Apply to Research Internship
Students in undergraduate program or recently graduated interested in joining the OIST PhD program may undertake educational activity at OIST as a Research Intern. A research internship at OIST provides students with experience working in a research environment under the direction of OIST faculty.
Research Intern places are awarded twice a year on a competitive basis. Selection is highly competitive, and depends on suitability of the intended research, academic background, available funding and space. Not all available positions will necessarily be filled.
OIST strives to create and maintain an inclusive, equitable, and diverse environment that does not discriminate against gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, medical condition, race, ethnicity, ancestry, culture, national origin, religion, or marital status. Applications from women and other underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged.
Application Procedure
- Applications to the program must be made through the online form.
- You can only submit your application after at least one recommendation letter is received in the application system.
- You will receive an auto-notification that your application has been received. (Please check your settings to ensure you can receive emails from @oist.jp domain.)
- Following the application period, applications will be screened and selection will be completed.
- The result announcement will be posted on your application platform 3 months after the application deadline. You will receive a notification when the result is posted. (In some cases, applicants’ email services/settings prevent receipt of our notifications. Please confirm that your inbox is able to receive emails from @oist.jp domain.)
- Following final confirmation of internship offers, all necessary arrangements will be made, in cooperation with the interns. Your cooperation is required for timely completion of logistics to begin the internship, including possible visa preparations and other necessary Japanese government documentation.
Eligibility
Those eligible to apply for the OIST Research Internship Program include excellent students who are in the final 2 years of the undergraduate or Masters programs in universities, colleges, junior colleges, and vocational schools in Japan or overseas, or graduates of such institutions. Currently enrolled students must have approval from their home institution. Academic background of applicants should be appropriate to their desired host unit(s) at OIST.
Application Deadline
Application Round |
Period of internship |
Application Deadline |
Result Announcement |
| Round 1 | Between October 1st – March 31st | April 15th, 23:59 (JST UTC+9) | July |
| Round 2 | Between April 1st- September 30th | October 15th, 23:59 (JST UTC+9) | January |
*The period of the internship must be between 2 and 6 months consecutively. Under the current immigration restriction, applicants who require visa for the internship should consider an internship of at least 90 days in order to be eligible for visa application.
*Due to COVID-19, arrivals of students residing outside of Japan is subjected to the international travel restrictions. Under current requirements, foreign residents will have to do 14 days self-quarantine after arriving to Japan. Upon arrival, all students are required to undertake PCR testing prior to starting the program.
Therefore, please note that your departure date for OIST will be:
Foreign residents: about 3 weeks prior to internship start date.
Residents in Japan: about 3 days prior to internship start date.
*Date is subject to change on availability of the unit.
Required Application Materials
Once you have obtained/ prepared all the documents above, please apply to the program through this APPLICATION FORM
OIST Research Internship Program Description
The OIST Graduate School offers education and research opportunities through our Research Intern program. The duration of the internship is typically from 2 to 6 months. These short-term placements give students the opportunity to gain experience in a particular laboratory or to learn a specific technique. Interns will work under the direction of a Professor and contribute to the research activities of OIST.
Internships may begin and end at any time during the year, with two application periods. For details about the application process and deadlines, please see the section “Apply to Research Internship.”
Support
OIST will provide the following support for successful applicants.
Internship Allowance
- JPY 2,400 per working day (taxable and weekends excluded)
Commuting Allowance
- OIST Shuttle Bus Pass
Travel Expenses
- One direct round-trip air ticket (travel date will be closest date to the term of placement)
Overnight Accommodation
- Furnished apartment on or off campus
Other Support
OIST will also assist in visa acquisition, insurance procedures, and local registration. This will only be provided for the student. Therefore, this does not pertain to the dependents and family members of the student.
Regulations
Applicants who intend to import biological or hazardous material for their research are urged to insure that such import is in compliance with all regulations of their home country, any country of transit, and of Japan, and to complete all necessary paperwork for importation well ahead of time.
Detailed regulations pertaining to matters of payment, intellectual property rights, attendance, health and safety, and other matters have been drawn up and will be made available to successful applicants.
Research Internship FAQ
Condition to Apply
This table lists information about research units and their projects available for interns. Additionally, you can learn about more of the research going on at OIST here. Please have a look and see if there is anything suitable to your interests. As we continue to grow new areas of focus will be added, but main fields represented at OIST are in the areas of science and technology.
For students who have not yet graduated, we are able to accept an unofficial transcript or other official university document showing your courses and grades.
We accept recommendation letters from any supervisor/ professor who is familiar with your work and your character. It is not required that the recommendation be from your current supervisor, but it is in your best interest to request a recommendation from someone who is able to comment on your abilities and potential relevant to research for your proposed internship.
Students are accepted to the OIST program and will go through lab matching process, therefore it is important to list the Faculty of Interest, but it is not necessary to contact faculty to get their approval or support prior to applying. In general, please consider the relevance of your message prior to contacting the faculty.
RI Application
If you don’t know which are your family name/last name and given name/first name, that’s OK. Some countries don’t have that concept. So please enter “,” comma to the family name field and put all your name in the given name field.
To minimize the chance of technical problems, please be sure to have all of the correct documents (as PDF files), your photo (as a JPEG file) and all text answers prepared in advance, and complete the application in one brief session. If your internet connection is not strong, it would be best to minimize the number of tabs open in your browser window(s) while completing the application.
A common reason for submission issues is the format of the entered e-mail address. Following are the most common causes of e-mail errors:
- Space in front or end of the email
- Invisible 4 byte unicode character inserted in the email address. This often happens when you copy and paste email address from other document files. Please clear the column and re-type the email address using the keyboard
- Please also check your email address field too. You need to have both email addresses(yourself/referee) in correct format to avoid the error message.
You can no longer make any changes to the application once it is submitted, and you cannot withdraw it yourself. If you really must make some changes to your application, you may request us to reverse the status of your application to “In Progress” by submitting a Contact Us form. However, it is your responsibility to submit your application again before the deadline. Please take enough time to revise your application and make final submission. There are no advantages by submitting the application earlier.
As we have thousands of applicants to our program, we are not able to take the time to individually handle special requests. We would certainly welcome your application in future application rounds if you are unable to make the current deadline.
Deadline for submitting recommendation letter(s) is the same with the application deadline. However, please keep in mind that you can only submit your application after at least one recommendation letter is received in our system, so please make sure to communicate with your referee(s) and give yourself enough time. When the letter is submitted, you will receive a notification from the system, and you can proceed with submitting your application at that time.
Once you have invited your referees, you can check the status of your invitation by logging in to your account. You will be able to see the status of your invitation (Sent, In Progress, Submitted). You can also resend your invitation.
Depending on the settings of your referees’ email accounts, there are cases the invitation letter sent from the system will be classified as Spam or Bulk mails. If your referees cannot find the invitation from their Inbox, please ask them to check Spam or Bulk folder as well.
If it is difficult to provide in English, you may submit your original transcript along with an English translation. The translation may be done by you.
You can upload other government issued identification documents instead. If you receive a positive result, we will need the copy of your valid passport at that time for visa application and travel arrangement.
Yes, leaving this field blank will not affect your application in any way, as we understand many universities do not share class rank information with students.
Result Announcement
Please refer to this link for details.
Minor changes to timing of internships is to be expected, and does not present a problem. For accepted intern candidates, final steps include confirming dates with both the accepting faculty member and the intern. Major changes to internship dates are strongly discouraged and can lead to the cancellation of an internship offer. Please consider timing in advance and apply during the appropriate round for your dates.
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