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Research internship abroad: find, fund and prepare your stay
A research internship (or short research stay) lets a PhD student or a lecturer spend a few weeks to a few months in a foreign laboratory to advance a thesis, learn a method or prepare a joint publication. It almost always relies on two things: funding and a host letter.
Where to find opportunities?
- Programmes of your institution and ministry: short-term stays and training abroad are announced by the international relations office; follow its announcements.
- International mobility programmes (for example Erasmus+ and its exchanges between partner universities).
- Research scholarships from foundations and foreign governments.
- Offers published on DzCademia, sorted by discipline.
Preparing the application
- A precise stay project: objective, planned work, expected results, timeline.
- A host letter signed by the host laboratory.
- Approval from your supervisor or head of department.
- An up-to-date academic CV and your list of publications.
- Documents required by the programme (enrolment, employment certificate, language level…).
Tips for success
Choose the host team for its expertise in your topic, not for the institution’s fame. Agree on a concrete objective for the stay (an experiment, a chapter, a paper). Respect the timeline strictly: incomplete or late files are rejected without review.
Back home, make the most of the stay: a report, a talk, a joint paper. This is what strengthens your next applications.
Frequently asked questions
Who can do a research internship abroad?
Mainly PhD students and lecturers, depending on each programme’s conditions (year of study, status, discipline).
Is a host letter required?
In most cases, yes: it proves a laboratory agrees to host you. See our guide on host letters.
How can DzCademia help?
We help you find suitable programmes, target a host laboratory, write the stay project and build the application file.
Our team supports you
Choosing opportunities that fit your profile, CV, motivation letter, abstract, research proposal, host letter and file review.
Useful pages
- Scholarships by discipline
- Calls for papers by discipline
- Conferences, seminars and study days by discipline
- Research internships and short research stays abroad
DzCademia practical guides
- How to get a host letter for an internship, a scholarship or a research stay
- Answering a call for papers: abstract, proposal and selection
- Finding a scholarship and succeeding in your application (bachelor, master, PhD, postdoc)
- Taking part in a conference or a seminar: choose, prepare, present
- What is a PGCE? The UK teacher training qualification explained
- How many ECTS credits is a master’s degree? Understanding and converting credits
- Graduate teaching assistant: teaching during your master’s or PhD
Why choose Dzcademia?
Profiles, articles and conference contributions: give your research a structured public presence. Integrated metadata help search engines and AI assistants identify your work and understand its references.
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