Zinc Innovation - Doctoral Innovation Placements

Varied

Closing Date 31 December 2026

The Doctoral Innovation Placements programme gives PhDs hands-on commercial and R&D experience, supported by coaching, mentorship, and monthly cohort learning days. No prior commercial experience is needed, and we welcome students from any discipline.

The programme is designed to help DTPs support their PhD students to explore credible non-academic career pathways, build transferable skills like commercial awareness and stakeholder engagement, and to demonstrate tangible impact from your doctoral training investment, without adding delivery burden to your team. Zinc manages recruitment, venture matching, skill development, and programme delivery end to end.

For further information, please see here ZIP Doctoral Innovation Placements Brochure.pdf

For more info or to start planning, contact laura@zinc.vc

Deep Science Ventures Internship

Remote (team gather in London office every Wednesday)

Closing Date 31 December 2026

Host Organisation 

Deep Science Ventures

Sector 

Venture builder/ R&D

Host Organisation Background

Deep Science Ventures is a venture creator building deeptech companies in 4 sectors: Agriculture, Climate, Computation and Pharmaceuticals. We deliver this work through funded partnerships with organisations like Coca-Cola, AbbVie, Anglo American, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency - ARIA, and Cancer Research UK. DSV has founded 59 companies across a broad range of domains, from direct air capture to production of green steel and therapeutics for cystic fibrosis to thermal protectants for crops. We take an outcome-centred approach, starting with the problem we wish to solve and working backwards to identify the necessary solutions, building high impact companies.

 Project Title 

DSV Opportunity Area scoping: identifying neglected opportunities to build new ventures that tackle climate, nature loss or food security challenges

Project location 

Remote (team gather in London office every Wednesday)

Project Description 

The first stage in DSV’s venture creation process is to identify ‘Opportunity Areas’ - discrete areas where we see high potential impact and exciting white space, making it suitable for building new companies with our Founders in Residence. An example of this would be ‘Priming plant resilience’, an Opportunity Area that proposes to build the toolkit for modulating plant resilience on demand, and thereby deliver speed and flexibility to crop traits for handling volatile climate risks. This project aims to overcome the bottlenecks of conventional crop breeding (long development timelines, productivity trade-offs, GMO regulations) by developing complementary products that leverage modes of action such as RNAs, developmental peptides or microbial partners that can be deployed in the field.

To identify such an Opportunity Area requires first a broader landscape mapping around a challenge such as ‘crop losses to abiotic stress’ or ‘methane emissions mitigation’. This process involves desk-based research to build a system map of the challenge and potential intervention points, with the goal of uncovering specific areas that are neglected within the current commercial / innovation landscape, but where we believe there is scope for novel technologies to have high impact upon the problem we wish to solve, and which are specifically suitable for venture creation. We are seeking individuals to collaborate with our team on this Opportunity Area identification process - providing PIPS candidates with the platform to apply their technical knowledge and creativity to develop an understanding of how venture creation opportunities are identified.
DSV works on challenges across climate, nature loss and food security, and we are therefore open to taking on board PIPS with expertise and interest in these areas. We would co-define the problem space for scoping prior to agreement and start of the project. This allows the PIPS candidate to explore a challenge that they are motivated by, while also ensuring that the outputs (specific ‘Opportunity Areas’ recommended for future company builds) can meaningfully feed into DSV’s venture creation pipeline.

The project would last three months, with the ultimate output being a report that maps the selected problem space, analyses the existing state of the art solutions, and identifies neglected constraints and opportunities that need to be addressed to solve the root causes of the problem. Within these neglected spaces, the report will then go deeper to analyse the technical and commercial tractability of new solutions that could form the basis for creating new companies.

This scoping process follows an established model for Opportunity Area identification that we conduct with our partners, providing a framework to help the PIPS candidate hit the ground running with their research. While the role is mainly remote, they will work closely with support from Will Summers (senior associate) and Pina Fritz (head of scoping). The candidate should be highly self-motivated, creative and enjoy thinking from first principles - they will be challenging assumptions and digging into unfamiliar scientific domains to consider the opportunities that entire sectors might be missing!

Timeframe and any other special considerations 

Start date is flexible, to be agreed between DSV and the individual.

Candidate Requirements

Technical background that is suitably aligned to the problem space they wish to scope for Opportunity Area identification
Demonstrable interest in science translation and venture creation.

 

Website/link for further details 

www.deepscienceventures.com

Contact details

Name	Dr William Summers
Email address	will@deepscienceventures.com
Phone	+447972116691
Preferred method	Email

Address 

46-54 High Street, Ingatestone, Essex, United Kingdom, CM4 9DW

Organisation credentials  (e.g. Company Registration Number)

Company number: 10314171

Sense about Science - Policy and public engagement internship opportunity

London - flexible

Closing Date 31 July 2026

Policy and public engagement internship opportunity

Sense about Science is looking for interns! An internship at Sense about Science is a rewarding experience, as no two days are the same. It is a fulfilling way to get practical experience of communications, policy and public engagement, and issues of research quality; developing key professional skills and contacts that will serve you well in your future.

Please note we can only consider short-term internship applications as part of a funded opportunity or scheme, such as, but not limited to, the PIPS professional internship scheme, for PhD students. If you don’t have access to funding support for an internship, then please discuss funding opportunities with your institution or research funder, as we are unable to offer funding at this time. We cannot offer unfunded/self-funded internships.

To apply, send your CV and a cover letter outlining how your skills match the requirements to internships@senseaboutscience.org with the subject line “Student Internship.” If you have any questions about our internship vacancies, then please don’t hesitate to contact us on the same email.

About Sense about Science 

Sense about Science promotes the public interest in sound science and evidence. It is a unique campaigning charity that has turned the case for sound science and evidence into a popular cause. It has launched important initiatives to expand and protect open discussions of evidence, including Transparency of Evidence to secure openness for the public about the evidence behind decisions, AllTrials, an effective global campaign for the reporting of clinical trials; and, with Nature, it runs the international Maddox prize for standing up for science. It encourages the public to 'Ask for Evidence’ and leads initiatives to make subjects such as risk, uncertainty, data science and AI accessible.

Eradigm PIPS opportunity

London/hybrid working

Closing Date 10 July 2026

Eradigm is seeking a number of ambitious PhD students (ideally in years 3 or 4) to join their 3-month PhD Internship Program (PIP). In this unique role, you will be provided with the opportunity to apply and combine your life science expertise with a commercial mindset to contribute to multiple projects, working with clients from leading pharmaceutical companies, to medtechs or biotechs. As a PhD intern, you will play a pivotal role in the team, analyzing qualitative & quantitative scientific data and formulating strategic insights. Eradigm’s PIP provides high quality consulting skills training and a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between academia and industry, allowing you to apply your skills and knowledge to real world challenges, supporting future career opportunities in life sciences or beyond.

Key responsibilities 

• Conducting primary and secondary research across a wide variety of sources – including clinical trial data, conference presentations and industry events – to provide updates to stakeholders and support them in understanding complex dynamics in drug development and commercialization 

• Analyse research findings to develop actionable insightsin deliverables such as presentation decks or data summaries 

• Help develop data into succinct summaries and conclusions to drive high impact recommendations to support the project context and objectives 

• Participate in client meetings and debriefs, presenting key elements as needed. Support creation of project proposals and other business development initiatives as required.

Full details including how to apply are available here. 

Sepsis Research FEAT

Remote

Closing Date 30 June 2026

As the leading charity in the UK funding sepsis research, it is crucial that we communicate effectively about the research we fund – particularly its impact to date – to our audiences including the public, policymakers, donors, and the wider UK media. 

The PIPS Intern would take a key role in planning and delivering a suite of high-quality research content for the charity’s website, which would be then published and pushed out across the charity’s communication channels. 

This is a fast-paced role with the opportunity to rapidly earn responsibility quickly. The Intern would take the lead on planning and creating up to 50 website articles, and drive delivery in co-ordination with our Chief Medical Officer, colleagues from communications, fundraising and marketing, ensuring the content was fit-for-purpose. This therefore provides project management experience in addition to the other editorial skills. The charity is rapidly growing with a team of around 20+ staff and trustees plus nearly 200 active volunteers. Therefore, a PIPS Intern would quickly become a well-known and valued member of the growing team, able to make a significant and measurable difference quite quickly. Indicators of success would be in terms of articles published, audience numbers reached, and engagement on the content. 

Alongside the editorial work we can offer additional opportunities to help get involved in the charity’s inperson events which include community fundraising efforts, conferences, and donor networking events. The goals of the project are: 

• To raise awareness of Sepsis Research FEAT and the research it funds among target audiences through content creation, communications, and by working with external partners to amplify the reach of this content 

• To increase the charity’s engagement on social media channels and dedicated web pages 

• To achieve media coverage 

• To support the charity’s participation in external events.

If you are interested in applying, please email Communications Lead Abi Dawson at: abi@sepsisresearch.org.uk. 

Please include:

• A CV

• A brief supporting statement outlining your motivation for applying, what you believe you can offer, and when you are available to start