National Institute of Informatics (NII) International Internship Program

The renowed National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo anounces twice a year a call for its International Internship Program for master students and PhD students. NII has been a partner of TUM CIT Informatics since 2015.

If you are interested in doing an research internship of 2-6 months, please check this website regularly.  There is a call for applications in spring and in fall for a stay abroad approx. 4-5 months later. 5,700 JPY per day as sojourn expenses (171,000 JPY/per month) will be covered by NII while intern students are staying at NII.

Prof. Emmanuel Planas, Deputy Director at the NII Global Liaison Office gave a presentation about the research internship program and research options by NII Tokyo in April 2024. 

1st call of 2025 NII International Internship Program

Please check the list of the current projects at the NII International Internship Program website. Students accepted by NII for an on-site internship will get grant of 5,700 JPY per day.

The deadline at TUM CIT Informatics is earlier than the NII deadline: Thursday, April 3, 2025 (12:00 noon CET) as you have to be nominated/selected by TUM CIT Informatics.

Please see the NII website for the list of projects and get in touch with the NII academic staff directly. If you want to do your project as a Master thesis abroad you need to find a respective TUM supervisor. The regular CIT Informatics rules of your Master's program regarding a Master's thesis apply. Please negotiate the duration and start of your internship with the NII researcher, but make sure that it fits into your TUM curriculum.

NII requests to indicate a TUM supervisor for the research project in any case. So if you do not want to make the stay a TUM thesis or a guided research, add an academic contact person at TUM Informatics, e.g. your former Bachelor supervisor or a researcher at a suitable chair of your interest you know. It doesn't have to be a TUM professor.

Application procedure, documents and requirements

Applications have to be submitted via our online application for the internal selection. For further information please check the websites of NII for the International Internship Program. To meet the NII deadline for applications, TUM CIT Informatics needs to preselect you (on the basis of your academic performance, duration of stay and study plan). So the internal deadline for the 1st call is Thursday, April 3, 2025 (12:00 noon CET).

A nomination by TUM CIT Informatics does not indicate that you will be automatically accepted by NII. The selection by NII after nomination seems to be quite competitive. 

The application is easy to prepare. A list of topics  you can choose your research project from is online. Please upload in your online application the following documents:

• NII Application Form
• Your CV
• Bachelor's Transcript or Records
• TUM Master's Transcript of Records
• Study progress plan
• Email correspondence with respective NII researchers

It might be possible to arrange a Master thesis at NII, but not in all cases it is possible, recommendable or successful.

Prof. Alexander Pretschner has additional contacts to professors at NII, see project descriptions.