I completed my policy internship at the Centre of Science and Policy in December 2019. The internship gave me a valuable insight into how academia, science and industry interact with the most senior level civil servants from around the world. Through the organisation of policy workshops, I was exposed to a vast range of problems that governments face. This included workshops on the Brexit debate, food security in the United Kingdom and India as well as the future of energy.

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I was made to feel very welcome within the CSaP team, and always had the support needed from various team members. The exposure to some of the leading academic experts, and civil servants taught me the importance of departments such as these to influence policy around the world, using world-leading science.

A significant part of the role was writing reports after the workshop for the attendees, and sometimes the wider public. Whilst the work wasn’t always easy, I was able to improve my ability to rapidly understand complex topics, distil them into the core components and work within a team to finally publish them to world experts.

In addition to this, I was able to help in organising a workshop and prepare documents on the latest policy in plastics. I believe being exposed to so many challenges in such a short period of time allowed me to really comprehend the broad range of challenges that governments face. This will help me to inform my future career as I was brought out of my PhD silo and made to see where else my quantitative analysis skills could be used, other than in energy markets.

I believe the exposure to working at the University of Cambridge was a very worthwhile experience, and something I would recommend to all PhD students.

Guest post at CSaP’s website: http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/Research-Policy-Engagement/spotlights-blogs/guest-post-alex-kell-epsrc-policy-intern/