Who are we?
The Polonium Foundation is an NGO dedicated to unlocking the potential of the Polish scientific diaspora. We are a group of enthusiasts: from postdocs to astronomers to business consultants. We are mathematicians dealing with communication, sociologists researching the Polish scientific diaspora, engineers managing conferences, biologists (not only) running Facebook, physicists looking for partnership opportunities, postdocs taking care of e-mail inboxes. In short: you will definitely find yourself here!
What do we do?
It all started with the organisation of the annual Science: Polish Perspectives (SPP) conference in Cambridge and Oxford, where about 200 Polish scientists working mainly abroad gather every year. Keynote speakers, talks by young researchers, workshops, panel discussions and lots of fun - this is what you can find at SPP. Over time, we have grown and spread our SPP tentacles to several other European countries.
Besides wanting to meet the Polish research diaspora, as befits scientists, we decided to research it. In 2018, we published our first report with science policy recommendations, and launched a new project #FromPolandWithScience. More recently, we organised Polonium Webinars, a series of online events, as well as a network of Polish researchers working (predominantly) abroad.
How do we work?
We’re a team of about 20 volunteers, spread all around the globe (mostly Europe and US). We work online, via Slack and other platforms such as Trello. The working language of our team is predominantly Polish, but we can make adjustments if need be. In non-pandemic times, we also try to meet in person from time to time!
You’ll find the following role descriptions below:
Registration Officer
Partnerships Officer
Graphic Designer
Member of Polonium Network Team
Member of Research & Policy Team
Member of Oxford Logistics Team
Polonium “Astronaut”
And here’s what we look like when we manage to meet IRL:
Working time
Volunteering with us requires some flexibility, but people usually spend no more than a few hours a week on Foundation tasks. We are also flexible, we know very well what it’s like to balance your “day job” or your studies with other tasks!
What do you get?
In all our activities, we rely on the efforts of our amazing team of volunteers - they’re our most important asset! In return, we can offer:
Access to our events, including travel grants, and access to some partners’ events
Chance to develop new skills (including specialist training where possible)
Regular meetings (when possible!)
Networking & access to our contacts
Being part of a friendly, supportive team (sounds cheesy but it’s true!)
Uznanie nawet najsuchszego poczucia humoru :)
ROLE DESCRIPTIONS
Here are the roles we particularly need at the moment. Please email us on joinus@poloniumfoundation.org with your CV and a few words of which role interests you and why.
None of these quite suit you but you are still interested? Get in touch anyway!
1. Registration Officer
Desirable skills: love of spreadsheets, attention to detail, good communication & “customer service” skills, patience, excellent organisation and a tendency to live your life in “Mailbox 0” mode. Did we mention the love of spreadsheets?
Tasks:
Creating and maintaining registration documents during our events (we work on Typeform & Google Spreadsheets)
Being the point of contact for attendees: running the event mailbox and answering queries, preparing emails to attendees (usually via MailChimp)
Working closely with the rest of the Events Team
2. Partnerships Officer
Desirable : experience (or interest) in making & maintaining business connections and connections with other institutional partners, great diplomatic skills.
Tasks:
Obtaining new partners (business & institutional): researching, contacting the partners
Preparing Partnership/Sponsorship offers
Presenting our activities and “pitching” them
Working closely with the Partnerships Team
3. Graphic Designer
We are looking for people experienced OR interested in graphic design. (Desirable: experience with Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop or similar. Or willingness to learn!)
Tasks:
Graphic design: designing content for our social media channels, newsletter, events.
Other Comms Team tasks you could be involved in:
Helping run our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn channels
Participating in creating Foundation’s communications strategy
Working closely with the Communications Manager and the Comms Team, as well as the rest of the Foundation Team.
4. Member of Polonium Network Team
At the moment, we’re particularly looking for people experienced OR interested in the technical aspects of the site & database management. You don’t need to know any programming languages, but some interest in the technical “backstage” will help.
Tasks:
Providing basic technical support for the Polonium Network Team (not too technical if you don’t want it to be!)
Co-creating the direction in which Polonium Network will develop
Maintaining the job offers database and keeping it up to date
Being the point of contact for our developers
Working closely with the rest Polonium Network Team
5. Member of Research & Policy Team
Desirable: experience (or interest) in science policy & diplomacy, good organisational skills, familiarity with research methodology such as literature searches or social research (or willingness to learn).
Tasks:
Participation in preparing and shaping our Policy strategy
Planning and writing policy reports & papers (researching, contacting relevant stakeholders & experts, preparing recommendations)
Presenting the research and the recommendations
Help with “horizon scanning” and researching new areas of interest
Working closely with the rest of the team as well as with the Communications Team to publicise outcomes of the research
6. Member of Oxford Logistics Team
We’re looking for someone, ideally Oxford-based or with good local knowhow, to help us organise SPP 2022 in Oxford! The coordinator is also Oxford-based, so you would be working closely with her.
Tasks:
Helping in organisation of our biggest annual event (this year: in Oxford in October 2022)
Helping to plan entertainment
Liaising with local venues (main event venue as well as bars or restaurants for social events)
Helping attendees & team with any tips that might require local know how
7. Polonium “Astronaut”
Interested with working with Polonium Foundation but none of the above roles seem to suit you? Drop us an email, telling us why you’d like to join and where you think you could fit, and we’ll see what we can do!
How to apply?
Send us your CV (send it as you have it, we just want to know where to start the interview :) ) to joinus@poloniumfoundation.org and write in a sentence or two which role would interest you and why. We will reply as soon as possible to arrange an interview!
Deadline to apply is 31st March 2022, but we'll be interviewing on a rolling basis so don't delay - roles may disappear before the deadline!