Max Planck Summer Internship Program - MaxSIP

Research projects will be offered in fields ranging from structural, computational, developmental and cellular biology to molecular biology, biophysics and neurobiology. You can indicate up to three of our research groups that you prefer to work with.

Sorry, but so far, there are no research groups who are accepting interns in 2023.

Please do not contact any lab heads directly. If you have questions not answered on this website, please get in touch with the MaxSIP team via email: maxsip@neuro.mpg.de

We invite excellent and enthusiastic students with top grades from all countries to apply. Training should be in biology, chemistry, computational biology, biophysics, neuroscience and related fields.
The program intends to promote students early on in their career. We welcome applications from bachelor (second year and onwards) and master students that have already gained some research experience during their studies.
Applicants need to be enrolled at university during the internship or have completed their degree in 2022. Please note that the program is highly competitive. Last year for example, we accepted 17 candidates out of more than 4000 applications.
Although we do not want to discourage you from applying, we would like to assist you, in finding out whether you do have a realistic chance to get past the first round of selection. Hence, we recommend, briefly doing the self-assessment below.

Self-assessment test:

To help you to better assess your chances, please go through the questions below. To stand a realistic chance to get past the first round of selection, you should be able to answer all 7 questions with “Yes”.
If this is not the case, it will be rather likely, that your application will not be competitive and will be rejected in the first round of selection. In that particular case, it might be smarter, to apply at a later time point, when you perhaps better fulfill the criteria.

1.   Are you at least a second year Bachelor student or higher OR are you currently enrolled in a Master program?
2.   Do you have already some first research experience in a laboratory setting (such a lab-rotations or summer internships)?
3.   Are you in the top 10 %ile of your class or do you have a GPA equivalent of at least 3.7 out of 4 (USA), distinction level (UK) or 1.6 (Germany)? For other countries equivalent scores would apply.
4.   Will you be able to identify a referee (university professor or independent group leader), who knows you well and who will support you by submitting a meaningful and enthusiastic letter of recommendation?
5.   Do you study at an internationally recognized university with excellent reputation?  (A good indicator would be if your university is among the top 500 universities, World University Rankings 2022).
6.   Was your academic training in English OR do you have an English certificate such as TOEFL or IELTS score report (minimal level TOEFL: 80; IELTS: 6.5)?
7.   Are you currently enrolled in a university for Bachelor or Master (or equivalent) studies and/or will you be enrolled during summer 2022?

This is a fully funded internship program. Successful applicants will benefit from the following:

• Free student accommodation
• Stipend of approximately 800 Euro per month
• Reimbursement of travel costs to and from Martinsried, near Munich

The application platform is not activated.
Dates for registration and application will be announced here.
After your registration, you will be able to log in and to upload your application files at the application platform.

The International Max Planck Research School, IMPRS-LS is hosting the platform (therefore please keep in mind: without being logged in, the top menu of this page is specific for the PhD program IMPRS-LS not for MaxSIP; the top menu changes once you are logged in as a MaxSIP applicant).

The following documents are required for your application:

• Curriculum Vitae (PDF file, max. 1-2 pages)
• Transcript (record of study) and degree certificate for all completed degrees (if applicable)
• Temporary/provisional transcripts for degree programs, you are currently enrolled in
• Document qualifying for university studies (typically high school degree, Abitur, Matura or equivalent)
• Letter of recommendation of one referee (see information below)
• Letter of motivation (will be typed into the application form directly, no upload)
• If an applicant’s academic training was not in English or German, a language certificate (such as IELTS or TOEFL) is highly recommended

All information need to be submitted in English or German. Please provide a respective translation if original transcripts are in a different language.

Upon submitting your complete application, you will receive an automatic confirmation email.

Letter of recommendation
Applicants need to name and invite one referee through the online application platform. We recommend that you personally contact your referee before triggering the email invitation. Please keep in mind that applications lacking the letter of reference after the deadline for submission are incomplete and cannot be processed any further. Please ensure that the referee submits the letter of recommendation before the deadline.

You will receive an automatic confirmation email, once your referee has submitted the letter of recommendation.

The five steps to submission, schematic

The internship is a full-time immersion for up to ten weeks. It takes place between mid-June to end-September. Within this framework, the starting date and duration of the internship
is determined by mutual agreement between the host lab and the student.

The program committee will evaluate and select students based on their grades, research experience, CV, letter of motivation and letter of reference. The committee aims to announce their decisions to the applicants by the end of March 2022.

The number of internships is limited. Host labs will interview pre-selected students interested in working in their labs via Skype, Zoom or other means.

During your internship, you will be a full member of the institutes with the ability to join numerous social activities such as lab parties, hikes, sports groups, PhD activities, the institutes’ summer parties, in-house lectures and much more.

The Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (i.f.) are located door-to-door at the life science campus Martinsried. The working language at both institutes is English.
The Campus Martinsried lies at the outskirts of Munich, not far away from the Bavarian Alps.