Category: Career Opportunities, Internships & Volunteering

Volunteer as a Judge for Speaking for Tomorrow 2026

Volunteer as a Judge for Speaking for Tomorrow 2026!
Speaking for Tomorrow is happening on 7 February 2026 at Imperial. Secondary and sixth form students will present their ideas on global sustainability challenges across subjects like Engineering, Medicine, Computer Science, and Economics. The team are looking for staff volunteers to serve as judges and help guide these young innovators. Flexible time slots are available throughout the day. Why not get involved to spark change, connect with industry leaders, and inspire the next generation!

Sign up here: https://forms.gle/aqZZwEHRQvmjXrj6A (closes 23 January)

For questions, contact: sustainapod@gmail.com. You can also see a recap of last year’s event on LinkedIn.

NIHR Career Development Event: Thriving in Transition: 29 January

The third NIHR career development hybrid event for post-doctoral researchers titled “Thriving in Transition”, will be held between 10am and 4.00pm on Thursday 29th January in Central Manchester.

The event will cover:

  • A panel talking about navigating transition
  • Breakouts covering research identity and visibility
  • Talks on transitioning knowledge to change
  • The chance to meet and network with others at a similar career stage

Planned by a group at this career stage, the day-long hybrid conference will support post-doctoral researchers from all fields of health and social care research to successfully navigate this pivotal, and sometimes challenging, stage of their career.

The event will be open to any researchers at a postdoctoral career stage or in the final year of their PhD interested in pursuing their career with NIHR. If the event is oversubscribed, in-person places will be selected to achieve a balance of attendees.

To register for both in person and virtual places, please complete the registration form via the link below. It also includes further details about the day.

The registration form for the event is open via this link

Please note that in-person registrations are scheduled to close on 14th January; however, we encourage registrations before the Christmas break where possible so that we can confirm your place and you can make travel arrangements. Virtual registration will stay open until the day before the event.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you in Manchester. Any questions, please make contact via ICBS@nihr.ac.uk.

The Post Doctoral Event Planning Committee

New Work and Professional Experiences Webpage

Keen to secure professional experience this winter break?

Our new Work and professional experiences webpage is the perfect place to explore all the ways you can get hands-on experience while studying from internships and part time work to shadowing and volunteering

Learn about different types of experiences, how to prepare for work experience, and where you can find opportunities here.

Paid Development Opportunity at the Early Career Researcher Institute – Apply by 19 Dec

Become a Student Programme Partner for an International Project at the Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI).

ECRI are pleased to open applications for a Student Programme Partner (SPP) opportunity to support a project funded within the Imperial Global Connect. This exciting developmental opportunity is open to all doctoral students and will give you the chance to collaborate with the lead for this project, Dr. Elena Forasacco, and the partners in NTU Singapore.

The Role

You will actively collaborate with the international team to co-design and co-deliver a course, which will be a new international and interdisciplinary learning opportunity for Imperial and NTU doctoral students.

The appointment runs for 10 months: it will start in January 2026 and will finish at the beginning of October 2026 with the co-delivery of the course. A bursary top-up of £1,500 per annum (3 payments of £500 every 3 months) is attached to this development opportunity.

Any additional queries, please contact the lead of the project, Dr. Elena Forasacco

To apply, please fill this form: https://forms.office.com/e/2mT63apeEd

Closing date for applications is Friday 19th December 2025 at 15:00.

Sea2Carbon paid PhD internship (full-time or part-time) (Apply by Fri 19 December 2025)

Sea2Carbon paid PhD internship (full-time or part-time)

Sea2Carbon, one of the companies that completed The Greenhouse accelerator programme, based at Undaunted, is offering a full-time or part-time paid internship. It is suitable for an Imperial PhD student with a background in biochemistry, biotechnology, marine biology, or life sciences to support lab-scale testing of its novel algae-to-product process.

The successful applicant will play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable solutions for agriculture and industry by conducting experiments focused on the extraction of valuable compounds and conversion of macroalgae into high-value outputs.

Please see this document for further information. To note, the deadline to apply is Friday, 19 December.

Imperial CREST Academy – Mentor Year 12 Students

The Imperial CREST Academy helps to match academic mentors to teams of Year 12 students who are undertaking a CREST Gold Project (or an Extended Project Qualification), which can be thought of as a scientific Duke of Edinburgh award, run by the British Science Association. The projects help the students go beyond school curriculum and get a small taste of scientific research. It is also hugely helpful for the students when applying to university as it helps with their personal statements and also gives them more breadth of knowledge and understanding should they be interviewed for a place at University.

The CREST Academy is run by Prof Cecilia Johansson (National Heart and Lung Institute) and myself, Simon Foster (FoNS & Imperial Space Lab). The Academy has been running for 13 years and has helped hundreds (possibly now thousands) of students undertake a CREST project and have gained a vital glimpse into the world of scientific research and academia.

The role of the mentor is to guide the project, initially helping to shape the project into something that can be conducted by the students in 70 hours (the rough allotted time for the project) and to give general scientific guidance. This is usually quite light touch and involves 2-3 meetings (in person or virtually) along with occasional emails. You will not be required to ensure the students are working on the projects or ‘push’ them, along, as this is the responsibility of their teacher. I have mentored a number of projects over the years and always found them immensely satisfying and they have had a huge impact upon the students. Based up my experiences, the time commitment is approximately 3-5 hours over the academic year (20 – 30 mins per online meeting and reading and responding to occasional emails).

If this might be of interest we will be holding an introduction an online Teams meeting on Friday 24th October at 11am top take you through the scheme: This link will take you to the meeting  Join the meeting now and if you email me, I can add you to the meeting invite. A recording of a previous intro meeting can be found here:  CREST chat-20221104_113001-Meeting Recording.mp4

You can also look at the projects interested and submit your interest in mentoring a project here https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0cz4YjDGrPemOlo

Become a Scientist Founder with Wilbe (BSF) – Now Live!

Become a Scientist Founder by Wilbe is live!

A free, open-access platform to help scientists and engineers move from research to enduring real-world impact with speed and precision.
Inside you’ll find:

  • A guided path to explore entrepreneurship, lay foundations, or build a company in 10 days.
  • A private community + weekly office hourswith the Wilbe team.
  • Access to curated events, lab space, and the wider Wilbe ecosystem.

Start now: wilbe.com

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Become a Scientist Founder by @wilbe_science is live!

A free, open-access platform helping scientists + engineers turn research into real-world impact with speed and precision.

  • 10-day guided path
  • Community + office hours
  • Events, labs, ecosystem

wilbe.com

GTA Opportunity – Paid LaTeX development opportunity

The Research Computing and Data Science team are in the process of commissioning and collating a series of exemplar programming projects known as ReCoDE. These projects are designed to demonstrate good programming practice in research to help other students learn by example and include extensive annotation to explain their function and the design choices made.

We generally welcome any submission, but we are looking to commission a particular submission in the form of a LaTeX template for an Imperial doctoral thesis. This template should match all of Imperial’s thesis requirements and should not be overly complicated, such that a relatively inexperienced LaTeX user would have the background to understand it. The basic skeleton of the thesis and the formatting required to meet Imperial’s requirements should be the focus, but other useful pieces of LaTeX may also be demonstrated.  This template does not need extensive research content, but could include some if it helps to demonstrate the formatting tools used.

If you are interested in working on this exemplar, more information on contributing can be found here. Click on the “Pitch an exemplar here” button at the bottom of that page to submit a proposal. The next round of exemplars will be selected in the autumn, and we will review all proposals before reaching out to selected applicants to complete the exemplar over three months in the autumn term.

Authors of exemplar are paid as GTAs (or Casual Workers) for 45 hours of work at a rate of £35.78/hour, including holiday pay.

Opportunities for PhDs/Postdocs (Quant research roles)

Options Group is hiring in for an important hedge fund client who manage >$10bn in aum.  The client is looking to speak with entry level PhDs or Postdocs focusing on Machine Learning/AI, Math, Stats, Physics, Computer Science for various quant research roles based in London.  Additionally, about the client’s search:

They are looking for exceptional generalists—either applied researchers or theorists with some coding experience. Historically, statisticians have been the most common hires, but last year they hired more pure math candidates than any other background. They’ve also brought on people with publications in machine learning journals and active GitHub profiles. Their hires include computer scientists, including those focused on theoretical CS. One of their Partners in London, for example, comes from a theoretical physics background..

Interested parties can contact Keith Macksoud (Options Group, Executive Director) immediately with a CV.

Wilbe Sandbox – Looking for Scientific Career Options? Here’s Your Launchpad

Are you a scientist curious about careers beyond the lab bench? Whether you’re considering building a startup, joining one, or becoming an entrepreneurial PI, Wilbe Sandbox is where you take your first step.

On Sandbox, you can find career resources, repository of practical content for starting your own business, a global community of like-minded researchers and job opportunities, and much more.

Why join?

  • Explore career pathways in innovation and entrepreneurship.
  • Access to tailored practical tools and insights for science commercialization.

Learn more and register: wilbe.com/sandbox