Think Tank Internships for MA and PhD Graduates, Open Society Foundations

Overview

The Think Tank Fund and the Scholarship Programs of the Open Society Foundations announce an internship program for MA and PhD graduates who were the recipients of the Scholarship Programs' fellowships in 2009, 2010 or 2011; or who graduated from the Central European University since 2009.

For the past several years, the Think Tank Fund has offered fellowships for junior researchers already employed in regional think tanks to spend up to three months in a different regional or Western European think tank. The fund also has provided paid internships to newly graduated returnees from Western Universities.

Our new initiative aims to expand support for such returnees by offering up to 10 fellowships per year to recent graduates of MA and PhD programs in social sciences and humanities who were recipients of fellowships from the Open Society Scholarship Programs or who graduated from the Central European University within the past three years. By helping young, talented people enter the region’s think tanks to work under the guidance of the experienced staff, we hope to build local capacity in policy-relevant research, analysis and advocacy, and to assist the think tanks in recruiting new talent into their ranks.


Successful candidates for these paid internships will have the opportunity to work in one of the leading think tanks in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, South Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union and will receive a stipend scaled to local rates. The program is designed to be beneficial to both the interns and the host organizations. Internships will last up to six months, depending on the research topic and its scope, and will start from January 2012.

Application Deadline
November 10, 2011

What is expected from Interns and awarded paid internships?

Paid interns are required to assume full-time positions in one of the region’s think tanks for up to six months. The host organization should be located in their home country. An interest in an internship position in another country will be considered only if applicants provide compelling justification of how the internship will help their career back in their home country. The intern will reside in the hosting organization’s country for the duration of the internship, work full-time in the hosting think tank’s offices, and will become a part of the organization. Interns are expected to engage in ongoing policy research projects and to develop concrete policy products which can be one or more of the following:

• Full research or baseline study (interns are expected to formulate clear and tangible outcomes at the end of the study);
• Policy papers, briefs, or newsletters;
• Organized event or conference (interns should contribute to thematic development of an event scheduled within the internship term);
• Any other policy-related product or activity that benefits both the visiting intern and the hosting organization (e.g. designing and hosting policy blogs).

When the paid intern is placed at a think tank for the maximum period, s/he should participate in more than one project and prepare more policy products, where feasible.

The intern's work is to be guided by senior policy analysts or the director of the hosting think tank, and that person will be considered the intern’s mentor. The Think Tank Fund encourages both the intern and the hosting organization to use these six months to seek additional funds in order to make the position permanent. Upon completion, both the intern and the hosting think tank are required to submit a final report.

Terms of the Award

Think Tank Internship awards cannot exceed $7,000 per paid internship. These funds are to cover the gross compensation for the paid interns (according to the hosting organization’s pay scale for junior research staff), any visa and work permit related fees, and other reasonable expenses for non-citizens that are essential for carrying out a paid internship. The internship awards will not cover any administrative and mentorship costs incurred by the hosting think tank; these costs will be the contribution of the hosting organization to the internship.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible candidates must meet ALL of the following requirements:

• Be an alumnus in good standing of Open Society Scholarship Programs or a graduate of the Central European University.
• Have graduated in the past three years with a PhD, LLM or MA in social sciences or humanities.
• Be a permanent resident or citizen of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and South Caucasus (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine).
• Have not received any other internship award from an entity of the Open Society Foundations.
• Applicants must be fluent in written and spoken English and the language of the country where they wish to be placed.

Selection of Hosting Think Tanks

Prospective interns should examine the list of hosting organizations and available internship positions (see list below) and directly contact the organization(s) where they most wish to work. The applicants should discuss ideas for research topics and policy product(s) with the potential mentor and develop an action plan for the internship period that is mutually beneficial to both parties. Applicants may explore opportunities at think tanks not listed in this call, but in such cases, the applicant must provide compelling justification for this choice.

How to Apply

To be considered for the Think Tank Paid Internship, applicants should submit the following documents in English (as .doc or .pdf attachments to email) by November 10, 2011 to ttf_fellowships@osi.hu:

• Motivation/cover letter
  The letter should describe the applicant's interest in the internship and specific internship objectives, the applicant’s skills and qualifications, and the added value s/he will contribute both to the hosting and sponsoring organizations.
• Brief action plan
  The action plan should also include clear evaluation indicators for the proposed work on policy products agreed with the hosting organization (see list of host organizations below)
• Draft budget in USD
  budget template is available for download below
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
  The CV should describe the applicant’s academic and professional background, giving a detailed description of the applicant's previous employment and listing recent policy and academic projects in which the applicant has been involved.
• Support letter from a hosting organization with endorsement of the Executive Director or President. The letter should:
  • Describe the benefits of the internship to the host organization.
  • Include the CV of any assigned mentors and a job description for the paid intern.
  • Include the statement of commitment that the host organization will secure supervision from a senior policy analyst (mentor) up to 30 hours per month and will render necessary support to the intern in obtaining a visa and necessary employment permits.
  • Include a brief mentorship plan.

Applicants will be notified by December 1, 2011.

Application deadline

November 10, 2011

Host Organizations and Available Internship Positions

The descriptions and requirements of the proposed internship positions were written by the think tanks interested to host interns. The Think Tank Fund and the Scholarship Programs of the Open Society Foundations do not take the responsibility for the content and style of the internship proposals submitted by aspiring host organizations. The description, requirements and outputs for internship position will be negotiated between the applicant and the host organization before being submitted as part of the application to the Think Tank Fund.

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Call for Internship Applications PDF Document - 54K Download the call for applications for detailed information on the Think Tank Internship.	TT Internship budget form Microsoft Excel Document - 59K Download the budget proposal form.	Host Organizations Microsoft Excel Document - 45K Download a list of host organizations.
Armenia: International Center for Human Development (ICHD) PDF Document - 84K Download the proposed internship position description.	Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia: The Caucasus Research Resources Centers (CRRC) PDF Document - 65K Download the proposed internship position description.	Bulgaria: Center for Economic Development (CED) PDF Document - 45K Download the proposed internship position description.
Bulgaria: Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) PDF Document - 64K Download the proposed internship position description.	Croatia: Institute for International Relations (IMO) PDF Document - 67K Download the proposed internship position description.	Czech Republic: Association for International Affairs (AMO) PDF Document - 78K Download the proposed internship position description.
Czech Republic: Forum 2000 Foundation PDF Document - 63K Download the proposed internship position description.	Hungary: Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis PDF Document - 101K Download the proposed internship position description.	Kosovo: Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) PDF Document - 69K Download the proposed internship position description.
Macedonia: Analytica PDF Document - 86K Download the proposed internship position description.	Macedonia: Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) PDF Document - 50K Download the proposed internship position description.	Poland: Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) PDF Document - 66K Download the proposed internship position description.
Poland: Panoptykon PDF Document - 67K Download the proposed internship position description.	Romania: E-Civis PDF Document - 102K Download the proposed internship position description.	Romania: The Romanian Center for European Policies (CRPE) PDF Document - 70K Download the proposed internship position description.
Slovakia: Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA) PDF Document - 114K Download the proposed internship position description.	Slovakia: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association PDF Document - 89K Download the proposed internship position description.	Slovakia: Slovak Atlantic Commission PDF Document - 66K Download the proposed internship position description.
Slovakia: Transparency International Slovakia (TIS) PDF Document - 50K Download the proposed internship position description.	Ukraine: Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting PDF Document - 86K Download the proposed internship position description.	Ukraine: International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS) PDF Document - 51K Download the proposed internship position description.

http://www.soros.org/initiatives/thinktank/focus_areas/internships


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