Broadening Horizons Policy Intern

London, England, United Kingdom

6/26/2025

Circa

Salary - Salary Plan, 24,071.00 GBP Annual

THIS INTERNSHIP IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO PARTICIPANTS OF THE BROADENING HORIZONS IN THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES PROGRAMME.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is thrilled to continue leading the Broadening Horizons campaign in the chemical sciences. Now in its fourth year, this initiative empowers chemistry students and graduates from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Our mission is to foster a truly inclusive and diverse chemical sciences workforce.

Since its inception, the Broadening Horizons programme has successfully supported numerous participants in achieving their career goals in chemistry. Our interns have secured positions in leading chemical companies, pursued advanced degrees, and contributed to innovative research projects. This programme provides essential support and access to opportunities, enabling participants to pursue careers in chemistry and contribute to a truly inclusive and diverse chemical sciences workforce. The programme's success is a testament to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the chemical sciences.

We are pleased to be recruiting 3 interns to join the RSC for 10 weeks through the Broadening Horizons program. All our internships are paid positions attracting a salary of £24,071 per annum (pro rata).

To apply, you will need to submit an application with:

• an up-to-date CV
• a supporting statement (no more than 500 words) indicating how your knowledge and transferable skills align to the Job Description.
  
  

The Role

This placement is an opportunity for you to gain experience of the science policy development process and help us be a trusted and authoritative voice, ensuring that chemistry has a recognised and influential role in science and society.

Depending on your skills, experience and interests, you may work on either or both of the following two projects:

• Researching, and engaging with stakeholders on, water pollution from road run-off to expand on our existing policy recommendations on Contaminants of Emerging Concern to create the foundations for targeted policy influencing in the area. This relates to the RSC’s policy priority of tackling pollution.
• Conducting background research and developing an internal policy briefing on highly hazardous pesticides. This will support our work to shape a new United Nations Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution Prevention and will form part of our input to UK Government on chemicals policy.
  
  

At the RSC we embrace flexibility and offer hybrid working, which means our teams come together when they need to collaborate. Although this role is contractually based at our Cambridge or London office, you will be able to work from home within the UK, with the expectation that you will attend the office as needed for your role.

Essential Skills

What we are looking for:

• A chemical sciences degree, or in the final stages of working towards such a degree, ideally with an interest in and knowledge of sustainability and/or chemicals regulation
• Strong research skills, especially the ability to find, understand and evaluate data and information relevant to solving a given problem, drawing and explaining conclusions from that, with the ability to scan information for relevance to a given topic or problem
• Strong oral and written communication skills – in particular, the ability to summarise key points from a discussion clearly in writing in a timely manner, to write clear, concise and well-structured documents and to make clear requests of others and negotiate politely where necessary
• Interest in Government, Parliament and public policy that affects science
• Strong collaborative skills – an ability and willingness to work with colleagues inside and outside the organisation
• Familiarity with Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well as with tools to parse the scientific literature
  
  

About The Royal Society Of Chemistry

With over 60,000 members and an international publishing and knowledge business, the RSC is the UK’s professional body for chemical scientists, supporting and representing our members and bringing together chemical scientists from all over the world.

Visit our Work For Us website to learn more about us, our benefits, equal opportunities statement and inclusive culture pledge.

At the RSC, we recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce and welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds to apply. We particularly encourage applications from disabled and ethnic minority candidates.

As a part of the Disability Confident Scheme, we endeavour, where possible, to offer an interview to candidates meeting the essential criteria of the role, who has a substantial physical/mental impairment which impacts their ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

We are committed to making our recruitment processes accessible to all and as part of this, we are flexible in the ways we give and receive information. If you would like to apply using a different format, please contact the Recruitment Team at [email protected] or on +44 (0) 1223 432229 and we will do our best to put any reasonable adjustments in place.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]