interested in voicing your opinion on careers in science

02 December 2009

By Branwen Hide

I recently attended Latest Developments in Research Council Practise put on by the UK Council for Graduate Education  and one of the things that come up in the discussion was where do PhD students end up once they have finished. Often there is an exit interview or form asking where the newly graduated student is off to next, but rarely does anyone look to find out where they gone from there. On that note, the TNS-BMRB and The Royal Society are looking for people to be involved in focus groups looking at careers in science and are specifically interested in hearing from people who gained their PhD in science in the past 2-8 years. Within that time frame, they are specifically interested in individuals working in academic science and gained PhD in the UK (Group 1); working in academic science and gained PhD abroad (Group 2); working in industry or business (Group 3); working in science sector but not in a research role e.g. science management, journalism, advertising, sales, teaching etc (Group 4); not working in a science career (Group 5).

The ’have your say’ on careers in science focus groups will be held in London in the evening and will last ninety minutes. The dates for the various focus groups are as follows, and they are offering cash incentrives.

• Group 1 December 10th at 6pm
• Group 2 & 3 December 14th at 6 and 8pm
• Group 4 & 5 December 15th at 6 and 8pm

Please email focusgroups@tns-bmrb.co.uk with the group that applies to you and your phone number and e-mail address. If you would like to know more about the background to these discussions please contact rochana.wickramasinghe@royalsociety.org. For more information click here.