Science administration

Operations, strategy, or management roles in training, research funding, and scientific projects within universities, research institutes, funding bodies, or scientific societies.

Project management

Coordinating cross-functional projects in academia, non-profits, or the private sector, from guiding biotech projects through the drug development pipeline to managing strategic initiatives in a science publisher.

Consulting

Providing expert analysis or advice – most commonly on management and strategy.

Business development

Fostering external relationships that provide valuable information or may lead to future business deals or mutually beneficial partnerships.

Entrepreneurship and management

Leadership roles in (scientific) companies – with focus on operational or commercial aspects, rather than research strategy. Further details coming soon.

Clinical trial management

Working within a team who coordinate all aspects of clinical trials, from liaising with the doctors and clinics involved to analysing the trial data.

Clinical services

Technical services in hospitals and other clinical settings e.g. as an embryologist in an IVF clinic or clinical microbiologist in a hospital. These roles vary depending on the speciality and national health care system. Further details coming soon.

Clinical practice

For those with an MD or other clinical background, returning to clinical practice after a short stay in research. Further details coming soon.

Science communication and outreach

Science communication or outreach roles including roles in academic organizations, museums, and scientific societies; as well as in companies – for example in medical communication.

Scientific publishing – journal editor

Various roles in scientific publishers, most commonly coordinating the peer review & publication process for manuscripts submitted to scientific journals.

Technology transfer, IP, patent law

Helping academics and companies protect IP and commercialize any potential applications of their work, working as a patent examiner within national/EU civil service.

Venture capital

Supporting venture capital or pharma departments to make informed investment decisions, supporting existing investments, and identifying new opportunities in start-ups.

Science policy and government affairs

Supporting the use of scientific knowledge and consensus for designing evidence-based policies.

Regulatory affairs, quality and safety

Understanding, communicating and applying product/safety regulations, documenting relevant information, applying for required approvals, and coordinating related processes.

Academic principal investigator (PI)

Running an independent research group in academia.

Academic non-PI roles

Other research or research service roles e.g. staff scientist positions, or core facility roles.

Industry research

Lab-based or computational roles in (bio)pharma for therapeutic development, target identification, or toxicology, and in R&D for new product prototypes in other types of companies.

Technical support, application science, product management

Using in-depth knowledge of particular technologies and scientific tools to provide expert technical support and training to customers and other stakeholders; or coordinate overarching strategies for specific product portfolios.

Sales and marketing

Sales/marketing departments in scientific companies employ scientists for client interaction, product advice, and customer maintenance, while marketing roles focus on identifying and promoting to target customer groups.

Medical affairs

Medical affairs roles – such as medical science liaison – act as a bridge between the pharmaceutical industry and health care providers – updating clinicians on the latest scientific and clinical trial data, and getting feedback from clinics on existing products and unmet clinical needs.

Market access and health economics

Market access and health economics aims to understand the market realities for (pharma) products and to evidence the effectiveness and economic impact of a product. This is used to establish/justify a pricing structure and market strategy that will get the product to patients, be acceptable to national agencies / health insurance and re-coup the company’s R&D investment. Further details coming soon.

Data science, analytics and software

Data science / software development for non-research business areas.

Academic teaching

Teaching focussed roles at universities and other higher education institutions. 

Secondary teaching

Science teacher at schools and further (pre-university) education colleges.