We are excited to be recruiting for our next round of innovation internships, where an interdisciplinary cohort of PhD students will join a 3-month internship to get first-hand experience of mission-led, early-stage innovation. Building on our successful 2022 innovation internships programme, we will be bringing together a new group of PhD students who will apply their research skills and knowledge in work with founders, and to learn what it takes to build and run a commercial start-up with a big social mission.

Applicants must have a strong interest in one of Zinc’s four broad missions to: improve mental health, tackle challenges relating to the future of work and improving financial resilience, support healthy ageing, and reduce environmental harms.

This is an exciting opportunity for PhD students to:

• Get a different kind of “industry” experience
• Develop knowledge and understanding of early-stage innovation and the role of research within that
• Design and deliver research and demonstrate project management
• Gain experience in translating research and research-based expertise into clear information resources for use in commercial contexts
• Broaden your network in a multi-disciplinary, cross-sectoral environment
• Benefit from the support of our in-house Research & Development team
• Make a meaningful contribution to the development of new products and services in areas you care about

Zinc has launched a new business unit focused on IP and knowledge related venture building – Zinc Deeptech Ventures. The deeptech team is focusing on ventures being spun out of academic and industry institutions as well as independent deeptech developers to build up as successful startups and enterprises, while still aligning to the core of Zinc, its mission-driven venture building.

The successful candidate will:

• Co-lead this new business unit, moving from proposition-development and testing through to launch, iteration and scale.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with deep tech originators (universities, corporates) to drive sourcing and assess investment opportunities, as well as other key stakeholders such as funders.
• Oversee venture building implementation of the knowledge-led venture builder within Zinc.
• Secure funding and develop a sustainable business model for the business unit.
• Design and deliver individual and cohort programmes, including working with the ventures very closely in a hands-on capacity where necessary, helping source talent for the ventures and helping navigate the Zinc ecosystem of support with the ventures.
• Monitor, evaluate and improve the program to maximize results.

We are looking for an experienced individual with expertise in this mission area, with a bias to action and an appetite for learning about how research and evidence can be applied in impact-focussed commercial startups. Ideal candidates will have research experience in at least one of the areas outlined above (e.g. during a PhD). We are open to candidates with any research background (e.g. social sciences, economics).

The senior R&D associate will, along with others in our team, work collaboratively with Founders as they explore problems and start building new solutions. They will contribute to:

• Deepening founders’ understanding of the general mission area (e.g. through giving talks, or conducting rapid literature reviews)
• Supporting founders in conducting user research (e.g. qualitative interviews, surveys) and data analysis
• Building connections with key experts in the mission area (e.g. to bring them into give talks)
• Supporting founders with broader research-related needs such as grant applications and university partnerships
• Working with founders to develop their ideas into products and testing them with users

We are mobilising an exciting and ambitious agenda focused on researchers in ventures. We want to create new opportunities for researchers to move into fulfilling research roles in ventures, and advance their research agendas and careers within venture roles. We are launching new platforms for (i) PhD students, (ii) PhD graduates, and (iii) researchers already working in ventures focused on supporting researchers to apply and advance their skills and research careers.

We are excited to be growing our team in order to advance this ambitious agenda and are looking for a new Managing Director to lead this programme of activities.

The successful candidate will be accountable for:

• Leading this new business strand, moving from proposition-development and testing through to launch, iteration and scale
• Overseeing scouting of research talent, ensuring that we attract the best research talent
• Designing and delivering the programmes, including shaping relevant research projects with ventures and researchers, supporting researchers’ personal and professional development, delivering engaging cohort-based content, and working towards productising and scaling the model
• Securing funding and developing a sustainable business model for these ‘researchers in ventures’ platforms
• Building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders (including funders, universities and ventures)
• Monitoring, evaluation and reporting on these programmes (e.g. to relevant funders)