Technicians at the LMS
Here at the LMS, technicians are essential; our research is not possible without the work they do and the expertise they offer. We endeavour to ensure our technical staff are able to access the developmental opportunities and professional support they need.
Technician Commitment
The LMS is a signatory to the Technician Commitment, a sector-wide initiative which aims to address the particular career challenges faced by technical and scientific support staff.
The Commitment identifies four target areas to improve and safeguard vital technical skills. The pledge will ensure greater visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technical staff across all disciplines at the LMS.
We are an active member of the Research Institute Technician Group RITG, maximising opportunities for cross-institute collaboration and best practice sharing.
We’re proud of our initiatives and achievements
Here are just a few examples of our activities since becoming a signatory to the Technician’s Commitment in November 2019:
We’ve built a network for staff with the committee meeting on “Technician’s Tuesdays” once a month
We host a range of skills-sharing, training, information and social events throughout the year
We’ve been awarded a Special Impact award for our work
We support LMS technical staff to achieve their Professional Registration
We’ve developed a Technician Exchange Scheme with our sister MRC institutes, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and MRC Harwell
We continue to ensure we recognise and celebrate our science support staff in research publications and wider communications campaigns
Opportunities
Our technical staff work over a range of areas, methods and specialities. We have technical staff who work as laboratory managers in research teams, and we also have our scientific facilities, which are staffed by technicians. Vacancies emerge periodically and will be advertised on our vacancies page.
Professional registration
Hear from two of our technical staff who have received their professional registration on how they found the process and what the qualification means to them.
Science technology graduate programme
The LMS has established a new science technology graduate programme designed to train and develop fresh science graduates into highly sought after technical professionals. The 2-year programme offers aspiring young scientists the opportunity to work within our cutting edge core research facilities to develop their technical expertise and scientific knowledge and interact with some of the best scientists in the UK.