Self-organised Placements

Making contact with your desired institution

You should contact the head of the department and/or lab you selected via email. Send a short cover letter (in English or the local language) that provides information about the purpose of your request (looking for a placement), your time window (when are you available) and your motivation to address exactly this institution. Always attach a CV concentrating on your relevant (practical) skills.

Tip: The longer your internship can last, the better the chance to get a positive answer (starting from 8 weeks or more).

Attention: It may take a long time to make contact. Expect approximately two answers from ten requests. It may be necessary to send your request a second time to get any reaction.

Funding possibilities

If you have a positive answer for a placement you need to see for funding possibilities. First of all, you may ask if there is any financial support from your hosting instituition, e.g. direct payment or care for housing or travel expenses. You can find out more about further funding options here.

Things to have in mind when planning your internship aboad

Before your departure you should take care of several important points:

• housing (ask hosting institution or look on the open market)
• leave of absence at Göttingen University
• skills in the local language (ZESS, VHS)
• insurance coverage (health, accident and third party insurance)
• visa
• vaccinations

Field reports about placements abroad

If you aspire to pursue an international internship, the opportunities are boundless. Numerous students have successfully secured suitable internships in the past, each employing distinct methods to find their ideal placement. In one student's report, they shared their experience:

"One evening, I watched one of those numerous TV shows about nature conservation projects, which was not unusual for me. What made this particular evening special was that, after the documentary ended, I decided to get in touch with one of the conservation experts featured in the show. A few minutes and a few clicks later, I wrote him an email asking if I could possibly work in his organization for six months. I mentioned how much I enjoyed the documentary and how conservation was truly my passion. Surprisingly, I received his response the very next morning, thanking me for my interest, redirecting me to a colleague, and recommending the website Primate Info Net. Immediately, I found some interesting volunteer jobs on the site and sent out two more emails. Just one more day later, I received a response from the Spanish Jane Goodall Institute West Africa, suggesting that we communicate directly via Skype instead of email. And so, two days after cute animals appeared on my TV screen, I found myself completely unprepared, having an impromptu job interview in English with the director of the institute in Barcelona."

Below, we provide a comprehensive list of institutions where students have completed their internships in recent years. We hope that this compilation will serve as a source of inspiration for you in your search for potential internship opportunities.

• Naturraum Planungsbüro in Tirol
• Research station "Tour du Valat" (Camargue)
• Institute of Functional Genomics, Lyon
• Institute of Medical Science, Aberdeen
• Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences in Newcastle upon Tyne
• Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN), Oxford
• Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge
• Kenedy Institute of Rheumatology, Oxford
• Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University Krakow
• Institute for Animal Breedings and Genetics, Uppsala, Sweden
• SciLifeLab, Stockholm
• Jane Goodall Institute West Afrika, Dakar, Senegal
• Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation (BWI), Croatia
• Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC) at Umeå University
• Mediterranean Institute of marine and terrestrial Beiodiversity and Ecology, France