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Science and Technology Project Research Officer

Employer
Government Office for Science
Location
Salford, Greater Manchester; London, Greater London.
Salary
£24,570 - £31,200
Closing date
7 Aug 2022

The Government Office for Science works at the heart of Government, to ensure that policies and decisions are informed by the best scientific evidence and strategic long-term thinking. It is a very exciting time to join the organisation, we have outstanding and high-profile positions where you will have the opportunity to inform and influence policy-making and the systems for use of science and engineering across government. If you are highly motivated and looking for the next challenge in your career, we want to hear from you.

Our priorities are:

· Supporting national growth and growing the UK’s productivity by linking science, innovation, and industrial enterprise.

· Supporting regional growth by building on existing science and innovation activity across the country.

· Using technology to develop modern and high value public services.

· Preventing or addressing emergencies and mapping national security risks.

Our values are:

Collaboration – We draw on the experience, skills and knowledge of individuals and partners to reach goals.

Kindness – We are always inclusive, respectful, and compassionate. We look out for one another on work related and non-work-related matters where appropriate.

Openness – We are curious and always open-minded to new ideas, ways of working and points of view, irrelevant of how unconventional they might seem or who suggests them.

Integrity – We commit to upholding the civil service value of integrity by remaining moral, honest, and transparent. We always strive to do the right thing.

Further information can be found here

We strongly believe that diversity of experience, thought, perspectives, skills, and background makes us a more innovative, welcoming department, which makes better decisions, and can better deliver our objectives. We are actively seeking applications from every part of the community and particularly welcome applications from candidates of any age, background, disability, or from an ethnic minority background and any other protected characteristics. This will help us move to a workforce that reflects the people we serve so we can deliver better policies.

We are a friendly and inclusive team and emphasise personal development. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided adjustments to participate in the job application and interview process. We want to support your wellbeing by putting flexible working at the heart of our offer – including where, when and how you work. If you are successful, you will be given the opportunity to discuss working arrangements with your new manager.

Job description

Do you have a passion for science and technology? Would you like the opportunity to contribute to making a real difference for the UK and its citizens? If the answer is yes, then we want to hear from you. This is your opportunity to influence important policy areas with the very top scientists in government.

We are recruiting for up 22 internships to help support a rolling programme of projects across GO-Science - 10 will be based in London and 12 in Salford. Please can you let us know your first and second place location preference?

You will be working with government departments to use science insight to help shape the response to major global issues including climate change and global health. These internships provide an exciting opportunity to support the work of the Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) and the Government Office for Science, operating at the leading edge of the interface between science and policy. Interns will be able to see the impact of their projects on how government uses science and develop valuable skills to support future careers across the civil service.

These roles will give you the chance to develop core and highly transferable skills in project delivery, policy, analysis, communications, engagement, the interaction between policy and legal issues, and putting science and a long-term thinking at the heart of policy making. We are also looking for people with statistical analysis, data management and programming skills.

These internships are full-time, fixed-term appointments for a period of 12 months.

Opportunities will be available for graduate interns in all policy areas in Government Office for Science. These include:

· Delivering projects that help reform the way government uses and accesses science, strengthening science systems across government and improving departmental science capability.

· Research and multidisciplinary analysis to inform our projects on Futures and Emerging Technology.

· To provide robust advice to Her Majesty Government and provide independent advice on national security Science & Technology (S&T) matters, including response.

· Supporting GCSA’s role on cross-cutting policy with global impact through and improved use of science and evidence in policy development.

· Managing the pipeline of analysis brought to SAGE as well as the dissemination of SAGE advice to policymakers and operational agencies.

· Supporting GO-S with requests from the UK Covid Inquiry - assisting with important work examining the impact of and UK response to the pandemic and learning lessons for the future.

· Bringing together advice from a wide range of experts, including the Council for Science and Technology, to help inform and enable S&T policy with rigorous, independent analysis and assessment.

GO-S is an agile department and candidates may be required to work flexibly across teams including provision of short-notice surge. GO-S maintains an internal surge capability of staff who may be called on at short notice to support an activation of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). You may be asked to support this activity. Training and support will be provided, and this is an excellent opportunity to develop crisis management skills.

Responsibilities

Graduate interns have the opportunity to work on a wide range of areas and help support teams in a number of activities including:

· High quality desk research, including taking responsibility for identifying and reviewing novel and cutting-edge evidence.

· Communicating with a range of partners including senior civil servants; the GSCA and Chief Scientific Advisers in other government departments; the academic research community; and external partners in think tanks, non-governmental organisations and businesses.

· Collecting and analysing data and information, and communicating this information in highly impactful ways, including using innovative data visualisation and programming techniques.

· Helping to arrange and prepare papers for meetings, ensuring the key conclusions of these are gathered and followed up, and general support for colleagues at busy times.

· The ability to work with data and evidence, using your intellectual curiosity, imagination, and rigour to analyse and present information clearly for the relevant audience.

· Using your people and communication skills to develop good working relationships with the other teams within GO- Science, other government departments, the private sector and the academic community.

· The ability to be a great teammate and contribute to the culture and development of GO- Science as a team.

· A passion for science, engineering and innovation; wanting to help GO-Science quickly and effectively find solutions to meet the most pressing needs of our partners.

· The ability to assimilate information quickly with an eye for detail but not to the detriment of hitting quick turnaround deadlines.

Skills and experience

The successful candidate will have:

· Strong communication skills both written and orally, in a clear, concise and impactful manner.

· Strong organisational skills, an ability to balance priorities along with good personal judgement and effective decision making.

· Good reflective and creative skills to suggest improvements to current processes.

· Proficient IT skills including Microsoft packages such as Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint

· Ability to be persuasive and flexible, to influence and negotiate in order to achieve successful outcomes.

Desirable skills for data analysis-oriented roles:

· Data management,

· Data modelling,

· Statistical methods and data analysis,

· Programming and build skills including the design, coding, testing and documenting of simple scripts.

Qualifications

Graduate or equivalent Level 7 NVQ in a STEM subject

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