Professional Internships for PhD Students (PIPS) with the University of Manchester
Background
The purpose of the PIPS (Professional Internships for PhD Students) scheme is to give BBSRC PhD students in life sciences, medical and human sciences, and engineering and physical sciences, experience of the wider non-academic working environment outside their PhD subject area. The aim is to increase their awareness of the diverse career opportunities open to them and to help them develop a broader understanding of the wider economy and society. We hope to place students in an organisation that will enable them to gain useful and relevant experience should they choose a career outside of academia after finishing their PhD.
The internship will be for 3 months but can be flexible in duration, either as a single 3 month period or a variation of shorter blocks. The type of work should be a discrete project that will challenge the students and enable them to make a positive contribution to the work of their host organization. For example, by undertaking a short desk-based research project or by working in another nonresearch role such as marketing, publishing, sales, business development or project management.
The internship offered should be full-time, supervised and give the opportunity for the student to complete a discrete project that offers a meaningful contribution to your company. The placement does not have to be related to the student’s area of study; in fact, the purpose of the scheme is to give the student the opportunity to develop complementary skills in addition to their academic/research skills and to gain ‘real world’ experience.
The intern would not require any payment from your organisation as they continue to receive their monthly PhD stipend.
The students
All students will have an undergraduate degree at 2.i level or above from a good university in the UK or Europe. Their educational background will be in an area of biological sciences or a related subject (e.g. chemistry). It is not expected that they will make significant use of their specialist scientific knowledge during the placement, unless this is also of benefit to the host. A condition of the placement is that it should not be in a lab similar to their PhD lab or related to their PhD project in any way.
Over and above their undergraduate training, these students will have received further transferable skills training in the following: time management, team-work, routine health and safety, academic literacy, oral and written communication and presentation, including writing a substantial review and research report, writing for a lay audience, and data handling and analysis, including basic statistics. They will therefore be well-skilled to take on a time-limited, stand-alone project or to work within an established team.
Students will go on placement in their second or third year. In their first year, students will be involve in choosing or designing the type of placement they wish to undertake and will therefore be highly motivated. A survey of 174 of our BBSRC DTP PhD students indicated that 90% would have found a PIPS internship useful for exploring their future career options. We anticipate that provision of these highly-trained, yet flexible, interns will be mutually beneficial to a wide range of host organizations and to the students themselves.
At the end of their internship, the students will be required to submit a report to the BBSRC and it will also form part of their personal and professional career plan.
For more information, contact Mateusz Przygoda at mateusz.przygoda@manchester.ac.uk. Placement applications from companies must be submitted by Friday 23rd February 2024. The placements will then be advertised to the students on a rolling basis over the coming months, with a final deadline for student applications of 17th May 2024.
Find out more here.
