Careers Beyond Academia
Information to help prepare for careers beyond or alongside academia, including advice and support to commercially develop your ideas.
It is becoming widely recognised by universities and funding councils that many who embark on an academic career will leave and pursue careers beyond academia. In fact, current data suggests 9 of 10 PhD students or first post-docs will not remain in academia. Many of the skills that researchers have developed throughout their undergraduate, post-graduate and during their post-docs are highly transferrable and sought after. However, it can be difficult to make the decision to leave academia and to know how to make the steps necessary to move into a different sector. This page aims to provide information to help with this process.
Deciding to leave academia
Many post-docs find it difficult to talk openly with their PIs or other staff about leaving academia but it's a common occurrence and your PI should support your decision. P&DR is useful way of bringing this up and an opportunity to plan training while you are still at the university, making use of IAD course and the 10 days professional development allocated to all staff.
10 days Professional Development page
IAD Research staff development page
We have a series of recently recorded talks from college alumni who have made the transition from academia into a wide range of employment types. Share their journeys and be inspired by visiting our Careers Beyond Academia talks.
Careers Beyond Academia talks and events
Non-academic careers within the university
There are often opportunities to continue your employment at the university by stepping out of academia and into a non-research role. There are plenty of examples of this and often some of your management team, administrative and research-support, or strategic and planning colleagues are former researchers! Once in these roles, it can be possible to move to similar roles in other academic or industrial settings. Connecting to a mentor who works in a sector you are interested in can help you decide and they will give you advice on how to seek employment - Platform One is the University's mentoring service. There are also some useful resources and stories of how people have made this transition on the IAD career case studies pages.
Start-ups and spin-outs
Have you ever thought about translating your ideas into a product or company? Many former post-docs have made the leap to commercialisation through their research findings or ideas stimulated by their research. There are opportunities within the university and partners to help translate ideas into innovation and commercial opportunities.
Edinburgh Innovations is the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service and have a wide range of start-up and spin-out support, funding, and opportunities for researchers, including help and funding to develop industry-academic collaborations. There are also several case studies to provide inspiration.
Innovate UK is the UK’s national innovation agency and provide grants and other resources to support innovation in all sectors, including research and development innovation through a range of grant schemes
Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA)
SULSA is an alliance of twelve Scottish Universities that aims to advance Scotland’s research and innovation in the life sciences and have a wide range of resources tailored to ECRs. They provide a useful database considering careers beyond academia, including case studies for people moving into roles in industry, policy, science communication, entrepreneurship, and roles in the wider university sector.
SULSA Post-academic careers database