Placements and Opportunities
Techne PhD student Anushka Tay researching at the Archive, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. Photo by Alice Nelson.
We encourage all Techne students to undertake at least one funded placement as part of their PhD as a chance to develop skills outside of their research and experience working at a range of organisations. Placements can be organised with Techne partners, or with any other organisation including HEIs.
Partner placement opportunities will be advertised to you through the weekly newsletter.
Current Opportunities:
PhD Placements with Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens welcomes PhD students to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to learn from their experts and make real contributions to their work at both Kew Gardens in London or Wakehurst in Surrey.
There are opportunities at Kew across a range of departments including, communications, public programmes, collections and science. Placements with Kew are a fantastic way to develop your skills, build your networks, and work with a renowned scientific and public-facing institution.
They have a range of projects available, including:
Public Outreach
Science
Policy
Communications.
For further information about these and other available options - please look through the Placements at Kew page on their website.
Royal Holloway
Assistant Director, Centre for Victorian Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. From 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027, 4-6 hrs per week, term-time only. Remote work plus in-person attendance for all evening events at Royal Holloway’s Egham or Bedford Square (central London) campuses. Apply by 30 June to helen.kingstone@rhul.ac.uk.
You’re Dead to Me: BBC
chart-topping podcast hosted by public historian Greg Jenner and a top comedian. Two months, part-time, starts 14 September. From reputable scholarly sources, the successful candidate will research a wide range of subjects spanning global history, provide briefing notes written in an accessible and succinct way, join production meetings, help shape episodes, attend recordings. Apply by 5 July to Emmie.price-goodfellow@york.ac.uk.
Message Heard Placement Opportunities:
Message Heard currently have several placement opportunities for PhD students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Each role offers the opportunity to get a unique look behind the scenes of a podcast production company, where the individual involved will work closely with industry experts to create award-winning shows. Their aim is to provide the candidate the opportunity to get involved in every stage of the production process from start to finish.
These placements are offered on a full-time basis for six months and can be done remotely or in-person at our office in Finsbury Square. Full details are available in this flyer. Please email keiran@messageheard.com with any inquiries.
V&A Placement Opportunities (V&A Museum)
To provide opportunities for early-career training for PhD students, the V&A has made available a range of doctoral placements based in collections departments, archives, the National Art Library, research, and collections care and access.
Each placement is a discrete project designed by members of V&A staff (who will also act as the placement’s supervisor), involving collaborative as well as independent research. In addition to the on-the-job experience of each placement and mentoring from supervisors, doctoral placement students will have access to the Museum’s wider range of workshops, talks and postgraduate training events/opportunities, alongside a bespoke training package designed for the placement student cohort.
V&A Doctoral Placements are only open to students currently studying on a funded PhD.
For full details on the currently available opportunities, please look through this flyer.
For any questions, please contact Erin Sun (Academic Programmes Coordinator, e.sun@vam.ac.uk).
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of Techne’s partner organisations and they are very keen to work with us and to give Techne students opportunities. They invite students to design their own placement, eg work in NHM Film Studios, carve out a ‘green’ career, gain experience in museum engagement and interpretation. There is no application deadline. This is an excellent opportunity to gain fantastic experience. Techne alumna staff-member Kate Ferry-Swainson designed her own placement at the National Theatre (another Techne partner organisation), so drop us an email for a chat or some tips.
Cabinet Office Open Innovation Placements
HM Government’s Open Innovation Team generates analysis and insight for government by helping officials collaborate with outside experts and research. Over the past three years, more than 75 PhD students have been hosted, with many going on to policy jobs after completing their studies. This placement offered the chance to work with clients across government, experience a diverse range of policy areas and learn how you can transfer your PhD skills into new environments. Placements
PhD students were invited to join their team for three months on a full time basis to help deliver policy projects on health, welfare reform, industrial strategy, digital transformation and other priority areas.
Royal Institute PhD Science Presenter Internship (Ri)
The Ri provides science education and heritage activities for people of all ages and backgrounds across the UK and around the world.
This internship was an opportunity for PhD researchers to build confidence in presenting to a group of young people in an engaging educational environment, to receive regular feedback and training in science communication and to design content for use on Ri social media. Placements
The British Library (BL)
BL runs an internal PhD Placement Scheme that aims to provide an opportunity to PhD researchers to experience research in a different environment to that of a university, to engage with a range of research users and audiences, to gain insights into different potential postdoctoral career paths, and to make a tangible contribution to the purposes and programmes of a national library and major cultural organisation.
A broad range of opportunities to work with different collections are made available every year for projects of 3 months or part-time equivalent. Many of the projects are suitable for partial or full remote working. A list of all available placement projects and full details of how to apply are available on the website here: PhD placement scheme
Natural History Museum Arts and Humanities PhD Placements. The Natural History Museum is one of Techne’s partner organisations and they are very keen to work with us and to give Techne students opportunities. They invite students to design their own placement, eg work in NHM Film Studios, carve out a ‘green’ career, gain experience in museum engagement and interpretation. There is no application deadline. This is an excellent opportunity to gain fantastic experience.
AHRC International Placement Scheme (IPS)
Which funds short-term fellowships at prestigious international research institutions for UK doctoral level research assistants and AHRC/ESRC funded doctoral students. The scheme is run annually, with places available across a number of different host institutions including:
- Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
- The Huntington Library, California, USA
- Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA
- National Institutes for the Humanities, Japan
- Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai, China
- Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA
- YaleCenterfor British Art, Connecticut, USA
- National Museum Institute, New Delhi, India
Placements will last three to six months. Participants will receive £1,000 for travel and visa costs. Application opens in November and closes in February every year. To apply, your School or Supervisor will need to submit an application via the IPS/AHRC scheme. Please check the IPS page on the AHRC’s website for details. See here AHRC Guidance on filling the application, which includes criteria for the grading scale.
Kate Ferry-Swainson exploring the National Theatre costume store.