Elinor moves on to other adventures!

Well, I guess it’s almost that time, time for our fabulous intern, who has been with us since October, to move on to her next adventure.  She’s been a lot of fun to have around, extremely helpful, and will be greatly missed by all of us (me and Gill in particular).  I’ve asked Elinor to put together a final blog posting for us, talking about her experiences here working in the Science and Innovation team at the High Commission. Here are her reflexions on the past three months with us:

Elinor Buxton:

And so it ends. Having considered applying to the Foreign Office for a while, working in an embassy overseas was the ideal opportunity to see how things function behind the headlines. During the summer, I was working in the policy centre of the Royal Society within their science diplomacy ‘theme’. The Society has strong links with FCO and BIS’s Science & Innovation Network, and a senior British diplomat who we interviewed for a report on Malaysia suggested I wrote to a branch of the network in order to get some experience of how science diplomacy works on the ground.

That experience has been positive. Over the past few months, I’ve been kept busy by Nicole, who is scarily energetic. Among other things, I’ve gone to conferences and meetings on topics ranging from biodiversity in the Arctic to digital innovation; helped Nicole organise an event about academic development initiatives in Africa; investigated scientific research priorities at Canadian universities; and met a vast array of people across industry, academia and government. I’ve also learnt a lot of acronyms…

One of the major aims of SIN is to facilitate research collaborations between institutions in the UK and the relevant country or region. This means that a lot of the work comes down to making and maintaining contacts across different sectors to spot potential opportunities and partners. Judging by her rapidly depleting supply of business cards, Nicole has been very effective at connecting people in Ottawa, and has encouraged me to talk to as many people as will listen. I’ve had the chance to meet award-winning scientists, development policy advisers, and software tycoons.

In addition to the scientific part of my internship, I’ve gained first-hand experience of how an overseas mission works – both professionally and socially. As a nominal part of the Global Issues Group, I’ve been in meetings with FCO group heads visiting from London and the chief economic commentator at the Financial Times, and helped to organise a large reception which took place last night. But I’ve also been to Earnscliffe for lunch with the (now former) High Commissioner Anthony Cary and his wife Clare, bartended at the Queen and Albert club, and sung carols while Martin Hill, the Acting High Commissioner (to whom I owe immense gratitude for approving my internship!), played piano.

It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m very grateful to everyone who helped me and made my time enjoyable. My internship has given me very positive views of the FCO, and while I will be staying in Ottawa for the near future working on cybersecurity, attempting the E-Tray at some point remains a possibility.

I was able to come here because despite my accent, I am also a Canadian citizen, eliminating any need for visas or work permits. With that in mind, I would encourage any Canadian students or graduates who have an interest in science and are looking to get some interesting and unique work experience to get in touch with Nicole.