The demand for skills development in the molecular biosciences

By Dr Derry K Mercer, Principal Scientist at Novabiotics Ltd & member of the Biochemical Society Policy Advisory Panel

The UK Government recently published a Green Paper ‘Building our Industrial Strategy’ in which the urgent need for developing skills in further/higher education and the workforce was outlined. The document noted that while the UK higher education system was strong, our achievements in basic and technical skills was relatively poor and has led to the lower levels of productivity compared with other advanced economies.

The skills issues were outlined as follows:

• lack of basic skills;
• shortage of high-skilled technicians below graduate level;
• skills shortages in STEM sectors;
• the need for informed career choices;
• lack of lifelong learning opportunities.

For anyone working in the molecular biosciences, whether in academia or industry, most of these concerns can hardly have come as a surprise and represents a huge problem for a growing sector that currently generates turnover of over £56 billion per annum. Indeed, the skills and productivity gaps were pointed out in an earlier UK government document ‘Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation’ in 2015.

Voice of the Future 2017: young scientists question MPs and Ministers

By Dr Andrew Quigley, Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford

Dr Andrew Quigley representing the Biochemical Society at Voice of the Future event . Photo: Royal Society of Biology

“Voice of the Future is a very unusual event” says Dr Stephen Benn, Director of Parliamentary Affairs at the Royal Society of Biology.  There is no event quite like it anywhere else in Parliament, possibly the world.  How often do young representatives of professional bodies get the opportunity to sit in for a Parliamentary Committee and question MPs about science policy issues that matter to them?  But that is exactly the chance that I and 50 other young scientists and engineers were given.

Post-Brexit science landscape – Parliamentary Links Day 2016

By Dr Aoife Kiely, Research Associate at the UCL Institute of Neurology

From left: Stephen Metcalfe MP, Nicola Blackwood MP, Jo Johnson MP, Dr Stephen Benn and Rt Hon John Bercow MP. Photo: RSB

The morning of the Parliamentary Links Day I woke up nervous. I’m not generally a ‘business formal’ style of scientist so the imposter syndrome fear of standing out, or going wrong loomed large. However, any nerves were dwarfed by my excitement to take part in the event and meet other delegates and find out what plans politicians had to support UK science post-Brexit. 

My time in science policy

By Michael Wood, Policy Intern at the Biochemical Society (January – March 2016) and PhD student, University of Leicester

It is almost impossible to know if you will like a job before starting, by which point it is usually too late to change your mind. Internships offer the freedom to spend some time exploring a job without any long-term obligations and can therefore be a perfect introduction to a new field of work. As part of the first year of my doctoral training programme , I was encouraged to spend three months in an area of science outside of research. Admittedly, I was not looking forward to this and considered it a waste of time that could be better spent getting on with my research project. This was partially due to the fact that I had almost no idea what area I would like to do my internship in, but after talking to an older student who had worked in the policy department at Defra, I realised it could be something I would be fairly well suited for.

Teaching scientists to communicate

By Richard Bowater, Senior Lecturer, University of East Anglia 

Example of POSTnotes published by the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). Parliamentary copyright image reproduced with the permission of Parliament.

The need to be able to communicate with a wide range of audiences is now – generally – accepted to be a requirement to be a good scientist and several UK universities run courses that train students in the skills of science communication. In my department at UEA, a final year module in science communication has been organised for several years by Prof Kay Yeoman, who was interviewed recently on this blog. The module is popular with a range of science undergraduates and we aim to develop their expertise to communicate with a range of audiences.