Building the future UK science community
NPL inspires curiosity, sparks imagination, and cultivates the next generation of scientific pioneers, as well as inspiring public confidence in science where it matters most.
Supporting scientists of the future with our Graduate Scheme
Early career scientists are a key talent pipeline for NPL, providing great benefit to the organisation as well as a valuable opportunity for individuals. In 2023, we launched our Graduate Scheme, with 32 graduates joining across eight of our Science and Engineering Departments.
Powering up Britain’s apprentices
We remain invested in apprenticeships across NPL and have recruited over 140 apprentices since 2013. We currently have 24 apprentices across our science and engineering programmes, filling our talent pipelines for the future. We have continued to invest in upskilling our apprentices, with various schemes to offer further development and growth opportunities.
British Science Week
We take great pride in supporting Britain’s national Science Week every year. It allows us to engage with school children and the general public around a key scientific theme. This year we celebrated in the historic Square Mile in the City of London with a demonstration of Einstein’s theory of relativity. It involved placing a highly accurate atomic clock on the 61st floor at 22 Bishopsgate, the tallest building in the City of London, and comparing it to a second clock located at NPL, in Teddington, south-west London, the home of time in the UK.
When the two clocks were reunited, the time on the clock that was at 22 Bishopsgate was measured to have gained an additional 100±30 nanoseconds compared to the clock that stayed at NPL, entirely in agreement with Einstein’s prediction that time does travel faster the higher up you are. This means the clock would need to spend around 1 million years on the 61st floor at 22 Bishopsgate before we would see one second of difference between it and a clock at ground level.
Our ability to measure time to this accuracy helps drive economic growth for the UK with trusted timestamping for the finance sector down to the millisecond. You can find out more about our commercial time services, NPL Time Certified® and NPL Time Access® on our website.
NPL Open Day
Our Open Day is a special occasion where we open our doors to the public to experience our science and engineering for themselves. This year we welcomed nearly 3,000 guests to our Teddington site, including NPL alumni and the budding scientists of tomorrow. For many people, Open Day is their first glimpse of a real laboratory at work, and we hope to see many of our guests back in future as scientists.
The Blackett Lab Family summer experience
Collaborating with The Blackett Lab Family as part of their Representing Physics summer experience for year 11 and 12 students, we supported 30 promising students of black heritage on their journey towards scientific excellence. By fostering talent and providing resources, NPL continues to nurture the bright minds of tomorrow.
Find out more about outreach
NPL Academy
Our NPL Academy programme gives young aspiring scientists the opportunity to come and see what working in an exemplary national laboratory is like. In 2023, NPL Academy provided 67 bright minds from 35 schools with a sneak peek into the fascinating world of professional work – the largest cohort in the history of the scheme 70 NPL people facilitated this activity hosting students in 13 areas including Marketing and Communications, the International Office, Quantum Electrical Metrology, Advanced Engineering Materials, Data Science, and the National Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry Imaging. Over half of last year’s aspiring young scientists were women, and we hope to see all of them building careers in the thriving UK science and technology sectors.
Bushy House Open Day
We opened the doors of historic Bushy House in September 2023 and welcomed nearly 3,000 visitors. The day was a testament to NPL's dedication to public engagement and attendees had the opportunity to explore the wonders of science through interactive exhibits and engaging demonstrations from our experts.
Water Rockets
Our NPL Water Rocket Challenge is a 25-year institution, and each year it goes from strength to strength with teams busily engineering the best bottle-rockets they can. With water as a propellant we don’t ignite our rockets, but we ignite a passion for physics and engineering in participants of all ages, giving them hands on experience of Newtonian physics just yards from Newton’s own apple tree in our historic grounds.
