinator. This will serve not only as a programme info session. As we get to know you and your intellectual aspirations, we are kicking off the course design process.
Step 2
Submit Application Form
Next, complete and submit the required application form and documentation.
Step 3
Interview
Qualified applicants will be invited to an interview with one of our Academic Advisors. Here, you will meet a current PhD candidate from either Cambridge or Oxford with expertise in your stated areas of academic interest.
The purpose of this interview is twofold: to evaluate your academic background and to help you further articulate your academic interests.
Step 4
Mentor Research & Introductory Meeting
Our team draws on its network of Oxbridge researchers to identify a suitable mentor. We share your application materials and the recording of your advising session with potential mentors.
If there is an interested mentor, we will then arrange a 30-minute Introductory Meeting between you and your mentor, where you will get to know each other and finalize the direction of your research.
Eligibility
The CCIR Pre-PhD Research Programme is designed for academically ambitious applicants who are preparing for advanced graduate study and serious scholarly work.
Applicants must meet one of the following criteria:
- Current undergraduate or master’s student
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree holder
- Working professional with a strong academic or research background and a completed bachelor’s degree
The programme is open to global applicants. For more on admissions and pairing with a faculty advisor, please see below.
Tuition / External Funding Opportunities
The full tuition for the CCIR Pre-PhD Research Programme is £5,550 / US$6,950 for the full seven-month programme, before any external funding is applied.
To support access for qualified students, flexible instalment plans ranging from 6 to 36 months are available through our banking partner. These plans, including interest-free options, are currently available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Non-U.S. applicants may be eligible by applying with a U.S. co-signer.
Applicants are encouraged to explore additional external funding resources, including, but not limited to:
- Sigma Xi Grants in Aid of Research
- Rotary Scholarships
- IEFA International Scholarships Database
Applicants are also encouraged to explore funding support through their current university, department, college, or employer. Many universities offer academic enrichment funds, research development grants, professional development budgets, or discretionary funding for students pursuing advanced research training. Where appropriate, CCIR can work with a student’s university to provide supporting documentation for funding applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our students come from all around the world and we have become extremely good at coordinating schedules that work for everyone. At the start of every course, we will hammer out the logistics to make sure that we can find a time that works perfectly for everyone involved.
Every video conferencing session will be hosted by a CCIR operations team member. You are welcome to raise the issue through chat at any time. You can also send an email to support@cambridge-research.org, which is monitored at all times during active sessions.
Yes. Every session will be recorded and made available after class. You can access them via an unlisted playlist on YouTube or your Learning Management System.
The only requirements are the Internet (Zoom or compatible browser), front-facing camera, and microphone. Some courses may require specific softwares to be installed. Your mentor and TA will do their best to help you install those softwares.
A number of things differentiate CCIR Academy from other programmes:
IVY-LEAGUE / OXBRIDGE FACULTY AND TEAM
We only partner with current teaching faculty members at top-tier US/UK universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, Yale, Dartmouth, and Princeton.
We are also an organisation currently run by Oxbridge students and alumni. Throughout the admission process, every single point of contact an applicant interacts with will be either a current Oxbridge student (PhD or above) or an Oxbridge alumni.
A FOCUS ON PUBLICATION
The goal of CCIR Academy is to push every student to publish their independent research paper to at least an undergraduate or industry level journal or conference. We do not recommend students to publish at predatory pay-for-publish journals or high school level journals. Each student can enjoy the vast research and publication resource that CCIR has to offer, which includes free access to academic database and targeted publication support. As a result, we have great success in having high school students to publish at some undergraduate or even industry level journals and conferences.
SMALL GROUP TEACHING/INTIMATE MENTORSHIP
At the heart of our programmes is the relationship between students and their mentors. For our Cambridge Future Scholar Research Programme, our class is limited to no more than 5 students. The small classes ensure ample interaction and thought provoking discussions always take place at each session.
RESEARCH-ORIENTED LEARNING
Unlike lecture-only programmes, where students learn passively, our programmes emphasize on hand-on research. This kind of project based learning allows students to really dive into the subject and learn in an independent and autonomous manner.
HIGH ACADEMIC STANDARDS
Our commitment to maintaining the highest academic standards is reflected in our admissions, our courses, and in the expectations we have on our students. All our programmes are meant to be genuinely challenging and enriching academic experiences for our students.
Most importantly, by the end of your time at a CCIR programme, you will have completed a substantive independent research project. In certain cases, under the guidance of the mentors and our team, your research project will also be published in academic journals or presented at conferences. All our CCIR programmes award graduation certificates and in-depth evaluation reports. Finally, you will have fostered a close personal relationship with a Oxbridge faculty member from whom you can request a letter of recommendation.
Because of the academic rigor and the small size of our programmes, we are able to deliver an experience for our students that is at once fun and academically enriching. Over the course of the programme, as students work with one another and with the faculty, they will develop relationships that will push them both personally and intellectually.
All our students have the option of requesting letters of recommendation from their mentors. While we cannot guarantee letters of recommendation, we can say that in the past, because our admitted students are all capable and passion at, not a single student who has requested a letter of recommendation has had their request denied.
Attending CCIR may improve your chances in college/graduate admissions in a number of ways. Most importantly, CCIR offers you a great opportunity to produce and possibly even publish a genuinely impressive piece of academic work. In addition, since you will be interacting intimately with your Oxbridge mentor over a long period of time, your mentor will also likely become an excellent referee for you in the admissions process.
Generally speaking, our programmes consist of roughly 1-2 hours of face-to-face interaction hours per week. In addition to the class time, students will be expected to do readings and write essays. On average, including interaction hours, students are expected to devote a total of roughly 4 hours a week for their programme.
All CCIR Academy programmes are conducted online with the support of multiple platforms — video conferencing, learning management systems, etc.
Detailed tuition information, including merit scholarship opportunities, can be found in our programme prospectus.
Most importantly, your tuition covers supervisions, lectures, and additional weekly one-on-one office hours (30 minutes), if requested. Additionally, your tuition covers your access to Cambridge or Oxford’s academic database (via mentor), Data collection guidance (by the mentor), academic journal submission guidance (by the mentor and CCIR Academic Team), and academic support both during the course of the programme and in the follow up (when you need to request letters and evaluations).
To get more information about our programmes, the best way is to download our prospectus through the “Download Prospectus” button on bottom right. If you have more specific questions, please contact our Admissions Team at admissions@cambridge-research.org. If you’re a counselor or a teacher interested in collaborating with our programme, contact Oliver, our Director of Outreach at oliver@cambridge-research.org.
The programme is designed for academically ambitious university students and recent graduates who are considering applying to highly selective PhD programmes and pursuing a career in academia or research. It is particularly suitable for students who want to strengthen their research experience and receive personalised academic guidance.
Applications are reviewed holistically. We consider your academic background, research interests, previous experience, motivation, and long-term academic goals. Applicants should demonstrate intellectual curiosity, academic ambition, and a strong commitment to completing an advanced research project.
Previous research experience is helpful but not required. Students who have not yet completed a formal research project are still encouraged to apply. Your mentor will support you in developing a focused research question and learning the research methods relevant to your field.
No. GRE scores are not required for admission to the programme. However, if you have already taken the GRE, you are welcome and encouraged to include your scores in your application.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year. However, places are limited and mentor availability varies by research areas, so we recommend applying as early as possible.
There is no need to prepare extensively or feel stressed about the interview. The interview is conversational and allows us to learn more about your academic background, research interests, and academic aspirations. You should be prepared to discuss the subjects or research questions that interest you.
In a word: quite. We aim to challenge you academically and intellectually. However, you will be closely guided and thoroughly supported throughout the process. We also understand that students and working professionals have other commitments, so your mentor will help ensure that the workload remains manageable.
Depending on your project, data collection may take several forms. For example, survey-based research may be appropriate for projects in the social sciences. Other projects may use existing open-source datasets or data requested from other researchers. Your mentor will help you determine the most appropriate and feasible approach for your research.
Yes. Many life sciences projects can be completed using existing datasets, computational methods, literature-based analysis, or publicly available research resources. Your mentor can help you develop the scientific computing, data analysis, and research skills required for this type of project.
Please note that CCIR also has a laboratory facility in Boston. Access may be available for projects requiring experimental work, subject to the project’s requirements, mentor supervision, laboratory capacity, and applicable safety regulations.
Our programmes adopt a research-based learning methodology, supplemented by more traditional forms of teaching and academic supervision when necessary. The programme centres on personalised mentorship, independent research, and regular discussion with your mentor. This approach helps students develop critical thinking, research, and academic communication skills while completing a substantial research project.