Do you have an interest in evidence-based policy?
Do you want to help build links between academics and policy-makers?
Do you want to build your networks?
We are looking for enthusiastic people from across the university to join the 2024-25 CUSPE committee. Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE) is the society dedicated to linking early career researchers and policy-makers, and our committee works to organise opportunities throughout the year to discuss current policy issues, provide skills development and career insights for researchers, and allow them to develop networks with policy-makers.
Available Roles – Round Two
Positions are currently open for students, post-doctoral researchers, and alumni of the University of Cambridge to join our committee serving as:
- Vice President
- Lectures Lead/Team
- Workshops Lead/Team
- Forum Team
- Chief Editor of the Cambridge Journal of Science and Policy (CJSP)
- CJSP Editorial Team
- CJSP Illustrators
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- Marketing and Communications Lead/Team
- Finance and Fundraising Lead/Team
- Webmaster
How to Apply
A list of role descriptions are provided below.
To apply, please email a short application with the title of the role you wish to apply for and a brief background of yourself and your motivation for applying to contact@cuspe.org. Please specify if you are applying for a team lead or team member position.
If you have any further questions please email contact@cuspe.org.
Deadline
Friday 21st July
Role Descriptions
Vice President
The Vice President provides support to the President and the other teams in CUSPE as needed. This year the Vice President will assist the President in carrying out in-person events taking place in Cambridge, including Fresher’s fair and CUSPE launch event. The Vice President is also responsible for coordinating with Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) on the CUSPE Scholarship, which provides funding for young people leaving care to complete hands-on paid work experience with CCC. Therefore, the Vice President needs to be flexible, as well as demonstrate good organisational and communication skills.
Lectures Lead/Team
The Lectures Team is responsible for organising our public lectures programme. Lectures cover discussions on the science-policy interface including current and future challenges and there is a significant amount of flexibility when choosing topics. Topics are chosen based on suggestions from committee members, personal interests or suggestions from the wider CUSPE network. The team’s activities include finding and inviting speakers from academia, government or industry, booking venues, and ensuring that events run smoothly. The Lectures Team also works closely with the Marketing and Communications Team to share and promote the events. Lectures Team members are likely to be responsible for organising a particular lecture including identifying a speaker and organising ticketing and promotion, or leading on particular aspects of an event e.g. room booking/promotion.
Workshops Lead/Team
The Workshops Team is responsible for organising our workshops programme. Workshops cover a variety of practical skills or important knowledge relevant for researchers interested in influencing or moving into science policy. These are events that bring early-career researchers and policy-makers together to discuss chosen topics through an interactive event format. Topics are chosen based on suggestions from committee members, personal interests or suggestions from the wider CUSPE network. The team’s activities include finding speakers, organising workshop exercises, booking venues and ensuring that events run smoothly. Some workshops might require collaboration and coordination with other Cambridge societies and/or policy institutions. The Workshops Team works closely with the Marketing and Communications Team to share and promote the events. Workshops Team members are likely to be responsible for organising a particular workshop or panel discussion, including identifying speakers, deciding themes and organising ticketing and promotion, or leading on particular aspects of an event e.g. room booking/promotion. The Workshops Lead is responsible for coordinating the workshops programme as well as ensuring that actions required for event organisation are completed and events run smoothly. This role involves working closely with the Lectures and Marketing Leads.
Forum Team
The Forum is CUSPE’s annual conference which brings together early career researchers and policy-makers. With their The Forum is CUSPE’s annual conference which brings together early career researchers and policy-makers. With their team, the Forum Lead is responsible for developing the event programme and determining the theme for a half-day or day-long event. The Forum Lead also manages the budget and liaises directly with high-profile speakers within the policy community and academia. They work closely with the Marketing & Communications Team and Finance & Fundraising Team to promote and build on the success of previous events. This role is ideal for someone looking to demonstrate leadership and project management skills. Forum Team members will be responsible for helping to deliver the above objectives, as well as being responsible for individual events within the Forum programme, developing a communication strategy to promote the Forum outside Cambridge, design of marketing material and undertaking fundraising and sponsorship for the Forum.
Chief Editor of the Cambridge Journal of Science and Policy (CJSP)
The Chief Editor will be responsible for coordinating Volume 6 of the journal, ideally over two issues. This involves recruiting and selecting a team of editors, working with the Journal’s marketing officer to advertise the call for papers across social media and relevant newsletters, managing the triple-blind peer-review process, uploading finalised articles to the University’s repository, Apollo, and preparing a final PDF for printing. Ideally, this person will have prior experience of being on the Journal’s Editorial Board in a previous year, although this is not essential.
CJSP Editorial Team
Editors manage the blind peer-review process for individual articles and make sure that each contribution to the Journal is finished to a high standard.
CJSP Art Illustrators
For the current issue of CJSP we are also recruiting Art Illustrators. Art illustrators produce custom drawings that go with the articles written for CJSP.
There is a slightly different application process here, please send 1-3 pieces of work to gt342@cam.ac.uk to apply!
Treasurer
The Treasurer balances income with spending to ensure delivery of CUSPE’s mission. At the start of the academic year, the Treasurer prepares the account form for the Senior Treasurer’s approval and works with team leads to decide on budgets. During the academic year, the Treasurer is responsible for approving and reimbursing major committee spending and updating CUSPE’s accounting statements regularly. At the end of the academic year, the Treasurer summarises CUSPE’s financial position.
Secretary
The Secretary of CUSPE manages the records of the society and the CUSPE calendar. In addition to taking minutes at committee meetings and circulating those to the committee, the Secretary tracks the activities of the society and makes sure actions are completed. They work closely with team leads when scheduling events. This role is good for those seeking to demonstrate their ability to coordinate across teams. The Secretary will also be responsible for organising committee meetings and keeping membership of the internal communication channels up to date.
Marketing & Communications Team/Lead
The Marketing & Communications Team coordinates making and distributing all the marketing materials for all of CUSPE’s events. The Marketing Team usually has enough team members to have one assigned to each of the other CUSPE teams (lectures, workshops etc.). The team creates materials to advertise for the Freshers’ Fair, lectures, workshops, and the Policy Challenges, and produces a newsletter to keep CUSPE members updated about events and current opportunities in the wider world of science policy. These are shared on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Mailchimp. Marketing is also responsible for contacting other email lists (e.g. college and departmental) and other potential marketing channels to promote events to wider audiences.
Finance & Fundraising Team/Lead
The Finance & Fundraising Team makes the work that CUSPE does possible by bringing in sponsorship and developing the financial and fundraising strategy for the year. The role of Finance & Fundraising Lead is ideal for someone looking The Finance & Fundraising Team makes the work that CUSPE does possible by bringing in sponsorship and developing the financial and fundraising strategy for the year. The role of Finance & Fundraising Lead is ideal for someone looking to demonstrate strategy development and communication skills, as key tasks involve identifying and liaising with sponsors. This role involves working closely with the Treasurer and the President. Finance & Fundraising Team members support the team lead and will work to deliver the team’s objectives, including developing fundraising strategies and identifying new revenue streams, and liaising with both internal (colleges/university) and external (charities/NGOs) funding partners.
Webmaster
Team members will be responsible for uploading new publications from CJSP to the journal website, and creating new pages/posts for the CUSPE website, as required by members of committee. Ideally, the webmaster should be able to use HTML and have previous experience in web design and development, both frontend and backend although this is not an absolute requirement. The Webmaster maintains and upgrades the CUSPE and CJSP websites/servers, ensuring that information is always up-to-date. The Webmaster is responsible for working with the Marketing Team, keeping synchrony between the society’s communications (newsletters, social media) and the website and liaising with the Journal Team on creation of new website content.
