Internships
The Science Communication Internships (50-90 hours in total, 2-3 ECTS) gives doctoral candidates in Luxembourg the possibility to practice their science communication skills. At the University of Luxembourg or at one of our partner institutes, the interns will obtain hands-on experience in science communication accompanied by professionals in the field. Furthermore, doctoral candidates gain the opportunity to get to know the working environment and daily tasks in communication departments or institutes specializing on public outreach.
This training will strengthen your science communication skills. You will learn:
– How to prepare and implement a science communication campaign/project/task
– How to use different communication channels
– What the every-day life of a science communicator looks like
Detailed information about the single internships and how to apply can be found in each of the available internships.
Internship offers
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University of Luxembourg
Individual project (e.g. writing a journalistic long-form text, preparing some multimedia elements, helping with events, press conferences, and social media projects or taking over daily tasks like answering press inquiries, preparing press reviews, assisting in writing articles for the website to gain a realistic picture of public relations).
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Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM)
Individual project (e.g. writing and publishing scientific articles for lay audiences, identifying and proposing new outreach activities, developing tools to raise awareness, etc.).
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Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF)
Create researcher profiles for social media.
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Scienteens Lab
Teach hands-on workshops in physics, biology, or computer science for teenagers, or develop new workshops on specific topics.
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Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT)
Create content (video/writing), improve your web/graphic design skills or support an event.
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Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH)
Create digital content and assist in social media work.
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Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
Improve your writing and storytelling skills or develop a concept for women in science campaign.
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Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)
Individual mini-project (e.g. communication writing, event organisation, set-up of outreach activity, set-up of social media campaign).
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Luxembourg Science Center (LSC)
Animate scientific demonstrations for visitors, deliver science shows, contribute to the development of scientific demonstrations or participate in drafting scientific texts.
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National Museum of Natural History (MnhnL)
Create a space of exchange or show your research in a hands-on activity. Write press releases, texts, and scripts for radio RTL, produce radio talks on natural history facts, participate in the elaboration of larger events like the Science Festival or create content for their social media channels.
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Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
Write for science.lu, create social media content or support Mr Science.
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Testimonials
“I did an internship at the Luxembourg Science Center (LSC) in Differdange. There, I worked doing what I liked the most; explaining science to non-scientists. I loved working on shows with the audience and having interesting conversations with them afterwards. The LSC team is a group of wonderful people who made me feel like one more in the team at every moment. I am extremely happy to have taken the decision to do the internship!”
“I liked best complete freedom of action with the supervisor just setting the general direction of the work. Yet, we interacted constantly throughout the internship and I believe it improved the final results a lot.”
“Overall I enjoyed the internship a lot. Mostly because after I was prepared for the workshops, it was more like joining a club. One where I would meet up with friends and do the fun activity we planned. I felt relaxed and confident each extra time I presented which was reassuring.”
FAQ
Applications are possible year-round. Please send your application with the necessary documents mentioned in the detailed internship descriptions to descom@uni.lu.
Any doctoral candidate registered at the University of Luxembourg can apply for a DESCOM Science Communication Internship.
You can do an internship at one of the DESCOM partners. Have a look at the internship offers section above.
No. Most of our partners offer internships for doctoral candidates speaking English. However, the nature of specific internships of some of our partners requires certain language skills (see detailed internship descriptions).
The duration varies depending on your availabilities and needs. The total duration should be 50 – 90 hours that can be done as a block or during select days over the course of several months.
No. The Science Communication Internships are like any other course or summer school offer and take place during your normal working time.
Be it popular science writing, video editing or science workshops for the public. You will find an opportunity for every science communication skill in our internship offers. If you still don’t know what works best for you, feel free to contact descom@uni.lu. Together we will find a good fit for you.