Research for staff & studentsVacancies
Here are some vacancy sites for researchers. This list is by no means exhaustive, but is a useful starting point both for finding vacancies and for looking into the range of opportunities available to you.
Vacancies sites
- Academic jobs
- Funding
- Non-academic research and research-related jobs
- Graduate Jobs/Graduate Schemes
- Staying Local
- Recruitment Agencies
Academic jobs
The two main sites for finding academic jobs within the UK are jobs.ac.uk and the Times Higher Education Supplement, along with individual university websites. Jobs.ac.uk and THES also advertise non-academic jobs within universities, and some international and commercial positions. Jobs.ac.uk allows you to sign up for weekly email alerts in job areas and geographic locations that interest you.
Other places to look for academic jobs:
- Euraxess Researchers in Motion
Career opportunities for researchers across the EU, including vacancies, Fellowship and grant opportunities and links to career resources. - Academic jobs EU - database of academic and research jobs within the EU
- Career.edu - international jobs board for universities and government research organisations
- Higher Ed jobs - US but has international vacancies
- FindaPostdoc - worldwide database of postdoctoral and research jobs
- US Chronicle of Higher Education - US equivalent of the Times Higher Education Supplement
- NatureJobs and Science Careers have academic research positions within science
- The National Postdoctoral Association has resources for postdocs wanting to work in the United States
- Louborough University have a list of other academic vacancy sites in Europe, the United States and a selection of other countries.
Funding
- ResearchReseach.com. Site which allows you to search for all sorts of funding, whether for full grants or funding for a field trip
- University of Strathclyde - has a list of reseach councils and other organisations offering funding and academic vacancies.
- Manchester University Funding Guide - comprenehnsive list of academic and employer-based funding sources, as well as hints and tips
Non-academic research and research-related jobs
- There is no one place to look for research jobs outside of academia. The following sources are useful starting points. You should also check out the discipline-specific pages for links to vacancies within your research area.
- Applied Industrial Research Trading Organisations - has a directory of industrial research organisations
- UK Science Park Associations
- ResearchGate - searchable database of scientific and research jobs
- The Engineer Online
- New Scientist
- PhDJobs - Dedicated job-search site for PhD holders. Includes searchable job vacancy list and CV postings
- Civil Service Jobs - the Civil Service has graduate level, PhD level and experienced hire jobs within research, administration, policy and scientific/engineering/technical roles. Sign-up facility for job alerts. You may also be interested in the Civil Service FastStream.
- Guardian jobs
Nationally-advertised jobs in a wide range of areas, especially the public sector. Very useful for those interested in research outside a university environment. Also contains useful snippets of careers advice. - HEFCE
Another recruiter of people with research/HE experience. - MyFuture
Bath Careers Advisory Service in-house system includes vacancies for graduates, PhDs and postdocs. A limited number of research positions are advertised in the sections 'For PhD students' and for 'For Postdoctoral researchers'. - TopCareerJobs
The combined vacancy site for positions with the Research Councils. The research councils are large organisations and often need people with research/HE experience to oversee strategy and grants processing. Take a look - you might like 'life on the other side'. - Graduate Jobsearch Online
Guide to academic and non-academic resources on the internet. It evaluates the information available at linked sites and includes useful information about how to incorporate the internet into your job search. Provided by the University of Strathclyde's Careers Service and sponsored by the DTI. - The Market Research Society
- Charity Job
- ThirdSectorJobs
It is also a good idea to make use of creative job-searching strategies to find opportunities with research organisations. Talk to your supervisor and other academics in your department, as they may have useful contacts. Consult the professional association (see here for a list) or body that relates to your area of research - they often have lists of research organsiations, and they also make available the career stories of people already working in research. You can also use LinkedIn to help you find organisations and the biographies of people working in them - see these videos for advice on using LinkedIn for researching people and organisations.
Graduate Jobs/Graduate Schemes
As a PhD student/post-doctoral researcher you can apply for one of the many graduate jobs or graduate schemes (one or two year structured training programmes with the larger graduate recruiters). Graduate jobs exist with both larger companies and Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises. Graduate Schemes and Graduate jobs are advertised on the Careers Advisory Service's MyFuture Database, and also on Graduate job sites such as Prospects , TargetJobs and Milkround.
Staying Local
Researchers often want find jobs in the South West or in other specific regions. Creative job searching is vital if you are limited to particular geographic areas. See also the Jobhunting by UK region section of the Careers Advisory Service website.
Recruitment Agencies
Specialist recruitment agencies can be good sources of vacancies in certain disciplines. Manchester University have a guide for postgraduates on using recruitment agencies.