About Health Data Research UK

What we are doing at Health Data Research UK and through the UK Health Data Research Alliance is different, even revolutionary. We are bringing together people from different backgrounds, breaking down walls between organisations and disciplines, and creating a community of innovators who can deliver our mission: to unite the UK’s health and care data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives.

The Alliance member organisations include NHS Hospitals, Research Organisations and Charities. Together we want to attract and develop health data scientists who are visionary, embody our values, create strong partnerships and deliver great health data research and societal outcomes.

Black Internship Programme - Summer 2022

The Black internship programme for health data scientists is an exciting new endeavour. Black data scientists are currently under-represented within the health data science community, and this is one of several steps that we are taking to start to address this.

By bringing together the extraordinary variety and breadth of data activities across the Alliance organisations – different diseases (from cancer to cystic fibrosis), different organisations (mental health trusts to biobanks), and from different parts of the country (all four nations) - we are creating an internship programme to attract talented Black people who are considering a career in health data research.

The programme is of 8-week duration during summer 2022

Interns will be recruited and employed by one of our participating host organisations and will participate in a programme of training activities throughout the internship.

About you and the role

As a health data scientist intern, you'll be involved in conducting research and analyses using health data. You'll help develop approaches which will influence how health and care are provided. Here’s a taste of some of the areas you could be involved with:

• Supporting research and developing health data analysis.

• Collaborating with health care and systems teams to understand organisation needs and devise possible solutions.

• Learning about latest health data research approaches and technologies

• ·Communicating results and ideas to internal and external stakeholders.

• Implementing new statistical or other mathematical methodologies as needed for specific models.

• Coordinating joint efforts with external partners by ensuring appropriate database use and project design.

Your skills

We don’t expect you to have developed all of these just yet, but some of the skills you could have are:  

•  Sound quantitative skills and the ability to conduct analyses using data.

• Competent pattern recognition and predictive modelling skills.

• Have a passion for solving health data problems, no matter how big or small; and are strongly motivated to get things done.

• You have an appreciation of  the big picture of our health data research mission and balance that with a collaborative mindset to prioritise your work.

• You have confidence in your verbal communication and presentation skills

• Being willing to learn and want to develop new skills and  tackle new areas.

Who can apply?

You are encouraged to apply if you are a Black person currently studying at a university in the U.K., on a gap year or recently graduated from a U.K. university .(2020 and 2021) This is open to Black persons of all academic backgrounds.

It is ideally suited to individuals with a degree in maths, biological sciences, and engineering or computer sciences.

Applications are open from the 24 November 2021 – 21 January 2022 

Intern interviews take place between 21 February 2022 – 1 April 2022

The eight-week internships commence 4 July 2022 - you must be available to participate during the daytime for the full duration of the 8 week programme.

Benefits

You'll benefit from:

• Being part of an organisation that is leading health data science in the UK

• Working alongside experienced health data scientists, learning the latest tools and methodologies

• Being part of an internship cohort, receiving formal training, and learning from each other, This will also support your current or future studies as well as your career development.

Completing your application

You’ll answer some questions that are related to your day-to-day work or study. We will also ask you upload your CV. Once your application is complete your answers will go through our de-biased sift process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then scored by members of our team. Your CV is not used as part of the shortlist and won't be viewed unless you are shortlisted.

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you to the next step, which includes an online interview. Due to the high volume of candidates that we receive for our internships we can't guarantee that we will be be able to provide personal feedback to candidates that do not reach the shortlisting stage.