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Max Planck Summer Internship Program provides the opportunity for highly motivated undergraduate students to join one of the labs at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology(link is external) (the future Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence) and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry(link is external). The program will allow you to become familiar with different scientific approaches and laboratory methods. The aim of our internship program is to provide excellent students with a broad range of research experiences and knowledge to promote them early on in their career.
Research projects will be offered in fields ranging from structural, computational, developmental and cellular biology to molecular biology, biophysics and neurobiology. You can indicate up to three of our research groups that you prefer to work with.
Research groups who are accepting interns in 2022
MPI of Biochemistry
1. Elena Conti(link is external)
2. Jürgen Cox(link is external)
3. F.-Ulrich Hartl(link is external)
4. Jürg Müller(link is external)
5. Peter Murray(link is external)
6. Petra Schwille(link is external)
7. Kikuë Tachibana(link is external)
8. Wolfgang Zachariae(link is external)
MPI of Neurobiology
1. Herwig Baier(link is external)
2. Thomas Frank(link is external)
3. Rüdiger Klein(link is external)
4. Jörgen Kornfeld(link is external)
5. Émilie Macé(link is external)
Who can apply for the Max Planck Summer Internship in Germany?
Max Planck summer internship invites is open to all excellent and enthusiastic students with top grades from all countries to apply. Training should be in biology, chemistry, computational biology, biophysics, neuroscience and related fields.
You can also apply for ADB Summer Internship
The program intends to promote students early on in their career. We welcome applications from bachelor (second year and onwards) and master students that have already gained some research experience during their studies.
Applicants need to be enrolled at university during the internship or have completed their degree in 2022. Please note that the program is highly competitive. Last year for example, we accepted 17 candidates out of more than 4000 applications.
Although we do not want to discourage you from applying, we would like to assist you, in finding out whether you do have a realistic chance to get past the first round of selection. Hence, we recommend, briefly doing the self-assessment below.
Self-assessment test
To help you to better assess your chances, please go through the questions below. To stand a realistic chance to get past the first round of selection, you should be able to answer all 7 questions with “Yes”.
If this is not the case, it will be rather likely, that your application will not be competitive and will be rejected in the first round of selection. In that particular case, it might be smarter, to apply at a later time point, when you perhaps better fulfill the criteria.
- Are you at least a second year Bachelor student or higher OR are you currently enrolled in a Master program?
- Do you have already some first research experience in a laboratory setting (such a lab-rotations or summer internships)?
- Are you in the top 10 %ile of your class or do you have a GPA equivalent of at least 3.7 out of 4 (USA), distinction level (UK) or 1.6 (Germany)? For other countries equivalent scores would apply.
- Will you be able to identify a referee (university professor or independent group leader), who knows you well and who will support you by submitting a meaningful and enthusiastic letter of recommendation?
- Do you study at an internationally recognized university with excellent reputation? (A good indicator would be if your university is among the top 500 universities, World University Rankings 2022(link is external)).
- Was your academic training in English OR do you have an English certificate such as TOEFL or IELTS score report (minimal level TOEFL: 80; IELTS: 6.5)?
- Are you currently enrolled in a university for Bachelor or Master (or equivalent) studies and/or will you be enrolled during summer 2022?
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Funding and Accommodation for the Max Planck Summer Internship
This is a fully funded internship program. Successful applicants will benefit from the following:
- Free student accommodation
- Stipend of approximately 800 Euro per month
- Reimbursement of travel costs to and from Martinsried, near Munich
How to apply
The application platform is open between January 1st and February 15th, 2022 (24:00 CET).
Registration closes on February 10th, 2022 (24:00CET). After your registration, you will be able to log in and to upload your application files at the application platform.
The International Max Planck Research School, IMPRS-LS is hosting the platform (therefore please keep in mind: without being logged in, the top menu of this page is specific for the PhD program IMPRS-LS not for MaxSIP; the top menu changes once you are logged in as a MaxSIP applicant).
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Require Documents
The following documents are required for your application:
- Curriculum Vitae (PDF file, max. 1-2 pages)
- Transcript (record of study) and degree certificate for all completed degrees (if applicable)
- Temporary/provisional transcripts for degree programs, you are currently enrolled in
- Document qualifying for university studies (typically high school degree, Abitur, Matura or equivalent)
- Letter of recommendation of one referee (see information below)
- Letter of motivation (will be typed into the application form directly, no upload)
- If an applicant’s academic training was not in English or German, a language certificate (such as IELTS or TOEFL) is highly recommended
All information need to be submitted in English or German. Please provide a respective translation if original transcripts are in a different language.
Upon submitting your complete application, you will receive an automatic confirmation email.
Letter of recommendation
Applicants need to name and invite one referee through the online application platform. We recommend that you personally contact your referee before triggering the email invitation. Please keep in mind that applications lacking the letter of reference after the deadline for submission are incomplete and cannot be processed any further. Please ensure that the referee submits the letter of recommendation before the deadline.
You will receive an automatic confirmation email, once your referee has submitted the letter of recommendation.
Time and Duration of the internship
The internship is a full-time immersion for up to ten weeks. It takes place between mid-June to end-September. Within this framework, the starting date and duration of the internship is determined by mutual agreement between the host lab and the student.
For further details, visit the official website
