To apply for an internship placement for summer 2026 you must:

• be currently enrolled at a university/college under a 4-years program in the United States, Canada, the UK or Ireland as undergraduate student in the field of biology, chemistry, computer science, physics, earth sciences or engineering (or a closely related field)
• International students must provided that you study at a United States, Canadian, British or Irish university/college for more than 12 months at the application deadline.
• be an undergraduate who will have completed at least 2 years of a degree program by the time of the internship placement.
• prove that you will maintain undergraduate status after the internship has taken place.

German Citizenship holders: You are only eligible to apply if you can prove that you have been living outside of Germany for six years or more. Add the relevant information to your CV.

Canadian students: We work closely with the Canadian organisation Mitacs and their Globalink Research Internship program. Mitacs offers up to 100 positions  for successful matched candidates in the RISE Germany program.

We encourage all recent graduates to apply for the RISE Professional program.

DAAD scholarship for U.S., British and Irish students:
DAAD provides:

• a monthly scholarship of 992 Euros for full month
  (The amount is calculated on a daily basis if you stay less than 23 days a month.)
• health insurance, accident and personal liability insurance.
• international travel subsidy and 160 Euros travel stipend for the RISE meeting

Mitacs scholarship for Canadian students:
100 applicants receive a combined scholarship from Mitacs and DAAD:

• a funding of 7,000 CAD to support the student’s travel costs and living expenses provided directly by Mitacs
• Health, accident, and liability insurance provided by DAAD

All RISE interns are invited to the RISE Germany meeting in Heidelberg from July 10-12, 2026.

The application process is completely online at the RISE Germany internship database. Register first for a DAAD ID and get access later to the database.
(Deadline: October 15 – November 30, 2025,  11:59 pm CET – Central European Time)

You are required to write one motivation letter for each project that you apply to. You should describe your motivation for applying for this research internship by explaining how your past experience has prepared you for the position. You may also add a few words about your plans for the future. As salutary address you can directly address the internship provider. Design and formatting are up to you. We don’t have a word or page limits for the motivation letter.

You should include information about your education and work or volunteer experience, and some details about your interest or previous experience in the field. You might also mention involvement in political, cultural and social commitment. In addition, in order to ensure equal opportunities, you might also mention special life circumstances.

This is a document that you write/produce yourself and that should be no longer than one page. The “list of courses you will have completed by the time the internship begins” serves two purposes. First, since transcripts are ordered by semester rather than content, and because they often contain a large number of abbreviations, it is meant as an overview for the internship provider to better understand your academic history. And second, it gives you the chance to include all courses that are too recent to appear on the transcript. Please do not copy the entire course catalogue and descriptions.

The university transcript (Transcript of Records) lists the courses you have passed, with grades and credits obtained.
You can submit:

a) a digital transcript with university name/logo/students name and print date

or

b) a copy of a certified hard copy of your transcript
(it does not matter if the transcript bears an “issued to student” stamp)

Some universities do not complete third-party verification forms. In this case we also accept the university’s own official enrollment form as long as it shows a prospective/ anticipated/expected graduation date.
The document “certificate of enrollment” is provided by the German Federal Employment Agency that needs certain information to be able to decide on the approval of an internship. The certificate has to show stamp of the university/college and signature of an authorized person. The expected date of graduation is required in order to prove your ongoing student status to the German Employment Agency- so that they are assured that you will be continuing your academic studies in fall 2026 upon completion of your internship in Germany.

If possible, please explain to the Office of Student Services (or the Registrar’s Office) that this is not meant to be a permanent or binding date; rather, it’s meant to demonstrate that you are currently in your second or third year of undergraduate studies, and that based on a 4-year Bachelor’s Honours program, you are expected to graduate only after the internship took place.

Ask an academic from the university who can judge how well you would perform in an international research internship setting. For this purpose, someone who has taught a small class that you attended or supervised you in the laboratory is the best choice. Please ask your referee (must hold a PhD degree at least) to upload the letter of recommendation in the online database. The letter of reference must be submitted with the official letterhead of the respective university and the referee’s signature.  Please find below a guideline for your professor of what the letter of reference should contain:

• Since when and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
• The applicant is among the best students (in %): 5 %; 10 %; 20%; 30%; or no assessment possible
• How does the applicant stand out in academic and personal terms and how would you assess his/her potential?
• Of what significance is the aspired scholarship to the applicant’s academic and professional career?
• Additional information that could be of importance to the scholarship award decision?
• Degree of approval: Emphatic approval; Approval; Conditional Approval
  

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  Important:
  We do not accept recommendation letters from companies.

  If your recommendation letter is written by a laboratory supervisor of a research internship, this internship must have taken place within a university setting and lasted for a period of at least two months.

• Your letter of reference must be submitted online by your professor. After you have logged in to the database and have saved your application for the first time you will find a field named “Letter of Reference – Please create a link for your professor.” Please insert you professor’s name and email address here. A web-link will be created which is assigned to your professor’s name and email address. Your professor will get an email with this link and will be able to submit the letter of reference online.
  Deadline for submitting the letter of recommendation is December 15, 2025 (11:59 pm CET – Central European Time).

You can start your internship between May 15 and July 15, 2026 for a duration of three months (minimum stay ten weeks, maximum stay 90 days). Generally speaking the start dates in the internship offers are meant as a timeframe. They are somewhat flexible and would be determined between you and your internship provider. Get in touch with the internship provider if you have questions about the dates.

1. The internship database is open between October 15 to November 30, 2025.
2. All applications must be submitted by November 30, 2025 online (11:59 pm CET – Central European Time).
3. All letters of recommendation must be submitted by December 15, 2025 (11:59 pm CET – Central European Time).
4. Announcement of RISE internship positions by February/March 2026.