Westminster Fellowship Scheme

The Scheme for 2013 will open on Friday 11 January 2013 and will close on Friday 31 May 2013.

About the Scheme

"For anyone interested in an insight into science policy and politics, this fellowship is an absolute must." Jennie Dodson, Westminster Fellowship Internee, 2011

The Westminster Fellowship Scheme is an annual initiative offered to RSC members by The Royal Society of Chemistry in collaboration with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST).

POST is an office of the two Houses of Parliament (Commons and Lords) based on the Parliamentary estate, charged with providing balanced and objective analysis of science and technology based issues relevant to Parliament.

What does the Fellowship entail?

"The RSC Westminster Fellowship is a wonderful opportunity for a young scientist to get out of the lab and gain perspective on how science and technology affect public policy. The POST team are very welcoming and it was a pleasure to work with them" - Dan Bradley, Westminster fellowship Internee, 2010

The initiative will fund one/two candidate(s) to work at POST for 3 months, engaging on work that is intended to aid scientific research into public policy areas, as well as raising public awareness.

The candidate(s) will assist POST in its function of providing timely and objective briefing material for MPs and Peers. As with all publications, advice from a broad spectrum of experts from relevant disciplines will be sought for any project that the candidate is engaged on to ensure objectivity. It is important that applicants have a clear interest in the public dissemination of findings for scientific research and the ability to present an interesting, concise and balanced summary of research in a given domain.

During, and on completion of the secondment, the candidate will be required to produce updates/reports on their work to present to the RSC Parliamentary Affairs Committee, as well as an article about their time working in Parliament to be published in RSC News. From time to time you may be called upon to speak at public engagements such as Voice of the Future to promote the scheme.

Applicant Information

For the application procedure please see the How to Apply section on this web page.

The start date for the fellowship will be agreed between the candidate and the Director of POST.

Students will need to agree dates with their supervisor/university and the candidate's Funding Body if applicable.
This scheme will not run during the summer recess.

Please note: The successful candidate will be based at POST during the 3 month secondment, travel to the Houses of Parliament is vital to the fellowship and will give you good insight into how Parliament is run.