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

Public engagement internship opportunity

University of Liverpool

Closing Date 30 October 2026

Public engagement internship opportunity

University of Liverpool

Following the recent award of the Silver WATERMARK for Public Engagement, the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool are looking for an intern to help deliver a new initiative.

The aim of the placement will be to generate a resource bringing together expertise to provide mentorship (Similar to done here). The placement will involve communicating with people from across the faculty, collating their expertise and generating online content to feature on the public engagement website. There will also be opportunities to support the organisation of Faculty public engagement events such as Meet the Scientists. Sitting within the faculty public engagement team the placement is a great way to gain experience of communication and public engagement. The student would also gain experience helping out with organising faculty-led Public Engagement Events such as Meet the Scientists, Everton in the Community events or Pint of Science.

To apply or enquire informally please contact HLSEngagement@liverpool.ac.uk.

UKHSA - Health Data Model DTP Placement

Remote with occasional office/event attendance

Closing Date 02 October 2026

Please see attached flyer for further information on this placement - UKHSA Health Data Model DTP Placement.pdf

UKHSA - Digital and Data Project Management DTP Placement

Remote with occasional office/event attendance

Closing Date 02 October 2026

Please see attached flyer for further information on this placement - DTP Placement Advert - Digital & Data Project Management.pdf

UKHSA - Digital & Data Mapping DTP Placement

Remote/hybrid with occasional office/event attendance,

Closing Date 02 October 2026

Please see attached flyer for further information on this placement - DTP Placement Advert - Digital & Data mapping (P).pdf

UKHSA - Digital & Data Products Analysis DTP Placement

Remote with occasional office/event attendance

Closing Date 02 October 2026

Please see attached flyer for further information on this placement - DTP Placement Advert - Digital & Data Product Analysis (L).pdf

UKRI Policy Internships Scheme

Hybrid

Closing Date 08 September 2026

The 2026 call for UKRI Policy Internships Scheme is now live on the Funding Finder for applicants to apply via TFS. The closing date for applications is 4.00pm on Tuesday 8 September 2026. 

We have 16 host partners involved in the 2026 call, offering up to approximately 180 placement opportunities. Further details about each partner and the opportunities on offer can be found in the Host Partner Information document.

The Policy Internships Scheme is coordinated by NERC on behalf of the other Research Councils of UKRI. Any queries relating to the application process should be directed to the NERC Talent and Skills team (researchcareers@nerc.ukri.org) or the relevant host partner.

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.