Category: Career Opportunities, Internships & Volunteering

Become a Student Programme Partner at the Graduate School (deadline: 09 June)

We are pleased to open applications for the 2023/24 Student as Programme Partners (SPP) scheme. These are exciting developmental opportunities for Doctoral students, which will give you the opportunity to become a Student Programme Partner and engage with the Graduate School’s Professional Development Programme to help shape its scope, design and delivery. Further information about the opportunities available can be found on the website.

The current and previous Student Programme Partners have written some short pieces detailing what they have enjoyed most about their role, the invaluable contribution they have made to the Professional Development Programme as well as why you should apply to become one of the next SPPs.

Applications close on Friday 09 June 2023.

Apply to become a Student Programme Partner

PhD internship opportunities with The Royal Institution

Join The Royal Institution for a 3-month PhD internship to gain experience of science communication and engagement.

There are a total of 9 exciting opportunities over 4 different teams spanning timeframes from October 2023 to October 2024.

The internships will need to be paid for by stipend from the successful applicants’ university, DTP or Research Council. Students will need to check funding with their departments before applying

Find out more

Volunteer at Grantham Climate Art Prize competition

Grantham Climate Art Prize – opportunities for student and staff researchers at the Great Exhibition Road Festival on Sat 17 – Sun 18 June 2022

Interested in doing some outreach with young people to raise awareness about climate change? The team organising this year’s Grantham Climate Art Prize competition would love to hear from you. We are hosting a series of workshops for 12 – 25 year olds to design a mural capturing a vision of a cooler, more sustainable world – our world in 2050. The aim is to draw attention to the steps we can all take to reduce our impact on the planet as detailed in the 9 things you can do about climate change.

Workshops will take place in London (and other UK locations TBC) in June – August, including at the Great Exhibition Road Festival on 17 – 18 June.

We have two roles at the festival:

  1. To talk about climate change – what it is, what can be done to reduce its impacts and how urgently change needs to happen. A mural artist will then talk about design techniques for creating an outstanding eye-catching mural that motivates individuals to stop, think and make a difference.
  2. To greet guests, explain the activity, give out materials, liaise between young people, scientists and artists and answer any questions.

For you this will be an opportunity to enhance your communication skills and also collaborate with a diverse group of young people. We hope through these workshops that young people will come up with some fantastic designs for outdoor murals in public spaces. We are partnering with Octopus Energy, as we did for our 2021 art prize, and expect this will get good media and social media coverage again. After the winning designs have been chosen and murals have been painted, winning and runner up designs will also be displayed on billboard and in exhibitions.

Students and scientists involved in the last art prize gave very positive feedback! For more info please contact Linsey Wynton (Media and Outreach Officer) l.wynton@imperial.ac.uk

Volunteer at Grantham’s Climate Friendly Pop Up Kitchen

Can you help for a couple of hours at Grantham’s Climate Friendly Pop Up Kitchen at the Great Exhibition Road Festival on Sat 17 – Sun 18 June 2022

Interested in planet-friendly eating? The Grantham Institute is supporting a Challenge Team of DTP students to run a stall with professional chefs who’ll create samples of sustainable meals – and give cooking demos – at this year’s festival following the success of last year’s Climate-Friendly Pop-Up Kitchen.

The food samples will be mainly plant-based. Recipe cards and QR codes for these will be available too. There will also be an interactive quiz about climate-friendly eating, based on a similar activity that proved popular last year – with prizes!

How can you help?

  • Helping to set up the stall and ensure it runs smoothly and helping pack up at the end. There will be a rota with breaks.
  • Engaging visitors and giving out leaflets and recipe cards like these (on recycled paper and/ or as QR codes).
  • Offering visitors food samples and chatting to them about possible tweaks they might consider making to the meals they cook/ eat.
  • Supporting the quiz for all ages likely to focus on which food items are “low climate-footprint” and which are “high/higher climate-footprint”.

Time slots

We are keen to have volunteers sign up to a 2-hour slot – which promises to be a great experience in science communication. During that time you will need to be at the activity at the Festival site at South Kensington in the Sir Alexander Fleming building. We will in advance listen to all your ideas and offer clear instructions, a pre-event briefing and you will be carrying out your duties in teams of two.

10am – 12noon Setting up

12noon – 2pm Chatting to visitors about sustainable food, quiz, giving out samples

2 – 4pm Chatting to visitors about sustainable food, quiz, giving out samples

4 – 6pm Chatting to visitors about sustainable food, quiz, giving out samples

6 – 7pm Tidying up

Feedback from last year was positive from staff and students so we are looking forward to hearing from you!

To sign up please contact Pop-Up Kitchen Team Leader Romain Tort r.tort21@imperial.ac.uk and/ or Linsey Wynton Media and Outreach Officer at the Grantham Institute l.wynton@imperial.ac.uk

Turing Internship Network – Accepting Applications!

Now recruiting for the 5th time since its launch in 2020, The Turing Internship Network (TIN) offers doctoral students currently enrolled in a PhD at a university in the UK or Ireland the opportunity to undertake exciting and unique 3–6-month placements at one of the Turing’s business partners and collaborators. Through TIN internships students will apply their research expertise and technical skills to tackle real-world challenges and gain new skills in a business setting.

In this recruitment round TIN offers 12 paid internship opportunities in areas of research spanning from data science for legal domain to digital twins, graph machine learning for medicine applications, and public policy for online safety. We are not only looking for doctoral students with coding skills, but also for researchers studying social science/public policy.

For detailed information about the internships, the eligibility and how to apply, please visit our website.

For any questions, please contact internshipnetwork@turing.ac.uk

The deadline for applications is 11am, Wednesday 19 October.

Tutoring opportunity (Maths) with TalentEd

TalentEd is a charity set up in 2012 by a teacher, Rafi Cohen, frustrated that his brightest pupils from low income backgrounds were not being given the support and attention they needed to realise their full potential. Since then, we have grown to a nationwide charity working with thousands of young people every year.

Why tutor for TalentEd?

  • Make a real differenceto the lives of disadvantaged young people
  • Build your teaching skills with a diverse mix of  learners and settings
  • Supplement your income with competitive pay that fits around other commitments

Find out more

Volunteer as a Tutor with The Access Project

The Access Project is looking for volunteers to support disadvantaged young people aged 14-18 for 1 hour a week with their academic studies, through our easy-to-use dedicated online platform.

  • Support a young person in a school subject to achieve the GCSE / A level grades they deserve and to fulfill their potential
  • Inspire, motivate and raise aspirations towards further education & the world of work
  • Students supported by The Access Project typically achieve a grade higher at GCSE and are four times more likely than their peers to progress to a top-third ranked university.

No prior experience necessary, full training included over autumn with start dates throughout the autumn term.

Sign up: www.theaccessproject.org.uk/volunteer 

Researchers in Schools – teacher training programme for post-doctoral researchers

Researchers in Schools (RIS) is launching a bespoke teacher training programme exclusively for post-doctoral researchers that will maximise their subject knowledge and considerable experience of higher education. It is designed to help researchers develop transferable and teaching skills while maintaining an academic profile, with the option to return to university research after two years. I would be grateful if you could make doctoral and post-doctoral researchers aware of this excellent opportunity through any channels available to you by forwarding on the attached poster.

While all post-doctoral researchers can apply to this well-remunerated scheme, we are especially pleased to be offering considerable salary uplift to maths, physics and engineering researchers which will see them paid £40,000 in their first year and rising thereafter. This acknowledges that across all sectors from engineering to tech companies, improving our pipeline of mathematicians, physicists and engineers is vital for future growth.  We also need to address the under-representation of girls and children from low-income backgrounds in these important areas.

RIS is led by two OFSTED-rated ‘outstanding’ teaching schools (Lampton School and George Abbot School) and The Brilliant Club, a charity that recruits, trains and places doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in non-selective state schools.

Further information, including information on how to apply, can be found at www.researchersinschools.org