Career Stories: A day in the life of a policy intern

Some meetings in the office, some in the greenhouse

Recently, we welcomed Aston Saini to the John Innes Centre’s policy team for a three-month internship. Earlier this month, we shared Aston’s  first blog Aston Saini, PIPS placement student – What I’ve learned about scientists engaging with policy makers.

In this second  blog we asked Aston  to tell us about his experience of   working at the John Innes Centre, in the policy team. Over to Aston:

“I’m a final year Plant Sciences PhD student from the University of Oxford, who is currently on a three-month long Professional Internships for PhD Students (PIPS) placement at the John Innes Centre.

I was asked to describe a typical day working in the policy team, but that might be impossible. Policy is so fast moving, and every day is completely different. So, I’ll do my best to get most of the key daily interactions in, alongside some of the highlights of this PIPS placement.

My day begins when I arrive at the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park and pay my dues to Rex the science cat. Whether petting, or a nod of acknowledgement, this is nigh on a right of passage for anyone walking through the John Innes Centre’s reception doors.

Most days, I spend time working with the scientists at the John Innes Centre and the wider Norwich Research Park. One of the policy team’s core objectives is to aid scientists in identifying and removing barriers to their work. This involves discussion with researchers about their science, the wider field and how we can solve problems together.

Researchers at all levels provide a wealth of information on the current state and the future of science, and so I spend time to find out key information that we can pass on to policy makers later down the line.

As a scientist, I love this part of the placement. Finding out about new science, and even better, getting to talk about it and ask questions to the people doing the research.

The other people I work with daily are policy makers. They are the decision makers; the people with means and responsibility to make change happen. They often come to us for evidence and advice on numerous topics, asking what they should be looking out for, or potentially changing. For me, this involves taking all the information gathered from our experts and bundling it up into a nice digestible form to communicate a clear message.

So far, I’ve had the chance to engage with MPs, civil servants from Defra, funding bodies, and other policy staff through networks and forums. The most exciting events I have worked on are the visits and conferences. The planning aspects can be a little hectic, but seeing everything come together is incredibly satisfying. More importantly,  it is great to know that your efforts are contributing to making science and policy run more smoothly. There’s nothing quite like seeing it as it is happening right in front of you, and knowing you made it happen.

One thing I came to realise is that the plant science world is more interconnected than I realised. My PhD supervisor, Professor Paul Jarvis, completed his PhD at the the John Innes Centre . This, I knew. But what I hadn’t realised is that the JIC’s Professor Cathie Martin was his PhD supervisor. These connections made the place feel personal and special to me.

I have learnt that the John Innes Centre has a rich history dating back to the very origins of “genetics” as a field of study. William Bateson coined the term ‘genetics’ and shortly after became the first director of the John Innes. Whilst on my placement, I had the chance to look at some of the archive and old records in the Rare Books and History of Genetics Library. I got to look through some of Gregor Mendel’s early work, filled with Bateson’s annotations of “WRONG,” “NO, NO, NO,” and other objections. It is nice to know that reviewer culture has not changed!

I also saw in the JIC’s archives and rare books collection book from Germany, detailing Arabidopsis thaliana as “a weed of little use”. Five hundred years later, and I’m in the 4th year of my PhD working on Arabidopsis, which is arguably one of the most important species in science.

I’ve had an amazing time on my placement. I’ve discovered so much, and had such wonderful interactions with so many people. The community and culture at the John Innes Centre is like no other. I have gained an immense amount of knowledge and experience that I can take forwards into my PhD and life beyond. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped and supported me in my time here. Please make sure to pet Rex daily when I’m gone.”

We would like to thank Aston for writing this blog, and wish him well in the future.

If you are interested in talking to him about his time working here, you can contact him via X (@Aston_Saini) or discord (_aston).

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