NorthWest Biosciences

What types of PIPS placement are suitable

All placements are required to be:

• Unrelated to the student’s PhD research project
• Outside of academia – Research roles in academia or research institutes are not generally appropriate, even in an area unrelated to the student’s PhD project.  However, if you are able to offer a sufficiently differentiated experience for the student and they would also develop non-lab skills (i.e. a wider range of transferable, work-related skills) then this may be considered.
• At an appropriate level to challenge a talented PhD student

PIPS are discrete projects, which are planned to be suitable for high calibre PhD students.  The following are common PIPS experiences, although this list is not exhaustive and with PIPS we encourage students to explore PIPS in a wide range of fields:

Industry or Biotech Company

• commercialisation of a product (non-Lab based)
• A well-defined desk-based research project
• review or analysis of manufacturing, processing or production techniques​
• marketing, publishing or sales​
• business development or project management​
• legal offices​
• internal audit or consultancy​

Teaching

• in schools or other teaching institutions​

Policy ​

• developing policy or working in a related setting, such as a government department, local authority, non-departmental public body, professional association, charity, research funder or medical organisation (such as the NHS Primary Care Trust)​

Media ​

• a wide variety of roles are possible here that help students to understand the wider societal context of their research. Such internships could include working in science communication roles, or other roles in:​
• press office​
• science publishing company​
• zoo, museum or botanic gardens​

This list is not exhaustive if you have an exciting PIPS opportunity not listed above, that you feel a PhD student would benefit from, please do get in contact to discuss with our team.