Opportunity for research internships in Japan

PhD students can apply this month for internships that offer opportunities for a wide range of research in a very different cultural environment.

Currently, there is an Open Call for the International Internship Programme at NII, Japan’s National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo.

Interested students have until 23rd October to apply.

NII is a state-of-the-art inter-university research institute that brings together academics from across Japanese higher education institutions.

Simone Teufel, Professor of Language and Information here, has herself carried out research at NII and is coordinating applications from this Department. She says: "This internship scheme is a really fantastic opportunity for our students.

"An internship there allows them to spend time in a very different country, doing research that is intellectually stimulating while building inter-cultural understanding and mixing with fellow interns from around the world."

Josef Valvoda, a PhD student who has taken part in the internship scheme, says: "Over my return visits to NII I have earned more than just academic experience. I made friends, colleagues and memories that will keep bringing me back to Tokyo for years to come."

There are many opportunities open to our students to undertake research internships in industry. Simone Teufel says this academic scheme complements them. "Because NII is an academic institution, students can do any kind of research there from practical fieldwork to theoretical research."

The scheme is open to institutions who have a Memorandum of Understanding with NII – including this Department.

How to apply
Interested PhD students should first browse the NII list of available Internship Programme research topics. If they see a project they are interested in, they should then contact the supervisor at NII by email. 

One of our PhD students is currently in Japan on this annual internship scheme. Ieva Raminta Staliūnaitė (pictured above) is a Natural Language Processing researcher interested in ambiguity in automated fact-checking models. She has just started an 'AI and Law' project on 'Legal Natural Language Processing'.

Meanwhile Aditya Ravuri, currently pursuing a PhD here in probabilistic machine learning, is getting ready to go to NII for a project on the 'automatic evaluation of speech and sound quality'.

In the current call, there are projects available in fields from Artificial Intelligence to Quantum Information, and from Data Mining to Robotics.

Interns receive subsistence payments from NII to cover the costs of food and accommodation – and may be able to access college or Department assistance with their travel costs. If accepted, they will find themselves part of a cohort of international interns who come from Europe, North America and Asia.

And, according to Simone, interns can always find exciting things to do in their free time to complement their research. NII is very close to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and the main train station. "And as the transport links are amazing," she says, "I would urge them to take the opportunity to see the country beyond Tokyo."

• PhD students who have any questions, or would like to know more about the internship scheme, can email Simone: [Javascript required]