Research scientist (life sciences) : Employers and vacancy sources

The government has announced a science budget of £3.2billion for the period 2010-2011 and has declared this will be ring fenced in order to ensure its aims for science and innovation are met. It also continues to work towards its target of increasing R&D investment (as a proportion of national income) from 1.9% (2004) to 2.5% by 2014. This increased investment is creating new opportunities for scientists. Within the life sciences, there are many different employers across a variety of sectors, including:

• universities in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world;
• large pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies;
• private hospitals and NHS trusts;
• clinical research organisations;
• research councils and their associated institutes;
• national and global health-related charities;
• scientific and technical consultancies.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)  commissions and funds NHS and social care research, covering the full range of interventions (pharmaceuticals, biologicals, procedures, therapies and practices) across the full range of health and healthcare delivery - prevention, detection, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and care.

A Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is a three-way project between a graduate, an organisation and a 'knowledge base', such as a university or a research organisation. KTP is one of the largest graduate recruitment programmes across Europe. KTPs also enable certain PhD graduates to apply their research in a commercial environment. More information can be found at Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) .

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• New Scientist Jobs  
• Jobs.ac.uk  for jobs across all universities in the UK and overseas.
• Jobs and Courses
• Nature Jobs  
• NHS Jobs
• Times Higher Education (THE)
• PhD Jobs

Specialist recruitment agencies are also widely used within the scientific community. These include Scientific Recruitment Group (SRG) , Lab Support UK  and Matchtech .

Get tips on job hunting, CVs and covering letters and interviews.