BRF Research Officer (Entry level or Experienced Animal Technician/ Aquarist)
Short summary
Interested in working with animals and taking care of them? Enjoy practical work and have an empathy with animals? If yes, then the role of an Animal Technician/Aquarist may be perfect for you.
At the Francis Crick Institute, we offer training and support to start a rewarding career where you can make a positive difference to both research and animal welfare.
The Biological Research Facility (BRF) is the Crick’s animal facility, offering resources and services to those scientists who use animals to answer their research questions.
The BRF provides high quality husbandry to a variety of laboratory species housed within our cutting-edge facilities, and supports all animal research at the Crick through our comprehensive animal care and use programme. We provide a service to ~550 Personal Licensees using ~55 Home Office Project Licences.
We are incredibly proud of our work, enabling world class science with animal welfare at the heart of all our activities.
The BRF has approximately 150 highly trained animal care staff spread across several self-contained animal units. Our teams of Animal Technicians and Named Animal Care and Welfare Officers (NACWOs) provide daily care for our animals and support researchers with their experiments, to minimise any distress or adverse effects.
Key Responsibilities
• Providing excellent care, welfare and husbandry to laboratory animals including mice, rats, laboratory opossums, ferrets, zebrafish, guppies and frogs, within specialist facilities.
• Cleaning cages/tanks of animals
• Feeding and watering animals
• Checking environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and water quality
• Monitoring the condition of animals and making health observations
• Undertaking domestic duties such as general cleaning and disinfection of equipment and areas
• Complying with relevant legislation, such as, Animals (Scientific Procedures Act) 1986 and Health and Safety Regulations