Try a Policy Internship and Apply Your Maths from Marine Mammals to Much More

If you are curious about using your maths outside academia, want to learn new skills, or just want a change of pace from your PhD, then consider a policy internship. During a three-month UKRI policy internship at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, I worked on assessing the impact of human-made underwater noise on harbour porpoises. I got to see what it was like to work for a government advisory body, and how scientific modelling is used to inform policy and real-world decision making, all whilst occasionally spotting dolphins from my office window. In this talk, I will describe my project and use it as a starting point to discuss internships more broadly: what you can gain from them, how they differ from academic research, and how to apply.