After one challenging year the Baltic Science Network finished the pilot phase of the Baltic Science Network Mobility Programme for Research Internships (BARI). More than 158 applicants, 182 internship offers from 72 universities and research institutions, 12 calls for applications, and 10 participating countries in the Baltic Sea Region, proved that a mobility programme for research internships is highly desirable, and of great benefit to capitalise on the research capacity in the Baltic Sea Region.

Despite the barriers to mobility imposed by Covid-19, the flexible structure of the BARI programme allowed students and their PhD-hosts to take advantage of the limited mobility windows conceded by the pandemic, and managed to award 60 scholarships, all in compliance with safety standards and respecting mandatory health protection measures.

The positive feedback we receive from the participants motivates us to look for new funding to continue the BARI programme, and this is our task now. However, as it will take some time to continue with the programme and considering that many participants have mentioned the ease of finding research opportunities as an advantage, we have meanwhile opened a Research Internship Market for listing internship offers. This way, students who are interested in doing research internships may find access to offers, and PhD candidates, who want to host students to work on their projects, find a way to post their offers and make them visible. For their part, each student will be responsible for finding the source of funding for the internship independently, for instance: through the options offered by the Office of International Relations at each university, Erasmus +, and other national funding agencies.

You will find detailed information about the Research Internship Market here: https://www.baltic-science.org/research-internship-market/  

We would be grateful if you could share this information with PhD students, who may be interested in offering research internships, and with students, who are looking for internships, in the areas of Life Sciences, Photon and Neutron Sciences, and Social Sciences. If you prefer to use a pre-formulated text, please let us know and we will provide it.