About the Role
The Fossil Lab Assistant role offers a rare opportunity to work behind the scenes in the Natural Sciences Museum’s laboratories, supporting the care and preparation of real fossil specimens.
This role is ideal for anyone curious about palaeontology, conservation, museum science, or how fossils are preserved for research and display. You will work alongside museum staff, learning professional techniques while contributing to the long-term care of the collection.
This is a volunteer role, designed to provide experience, learning, and contribution. Volunteers support museum activities but do not replace paid staff or hold employee responsibilities.
What You’ll Be Doing
Under staff guidance and supervision, you may assist with:
- Basic fossil preparation tasks
- Cleaning and stabilising specimens using appropriate tools
- Supporting conservation work following established procedures
- Organising lab spaces and materials
- Observing and learning professional conservation techniques
Tasks are adapted to experience level, and full instruction is provided.
What You’ll Learn & Gain
This role is especially valuable for building experience relevant to science, museums, conservation, and heritage careers.
You will gain:
- Hands-on exposure to fossil care and conservation
- Understanding of museum laboratory practices
- Experience working with scientific collections
- Strong attention-to-detail and manual handling skills
- Insight into careers in palaeontology, conservation, and collections care
This role is highly CV-building, particularly for students considering STEM, museum studies, conservation, or heritage pathways.
Time Commitment
- Volunteering takes place on Mondays and Tuesdays
- A regular commitment is encouraged to allow meaningful learning
- We understand school, college, university, and exam pressures
Accessibility & Inclusion
The Natural Sciences Museum is committed to being inclusive.
We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds and will make reasonable adjustments wherever possible. Please let us know how we can support you.
Pay: Up to £0.01 per year
Work Location: In person
