Max Planck Society offers internships to Radboud students

Every year a hundred Radboud University Master’s students will complete an internship at one of the research institutes of the Max Planck Society in Germany. President of the Executive Board Gerard Meijer and President Martin Stratmann of the Max Planck Society will sign this agreement Friday 4 March.

Stratmann: “This is a great opportunity for us to become acquainted with young talent; the top researchers of the future.” Meijer: “This will offer our students the unique opportunity to gain research experience at one of the world’s most renowned research institutes.”

Scholarship

The internships will be for six months to a year. Radboud University supports this collaboration through a scholarship programme. Students following two-year Master’s programmes can apply.

Teaching experience

Another agreement made between both research institutes is that employees of the Max Planck Society will have the opportunity to gain teaching experience at Radboud University. This experience will benefit them in their academic careers, as universities often require teaching experience. In addition, both research institutes have the intention of continuing to conduct research together in the future.

Max Planck Society

The Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) is Germany’s most successful research organisation. 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists. It annually publishes more than 15,000 articles, many of them are among the most-cited publications in the relevant field. The society appoints only the very best researchers as directors, who are then given freedom to select their research teams and who will receive a long-term funding for their individually chosen research topics. There are 83 Max Planck Institutes covering various research fields including Physics, Biology, the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Radboud University

For five years successively, Radboud University has been rated by students as the best comprehensive university in the Netherlands, and based on the obtained funding of European Research Council Grants Radboud University is among the top 20 of academic research institutes in Europe (ERC 2014).

Interconnections

There are various interconnections between Radboud University and the Max Planck Society. The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics is situated at the Radboud campus. Radboud University and the MPI for Psycholinguistics together form the International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences. Legal History Professor Corjo Jansen is a member of the scientific council of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn has close ties with Radboud University astronomers and President Meijer was even director of the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin for ten years and is currently an external scientific member of the same institute.

Participating degree masterprogrammes and contact persons

Artificial Intelligence – Prof. J. Farquhar
Behavioural Science (research) – Prof. R. Holland
Biology – Dr. H. Nijssen
Biomedical Sciences – Prof. F. Russel
Chemistry – Dr. H. Nijssen
Cognitive Neuroscience (research) – Dr. A. Koning
Computing Science – Dr. H. Nijssen
Filosofie (research) – Prof. C.R. Palmerino
Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (research) – Prof. J. Oosterman
Language and Communication (research) – Dr. N. Oostdijk
Molecular Mechanisms of Disease (research) – Prof. R. Brock
Medical Biology – Dr. H. Nijssen
Molecular Life Sciences – Dr. H. Nijssen
Mathematics – Dr. H. Nijssen
Onderneming en Recht (research) – Prof. C. Jansen
Physics & Astronomy – Dr. H. Nijssen
Social and Cultural Science: Comparative Research on Societies (research) – Dr. J. Tolsma