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Volunteer with us
Pint of Science Australia is a national not-for-profit organisation and registered charity, supported entirely by volunteers, that aims to increase awareness and appreciation of science in Australia.
Our flagship annual festival and off-season science engagement activities serve to bridge the gap between research and the Australian public, provide a platform for researchers to communicate their science, and for volunteers to develop their professional skills and networks that can facilitate their career progression.
We offer a broad range of volunteering positions across the organisation, including one-off on-the-night volunteers, festival-focused coordination roles, and year-round national positions which help keep Pint AU going.
Already know about us and keen to join the Pint AU Team?
Explore our current availabilities >>
The benefits for you, as a volunteer
We believe in the growth of others. We value the contributions from each of our volunteers and strive to give back in the forms of mentoring and professional development.
Whether you are a recent graduate looking to gain experience to strengthen your employability, a professional switching careers and looking to put new skills into practice, a passionate individual wanting to help further science communication, or just want to volunteer for a good cause, Pint of Science Australia is the place for you.
What it takes to be on the Pint AU team
Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT have be a scientist. We are looking for motivated and dedicated volunteers with diverse skills to offer, a willingness to learn, and a desire to collaborate with people from different backgrounds.
We operate based on shared values of respect, inclusion, belonging, collaboration and accountability, and we expect our volunteers, speakers, sponsors, partners and stakeholders to be aligned with these values.
Current volunteer availabilities
Our organisation offers a variety of leadership and supporting roles across our National and Local Teams.
National Team
If you're after a leadership or a supporting role on the National Team who run Pint AU’s year-round activities, get in touch by responding to the relevant Position Description.
Learn more about National Team Roles >>
Local Team
If you're after a volunteering opportunity on one of the Local Teams who run the annual May festival in their city or town, complete our Volunteer EOI.
Learn more about Local Team roles >>
Speakers
If you're interested in presenting your research at our next festival, complete our Speaker EOI.
Speaker EOIs for our 2025 Festival will open in November.
Learn more about our Speaker opportunities >>
A little more about our volunteer roles…
Not sure on a team or role? Read through the information below and see what best suits your interests, skills-set, and time commitments.
National Team
As a member of the National Team, your commitment to Pint AU extends beyond the annual festival. You’ll play an important role in shaping the national initiatives, with a focus on long-term strategies and improvements for Pint of Science Australia.
We have both leadership or supporting roles available to help Pint AU stay in operation.
Finance
We're a GST-registered charity. In this portfolio, you’ll manage the financial operations of Pint AU to ensure the long-term success of our science engagement activities and the annual festival.
Key responsibilities include budgeting, reporting, and compliance.
Operations
In the Operations team, you can focus on different aspects of the annual festival to best coordinate with Local teams across the country, on running or improving year-round operations, with roles offered in
- Festival Operations
- IT, and
- Merchandising & Logistics.
Key responsibilities for our Festival Operations roles include coordinating and guiding our local teams to ensure timelines are on track for a successful festival across the country.
Our IT and Merch roles will help to ensure our website is running smoothly, and our awesome merch reaches our volunteers and audience every festival.
Media & Communications
Help spread the word of #PintAU, our annual festival and science engagement activities across traditional and digital media channels!
Key responsibilities of our Media volunteers include liaising with news and radio contacts ahead of the festival, and the running of our podcast and blog throughout the year. Meanwhile, our Communications volunteers manage the brand and website, engage with our audience on social media and help to improve our internal communications practices.
Strategy & Policy
In our Strategy and Policy team, you’ll play an important role in shaping our goals as an organisation, determining the best paths to achieve them, and measuring how well we do.
Key responsibilities include expanding partnerships to support our ongoing science engagement activities and annual festival, creating a better volunteering experience, leading data analysis and reporting, setting out clear policies and helping translate them into action.
Local Team
Our Local Teams operate in the events environment in the lead-up to, and during the annual festival. As a member of a local team, you’ll work with volunteers in your local city or town and receive support and direction from the National Team to deliver the annual Pint of Science festival across Australia.
We offer both longer-term roles and one-off, on-the-night positions to support the success of our annual May festival.
City Coordinator
The City Coordinator leads and coordinates a Local Team to deliver the annual festival in their town or city. Working closely with the Festival Operations team in the National Team, this leadership role coordinates and delegates tasks across the group of engaged volunteers in their Local Team.
Depending on the size of the city, this role may include some on-the-ground activity (such as going to venues to secure bookings), but for larger cities should primarily be a coordination role.
Note that some cities may choose to merge the City Coordinator and City Assistant Coordinator into two equal roles of 'City Co-Coordinators’.
City Assistant Coordinator
The City Assistant Coordinator’s responsibility is to help the City Coordinator with general management tasks. They may assist with on-the-ground tasks for smaller cities (such as securing venues for the festival), or may be purely a management role in larger cities.
The City Assistant Coordinator should be across all aspects of the local festival, to step in and act as the City Coordinator should there be a need.
Note that some cities may choose to merge the City Coordinator and City Assistant Coordinator into two equal roles of 'City Co-Coordinators'.
Venue Manager (Includes Speaker Liaison)
The Venue Manager is responsible for a venue for the Pint of Science festival in their city or town. In this role you will have a variety of tasks to ensure the successful running of the event. This includes keeping in regular contact with the venue, organizing and coordinating with speakers, MCs, and “on-the-night” volunteers at your venue, leading a small team to run the event for up to three nights, making sure that all necessary reporting and stocktaking has been completed, and maintaining appropriate branding while in uniform. It is important to stay organized and on top of these responsibilities in order to ensure the smooth operation of the event.
“On-the-night” Volunteer
The “On-the-night” Volunteer role is for those who want to be a part of the Local Team in a low-commitment way. Their core responsibility is to help out where needed on the night (and up to three consecutive nights) of the May festival.
It is still expected that “on-the-night” Volunteers assist with tasks where asked, and to complete anything they commit to, but this role allows more flexibility in task responsibility.
Speaker
At the annual Pint AU festival, you’ll present your research in a relaxed and casual pub environment to the public. You’ll avoid jargon and do your best to capture your crowd’s interest in your research in only 10-15 minutes.
Outside of the annual festival, we aim to engage with speakers and continue to raise awareness of research through our online channels, including the Pint AU Podcast “Pod of Science” and Pint AU Blog.