The UK Government has launched its No.10 Innovation Fellowships Programme to find the top talents working in digital and technology across academia, industry and civil society.
The scheme, part of the UK’s National Data Strategy, means that 10 selected Fellows will enter government each year, to help ‘transform public services’, ‘accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge approaches’ and ‘deliver positive societal impact’.
Data scientists and tech entrepreneurs are just some of the examples of candidates that ‘No.10’ is hoping to attract to the programme, which is inspired by the US Presidential Innovation Programme that saw participants from big tech giants, startups and academia help create new products and services in everything from healthcare to natural disaster relief.
Successful Fellows in the No.10 scheme will get to deliver important projects that may otherwise not have been possible outside of government, collaborate with other top minds in their fields, and build links with both the No.10 Data Science Team and the Government Digital Service.
The projects that would-be Fellows could work on, include the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)’s ‘Designing high-impact data solutions in the fight against COVID-19 and beyond’. For this, the DHSC are seeking experts in Data Science/ Architecture and in Product Management and Strategy.
Every chosen Fellow will be offered a Senior Civil Service (SCS1) 12-month contract, with the possibility of an extension to 24 months, with a recruitment and onboarding process, as well as in-programme support. Each Fellow will be matched with a suitable government department and gain access to ‘senior decision makers’.
Around 20% of each Fellow’s working time will also be reserved for induction, coaching, networking, and for relevant and potentially impactful ‘personal projects’ with other Fellows – such as building an app for their department or mentoring early career data scientists.
To find out more about the Fellowship Programme, and the other roles and projects outside of health and care, visit the dedicated campaign page.
