Science and Technology Project Research Officer London, England
Job description
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Reference number
Salary
Job grade
Contract type
Length of employment
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Type of role
Project Delivery
Science
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Contents
Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
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Location
About the job
Job summary
#DSIT
The Government Office for Science works at the heart of Government, ensuring policies and decisions are informed by the best scientific evidence and strategic long-term thinking. It's an exciting time to join the organisation; we have outstanding and high-profile positions providing you an 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 your next career challenge we want to hear from you.
Our mission is:
- Science advice mechanisms that are efficient, effective, speak truth to power and are embedded irreversibly in Government systems.
- Visible impact through both pro-active and demand-led science advice that is relevant, excellent, and delivered fit for purpose.
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 openminded 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.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-office-for-science
We strongly believe diversity of experience, thought, perspectives, skills, and background makes us a more innovative, welcoming Department, thus making better decisions and better delivering 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 to deliver better policies.
We are a friendly, inclusive team and emphasise personal development. We will ensure individuals with disabilities are provided adjustments to participate in the job application and interview process. We support your wellbeing by putting flexible working at the heart of our offer.; if successful, you will be able to discuss working arrangements with your new manager.
We maintain an internal surge capability of staff who may be called at short notice to support an activation of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). Training and support will be provided. This is an excellent opportunity to develop crisis management skills.
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 15 interns to help support a rolling programme of projects across GO-Science - 10 will be based in London and 5 in Salford. Please 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 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 policy makers 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.
Person specification
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
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together
Benefits
BEIS offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 27%.
A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need (from September 2021, depending on how the public health guidance evolves).
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Online Tests
After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete four online tests. The Civil Service Numerical test, the Civil Service Verbal test, the Civil Service Judgement test and Civil Service Work Strengths test. If you successfully pass all four tests, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.
Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 3rd July 2023. If you fail to complete the online tests before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the tests will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.
Application
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Please align your personal statement (in no more than 500 words) to 'What has motivated your interest for these roles and how will you apply the skills outlined in the Job specification to be effective?'
Please note - the CV incorporated into the application form is for information purposes only and will not be scored.
Applications will be sifted on behavioural statements and personal statement.
In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the lead behaviour statement (Communicating and Influencing). Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
The interview will consist of behaviour and strength-based questions.
Expected Timeline subject to change
Sift dates: 3rd July 2023
Interview dates: w/c 24th July 2023
Interview Location: MS Teams.
Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.
Further Information
Existing BEIS recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles may be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be located in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.
Reasonable Adjustment
If a disabled person is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact Government Recruitment Service via [email protected] as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
- Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
We are proud to be a disability confident leader, more information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that BEIS offers to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our candidate guidance document. A plain text version of the guidance is also available.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
This post is advertised as a Fixed Term for a period of 12 months.
Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
After interview, a single merit list will be created and you will only be considered for posts in locations you have expressed a preference for. Appointments will be made in strict merit order.
A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
Any move to Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
BEIS does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).
BEIS cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. BEIS holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing [email protected] stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
BEIS wants to be accessible for all, and this includes offering assistance to attend interviews. The offer is targeted toward those from a lower socio-economic background, or who struggle to cover the cost of attending an interview. Please see the attached guidance document at the bottom of this Civil Service Jobs advert. Embedded in the document on page 5, are 2 documents that must be completed and returned to the email addresses listed on the forms to claim an expenses payment. If you have any issues accessing these documents please contact us at [email protected]
Feedback
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
Recruitment team
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