Max Planck Summer Internship Program

Max Planck Summer Internship Program

PLEASE NOTE: Due to organizational reasons, there will be no MaxSIP in summer 2024. We aim to resume the program for summer 2025. Information on application deadlines and participating labs can be found on this website in fall 2024.

Our Summer Internship Program (MaxSIP) provides the opportunity for highly motivated undergraduate students to join one of the labs at the Martinsried, near Munich based Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (MPI-BI) and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB). 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 areas and labs

 

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. The labs accepting interns for summer 2025 are expected to be listed here in fall 2024.

For information on our research labs, please visit
research groups of the Max Planck Institute of Biological Intelligence (MPI-BI) and
research groups of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB).

Please do not contact any lab heads directly. For questions not answered on this website we will publish an e-mail adress on this page once the program resumes.

Who can apply?

 

We invite 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.
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 2025. Please note that the program is highly competitive. Last term 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 estimating whether you do have a realistic chance to get past the first round of selection. Hence, we recommend the following self-assessment.

Self-assessment for potential applicants:

To help you to assess your chances for a successful application, please go through the questions below. For a realistic chance to pass the first round of selection, you should be able to answer all seven questions with “YES”. If this is not the case, your application will likely not be competitive enough and will be rejected in the first round of selection. In case you can not answer all seven questions with yes, you might therefore consider an application at a later time.

  1. Are you at least a second year Bachelor student or higher OR are you currently enrolled in a Master program?
  2. Do you have some research experience in a laboratory setting (such a lab-rotations or summer internships)?
  3. 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 apply.
  4. 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?
  5. 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).
  6. 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)?
  7. Are you currently enrolled in a university for Bachelor or Master (or equivalent) studies and/or will you be enrolled during summer 2025?
Funding and accomodation

 

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

 

Application and dates

 

The application platform will probably open between January 1st and February 15th 2025 (24:00 CET). Registration would then close on February 10th. After your registration, you will be able to log in and to upload your application files at the application platform.
 

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 uploads the letter of recommendation.

Length and timing

 

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.

Selection process

 

The program committee will evaluate and select students based on their grades, research experience, CV, letter of motivation and letter of reference. The committee aims to announce their decisions to the applicants by the end of March 2025.

The number of internships is limited. Host labs will interview pre-selected students interested in working in their labs via Skype, Zoom or other means.

Social activities

 

During your internship, you will be a full member of the institutes with the ability to join numerous social activities such as lab parties, hikes, sports groups, PhD activities, the institutes’ summer parties, in-house lectures and much more.

About the institutes

 

The Martinsried-based Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence are located door-to-door at the life science campus Martinsried. The working language at both institutes is English.
The Campus Martinsried is located at the outskirts of Munich, not far away from the Bavarian Alps.

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