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Careers Resources

We provide careers resources for teachers and careers advisers in schools and universities through the UK.

Exploring bioscience careers

Not sure whether you want to go into the biosciences? Not sure what a career in biosciences has to offer?

A career in biosciences can take you in a range of different directions, and can take you anywhere in the world! The resources below will help you to explore what a career in bioscience could look like, and you can hear from biologists about their roles and how they got started.

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Students can find out about careers support for different areas of biology in our reference guides — these can help students identify possible bioscience career options and opportunities available.

As a bioscience student you may have started thinking about what comes next after you graduate. You might have a particular role in mind or you might be uncertain on your next steps. Whilst you are a part of your university, use this valuable network as much as you can — attend as many careers fairs as possible, talk to your lecturers, use the careers services, get work experience, take an internship (if available to you). We run an annual Bioscience Careers Day — this is a great opportunity to hear from people in the workforce, ask questions, and explore your options.

  • The Education Landscape Guide and the Education Landscape Index has been developed to help SME's navigate the education system. These free resources can help connect your business with education and your potential future workforce.
  • The National STEM Learning Network has a searchable database of careers resources which brings together several existing catalogues of STEM careers materials.
  • The Green Careers Hub is a resource to inform and inspire anyone on how they can play a role in greening the economy and be part of the solution to climate change. 
  • Watch interviews with 50 biologists including Sir David Attenborough Hon FRSB, Professor Dame Sally Davies, and Professor Richard Dawkins Hon FRSB talking about their inspirations and careers on our Biology: Changingthe World project website.
  • STEM Graduates is a recruitment agency working with scientists and listing jobs that are suitable for recent biology graduates.
  • Science Careers, from the peer-reviewed academic journal Science, provides tools for starting and developing your career as well as a worldwide jobs board and information on graduate programmes.
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute have created a range of careers videos covering scientific roles, and supporting roles such as communications, legal, HR, and design.
  • The Wellcome Sanger Institute also offer a free virtual work experience course, suitable for 14+ year olds. The course gives an insight into the diverse careers available in genomics, science and data, and participants can chat to scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, via a secure platform, to ask questions about their jobs and career paths. 
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Make a Difference

This careers resource was jointly developed by the Biochemical Society, British Ecological Society, British Pharmacological Society, Microbiology Society, Society for Experimental Biology, Royal Society of Biology and The Physiological Society.

Bioscience learned societies offer a range of services and support for their members, such as scientific conferences, publishing specialist journals, careers guidance, grants, competitions and awards.

Schools may download a PDF file of the six careers posters for use in their school.

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Sport and exercise help us to keep our bodies fit and healthy and can be used to help patients recover from illness and injury. Biologists play an important role in identifying and developing the best ways for doing this.

Follow a career in biology and you can make a difference. You could play a vital role in patient recovery or help to train an Olympic athlete.


Training athletes

Biologists play a key role in supporting athletes to improve their performance and meet their full potential. Exercise physiologists monitor how an athlete’s body performs during a particular exercise. They take measurements such as:

  • maximum oxygen uptake
  • hydration
  • body mass and density and percentage body fat
  • energy expenditure and running speed.

They use this information to highlight the athlete’s individual strengths and weaknesses, and work with coaches to develop personalised training programmes that help to improve fitness levels and maximise the athlete’s performance.

Exercise physiologists investigate the effects of nutrition and training on performance and recovery from injury. For example biologists have linked high-intensity endurance exercise to a reduction in immune system function leading in an increase of cold and flu infections. This is important information for athletes who complete in events such as triathlons or marathons as it helps plan their training to incorporate a balance of exercise and rest that limits the impact on their immune system. Food scientists and biotechnologists produce food and energy drinks to maximise performance, while microbiologists and pharmacologists work to develop treatments for diseases that occur commonly in athletes (e.g. foot infections in football and basketball players).


Keeping healthy

Life expectancy is increasing. As people live longer it is more important that we keep our bodies healthy. Epidemiologists help us understand the link between exercise and disease and this knowledge can be used to inform public information campaigns on how, and what type of, exercise can be used to prevent (and reduce) diseases like high blood pressure, heart failure, obesity and osteoporosis.


Recovering from injury and disease

Exercise can be used for rehabilitation from diseases, like cancer and heart attack. Physiologists can help design exercise ‘prescriptions’ and monitor patients to aid their recovery.

Physiotherapists help and treat people of all ages with physical problems caused by illness, accident, injury or ageing. They work with patients to identify and improve their movement, function and well-being. They aid rehabilitation by developing treatment programmes that help restore body systems (for example, muscular and respiratory systems). Treatment can include manual therapy, massage, specific exercises and the use of technological equipment, like ultrasound. Physiotherapists also provide advice on how to avoid injury.


Where do these biologists work?

Physiotherapists and exercise physiologists work in a range of settings — including hospitals, health centres, industry, schools and universities, private practices and sports clubs. Teamwork is very important to these roles. As well as being able to build up a rapport with athletes or patients, it is important to maintain communication with their relatives or carers and to work with other professionals like GPs, nurses, coaches and social workers.

There are also jobs that involve communicating to the public, school students, journalists and the government.


Job titles you might see for biologists working in sport

Physiologist, sports scientist, exercise scientist, physiotherapist, epidemiologist, food technologist, lecturer, pharmacologist, sports rehabilitation, sports therapist, personal trainer, nutritionist, biochemist, biomedical scientist.


Further information

Food is an essential part of our everyday lives, providing the nutrients we need to grow and keep our bodies alive. Biologists play an important role in food safety, food development and ensuring we all have enough food to live.

Follow a career in biology and you can make a difference. You could help to feed the world.


Food security

The world’s population is growing rapidly (and predicted to be 9 billion by 2050). More people on the planet means more food is needed to feed everyone. However, the amount of land available for growing crops is decreasing, and the effects of climate change are affecting where crops can grow. These factors will lead to a shortage of food in parts of the world. Producing enough food to feed our expanding population has been recognised as one of the greatest challenges facing mankind.

Biologists are helping to solve the problem by developing crops that can cope with difficult growing conditions. For example, biochemists and geneticists are researching ways to genetically modify crops to give them new properties so they can grow in harsh conditions or so they are more beneficial to people who eat them. These include:

  • resistance to drought
  • resistance to pests
  • increased nutritional value
  • allergen-free

Food scientists are developing new technologies for storing, preserving, packaging and transporting food and stopping or slowing food spoilage and wastage. Environmental scientists are studying how safe and nutritious food can be produced in a sustainable manner with minimal impact on the environment and animal welfare.


Food development

Biologists play a key role in producing food and drinks and developing new products.

Biotechnologists design the manufacturing processes and machinery used to produce food and drink. This allows products with a consistent flavour, colour and texture to be produced in large quantities. They also work with existing and newly discovered ingredients to invent novel recipes (for example modifying foods to create fat-free products or ready meals) and develop foods to boost our immune system, protect against disease and even make us smarter.

Microbiologists have a role in food development. Microbes are used in some of the fermentation processes that produce food such as bread, chocolate and cheese, as well as drinks like wine and beer. Others make products that are used as ingredients – for example, thickening agents in jam. And some microbes (usually bacteria) are probiotics – these are similar to the beneficial, or 'friendly', bacteria found in your gut. Probiotics can be introduced into foods like yoghurt, and may help to relieve and treat gut and intestinal disorders. Microbiologists study these organisms and advise on their use in the food industry.


Where do these biologists work?

Biologists in the food sector can work in a variety of settings – including the food industry, government or local authority research departments, research institutes, universities or quality inspection and control on production lines. Their work may involve building relationships with suppliers and customers, working with other scientists and engineers, and ensuring products are safe and profitable.

There are also jobs that involve communicating issues related to food security and safety and new developments in food technology to the public, school students, journalists and the government.


Job titles you might see for biologists working in the food industry

Biotechnologist, food technologist, epidemiologist, microbiologist, biochemist, geneticist, botanist, toxicologist, horticulturalist, consumer scientist, plant scientist, wine maker, environmental health officer, product developer, quality control, quality assurance, dietician, nutritionist.


What you might study

Food science, ecology, botany, immunology, microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, pharmacology, animal science, agricultural science, crop science, plant science, aquaculture, nutritional science , molecular gastronomy.


Further information

There a host of careers in healthcare where you will be playing a crucial role in the diagnosis, prevention and cure of disease and illness, helping people across the world. A career in medicine doesn’t just mean ‘become a doctor’.

Follow a career in biology and you can make a difference. You could play a key part in diagnosing, treating and curing diseases.


Solving the disease puzzle

There are many diseases, such as smallpox, that used to kill millions of people but now, due to medical intervention, are now no longer a problem. But there are still a huge host of diseases that we cannot cure, such as cancer or malaria.

In order to try and cure diseases biologists must first understand one of the most complex systems on earth: the body. They need to understand what the disease is doing to interrupt the body’s pathways and try of think of ways to fix it. This takes years of carefully planned experiments that will at first happen in test tubes before moving onto more complicated organisms.

There are many different types of biologist that investigate the body and disease from different angles. For example, in malaria research, there will be parasitologists studying the lifecycle of the malaria parasite within the mosquito and the human body and thinking of ways to interrupt this cycle. Entomologists will be investigating ways to control the mosquito population. Immunologists will be looking at how the body’s immune system defends itself against the parasite and trying to find a way to help it fight the parasite more effectively or to develop a vaccine to prevent infection. Pharmacologists will be working to develop new drugs to cure the symptoms of disease or stop the parasite causing disease. Epidemiologists will be tracking disease patterns and monitoring the success of control measures.


Medicine on the wards 

There are a host of biologists that work to diagnose and treat patients. Pathologists work in laboratories examining samples of blood and tissue for signs of disease that might indicate what’s wrong with a patient and how best to treat them – pathology is involved with 70% of diagnoses made in the NHS.

Microbiologists identify the cause of infectious disease and determine which drugs (antibiotics) will work against the infecting organism. They also work in infection control and carry out surveillance projects (for example screening staff and admitted patients for carriage of MRSA).

Molecular biologists test for genetic diseases and provide genetic counselling to help couples make reproductive decisions. Haematologists test blood for transfusion and clinical biochemists match donors and recipients for organ transplantation. Pathologists can work in morgues or with forensics teams figuring out how someone died.

Research scientists work in laboratories to develop new technologies to diagnose the cause of disease more accurately and quickly (and cheaply!) and to develop new drugs. Biologists also consider issues such as how diseases may evolve to change the way they are transmitted or develop resistance to treatment. They work with governments agencies to produce guidelines and preparedness plans for potential future threats.


Developing new medicines

As biologists begin to build up a better picture of what a disease is doing to the body they can think of ways to stop it – cure – or better still stop the disease developing in the first place – prevention. Either way you are going to need a new medicine. Pharmacologists are a type of biologist that investigate new medicines and help determine how they help the body fight the disease. One of the most famous pharmacologists, Sir James Black, invented the beta blocker that helps people combat heart disease by increasing the width of their blood vessels, to reduce the pressure and prevent them having a heart attack.

It takes, on average, 10-15 years to take a new medicine from the lab to the shelves of your local pharmacy. This is because all new medicines need to be rigorously safety checked – especially when the first humans try the drugs in clinical trials. Toxicologists will assess the new drug for any potential toxic side effects and think of ways to make them safer.


Where do these biologists work?

Medical biologists work in a variety of environments. They could be based in the lab of a hospital, university, research institute or biotech company or perhaps work in an industrial lab for a pharmaceutical company. Investigating tropical diseases could lead you to taking your lab to the rainforest to collect samples!

There are also jobs that involve communicating to the public, school students, journalists and the government.


Job titles you might see for biologists working in healthcare

Physiologist, epidemiologist, medical microbiologist, clinical biochemist, cytogeneticist, pharmacologist, toxicologist, haematologist, histopathologist, immunologist, virologist, gastroenterology technician, pathologist, biomedical scientist.


What you might study

Physiology, immunology, microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, neurobiology, pathology, pharmacology, endocrinology.


Links

Animals have a huge impact on our lives. They are pets, food, pollinators, decomposers, predators and parasites. Biologists study animals to find out how they shape our world, what they can teach us about ourselves to help us to conserve our planet and improve human and animal health.

Follow a career in biology and you can make a difference. You could improve the well-being of domestic animals and expand our understanding of animals in the wild.


Animals and the environment

Field biologists study the behaviour of animals to see how they make use of their environment and interact with each other and with other species. Knowing how songbirds eat enough during the winter to stay alive, but not too much to stop them flying away from predators, allows biologists to work out when the public should leave out birdseed. Learning how honey bees, who pollinate many of our food crops, pass on their knowledge of where flowers are by dancing for the rest of the hive, can help us combat the decline in bee populations. Knowledge of animals and the environment can help us plan ways to conserve endangered animal species around the world.


Animal behaviour

Studying animals allows us to see the amazing way in which nature operates; finding out how Earth’s ecosystems work, examining our evolutionary history and the human impact on the planet. For example, marine biologists have found out how dolphins use individual clicks to call specific individuals in their pod, in the same way we use names. Primatologists have found that capuchin monkeys play trust games, putting their fingers in each other’s eyes. Ornithologists have found lyre birds can mimic the calls of other species and even car alarms and pneumatic drills. And mathematical evolutionary biologists have discovered that it was farming goats and cows that made human adults tolerant to lactose.


Animals and medicine

Agricultural scientists study the animals we rely on for food. Epidemiologists track the spread of animal diseases, such as Schmallenberg virus and bovine tuberculosis, and advise governments and farmers how to best control the disease to minimise its impact on food supplies. Microbiologists study the causes of infectious diseases in farm animals and how they can be cured. Behavioural biologists examine the conditions farm animals live in, how to reduce their stress and keep them healthy. Vets work with laboratory scientists to develop drugs to keep farm animal (and our pets) healthy.

Studying the animal equivalents of diseases that have spread from animals to humans (such as HIV) has given vital clues to the evolution of those diseases, enabling new treatments to be developed. The plants that chimpanzees eat when they are feeling ill gives us clues about which plants may have medicinal properties that we can use. Some surprising animals have even been used to better understand the human body and how it works. For example, in the lab, biologists use nematode worms to find out about our nervous system and fruit flies to investigate genetic mutations.


Where do these biologists work?

Biologists who work with animals work in a range of occupations and locations — including conservation groups, zoos, aquariums, museums and universities. For example, vets work both in private practice, treating animals, and for research institutes. Animal technicians care for animals in research institutes and sanctuaries. Ecologists and animal biologists often work in the open air, for environmental consultancies, charities and governmental bodies.

There are also jobs that involve communicating biologists growing knowledge of animals to the public, school students, journalists and the government.


Job titles you might see for biologists working with animals

Zoologist, ecologist, field biologist, evolutionary biologist, wildlife biologist, marine biologist, animal behaviourist, ornithologist, entomologist, primatologist, herpetologist, epidemiologist, microbiologist, biochemist, lecturer, wildlife rehabilitator, zoo keeper, museum curator, conservationist.


What you might study

Zoology, ecology, immunology, microbiology, biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology, cell biology, chemistry, conservation biology, marine biology, evolution, biodiversity, biogeography, animal behaviour, animal science, agricultural science, environmental science, veterinary science, aquaculture, land management, wildlife management.


Further resources

We make our land work hard for us, to feed us and provide us with water and places to live. Often we have to restore habitats so that other animals and plants can return to the land we use. Biologists find ways to protect the environment and help humans to live sustainably.

Follow a career in biology and you can make a difference. You could protect our plants and animals and the habitat they live in.


Conservation

Biologists are involved in protecting, managing and monitoring the existing resources of our land including:

  • analysing soil, water and air for chemical pollution
  • finding ways to clean up pollution
  • identifying, recording and monitoring the plants and animals that share the land we use.

Biologists look at ways environmental contaminants (such as chlorinated pesticides, heavy metals and oil spills), can be removed from the land using bioremediation (rather than introducing more chemicals). For example some microbes, naturally present in soil, contain enzymes that can change the structure of the toxic hydrocarbons present in kerosene-based jet fuel transforming them into harmless carbon dioxide. These microbes have been used to successfully clean up fuel spills in many areas.

Field ecologists record the plants and animals they find, the quality of the habitats they are in and any changes that take place over time. Biologists work with the public and other groups to make sure that people can enjoy and use the land while limiting their impact on the plants and animals found there. For example, they study the interactions of birds and plants to educate farmers on the advantages of having botanical field borders (rather than fences) and offer advice on the composition of plants required to sustain the native bird population.


Building and Industry

Most industries have some effect on the environment and there is government legislation that requires industry to reduce its impact on land, air and water. Biologists working within industry might be involved in the planning of a new road to make sure important wildlife areas are not disturbed or they might be employed after mining activity to restore damaged land.

Ecological consultants carry out environmental impact assessments, which must be completed before any major building/planning project is undertaken. They provide advice on how a particular project might impact on the land, plants and animals. In cases where a project must happen but will affect important species, ecologists help to move animals to new homes and create appropriate new habitats.


Where do these biologists work?

Ecologists work for a variety of organisations with a range of roles. They might have a conservation role, protecting, managing and monitoring existing resources or work within industry to design and supervise restoration projects for disturbed, degraded or contaminated land. One of the biggest growth areas in the environment sector is ecological consultancy. The UK like many other countries has national agencies, both government and charitable with responsibilities for conserving wildlife.

There are also jobs that involve communicating to the public, school students, journalists and the government.


Job titles you might see for biologists working in land restoration

Ecologist, conservationist, biochemist, toxicologist, microbiologist, environmental analyst, environmental consultant, environmental health officer, environmental planner, forester, oceanographer.


What you might study

Land management, geomicrobiology, ecology, environmental science, marine biology.


Further resources

Shaping the future

You might think that we know all there is to know about biology. It is true that we have learnt a lot (but not everything) about how individual bits and individual organisms work, but organisms (be it humans, animals, plants or even bacteria) don’t live as individuals and there is still a lot of work to be done in understanding how communities work.

Biology is so key to our fundamental existence that there will also be jobs for people who are interested in how to shape the science of the future.

Biologists have a vital role to play in exciting developments for the future, working to produce new and innovative technologies and preparing us for the impact and consequences of climate change. Many new technologies are closer than you think….

Follow a career in biology and you can make a difference. You could tackle some of the big problems facing our society and help to improve our quality of life for the future.


Medicines

Exciting advances are happening in medicine and in the future, we may get our medicines personalised to us, based on our DNA and environment, making sure we get the most effective treatments possible.

Now that rapidly sequencing an individual's DNA is possible, scientists looking at pharmacogenetics study how variations in a person’s genome can affect how well they respond to certain drugs. Small genetic differences can mean that some people break down certain drugs too slowly, leading to adverse drug reactions and side effects. This will allow doctors to give people the most effective medical treatment available. Biologists will also be involved in considering and regulating the ethics of this work.

Chronobiology involves studying the natural rhythms of the body throughout the day. Research has shown that some drugs are more effective when taken at certain times of the day, so biologists are working on finding out when medicines will be at their most effective.


Biotechnology

Biotechnology is an exciting field that applies biology to some of the world’s biggest problems, in food production, sustainable fuels and medicine. Biologists work with technologists, engineers and doctors to use biology to create new technologies to answer some of these questions.

Developing new biofuels from non-food crops, waste biomass, algae and microbes will allow us to create cleaner and greener energy which is more sustainable than fossil fuels. Challenges for biologists in the future include making sure that new biofuels don’t damage the environment or threaten food supplies or land usage, as well as being good value.

Other exciting research into green fuels includes creating an ‘artificial leaf’ which would allow us to capture energy from the sun and store it as fuel, using synthetic biology to artificially create a reaction similar to photosynthesis. As the product would be chemical, this will be easier to store than the energy collected through solar panels, making better use of the sun’s energy.


Systems biology

Systems biology is a growing field which looks at biological systems as a whole, using a range of approaches to explore interactions within networks and systems. For example, to look at how cells function, biologists working on genetics and biochemistry work together with mathematicians, physicists and computer modellers to collect data on different aspects of cell signalling. This allows us to get a bigger picture of what is going on inside cells and other biological systems.


Where will these biologists work?

The future of biology will involve biologists from all over the world working in a variety of settings, from university laboratories and research institutes, in the pharmaceutical and food industries, in agriculture, in hospitals, working in the field and other places. Some of the most exciting work in science occurs when biologists work with scientists and techniques from chemistry, physics, engineering and maths to create interdisciplinary projects.


Further resources

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