Aalto Science Institute International Summer Research Programme
The Aalto Science Institute (AScI) International Summer Research Programme seeks 50+ talented research-driven students to join cutting-edge projects, collaborate with top research groups at Aalto University, and connect with an international community. Cultural and social activities enrich this unique summer experience in Finland, making it both professionally and personally rewarding.
From 4300 applications in 2024, the 68 selected interns from 23 countries worked in research groups from 12 departments in Aalto's School of Science and its three Schools of Engineering.
Updates for the 2025 programme
- Update March 12: All candidates have been contacted by email. Either informing that they were not successful or that the hiring for their project is ongoing (few cases).
- Shortlisting and hiring occurs during February with the aim of all decisions being finalized by the 2nd week of March. Contacting us will not speed things up. Updates on the progress will be announced here and in the zulip chat.
- Call closed on Jan 31. We received a record 7200 application from 136 countries.
- Call opened: January 7
- Research positions were published on: December 16, 2024
- Application period: January 7–31, 2025 (strict deadline, UTC+2 )
- Q&A zoom meeting: Meetings were held on January 9th and 15th at 16:00 (UTC+2)
Basic info and dates
Duration: 12 weeks June - August (flexible depending on the research group)
Shortlisting and interviews: February
Final hiring decisions: 2nd week of March (all appplicants contacted)
Location: Aalto University, Otaniemi, Espoo / Helsinki, Finland (remote employment is not possible)
Work: You will be employed as a full-time research assistant directly by the research group, and will work alongside professors, posdocs, and other students.
Salary: 2000+ EUR/month depending on # years of study.
Benefits
Besides the opportunity to take your first steps as an international researcher at Finland's top univeristy while earning a living wage:
- modest travel bonus (400/800EUR for those coming from inside/outside Europe)
- 1 week paid vacation
- assistance finding low-cost student housing
- extensive information and chat groups for visas and all aspects of your visit.
- "Get to know Finland" course (June only)
- Regular lunch gatherings
- Social, cultural, outdoor, and sporting acitivties during the summer
- Final "poster exhibition" where you get to present your work
Data and contacts
Gender balance
Over the past several years we've had a stable one third of AScI interns being female, which is around the world average for STEM. Hopefully this can be improved.
Country of study (hired interns)
| Hires | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 13 | 1 | 2 |
| India | 12 | 11 | 12 |
| UK | 8 | 3 | 3 |
| Spain | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Germany | 4 | 9 | 6 |
| Switzerland | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Portugal | 3 | 2 | |
| Finland | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| China | 3 | ||
| Canada | 3 | ||
| Italy | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| France | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Singapore | 1 | 1 | |
| Poland | 1 | 1 | |
| Norway | 1 | 1 | |
| Mexico | 1 | ||
| Czechia | 1 | ||
| Morocco | 1 | ||
| ü쾱 | 2 | 2 | |
| Russia(*) | 2 | ||
| Netherlands | 1 | 1 | |
| Kazakhstan | 2 | ||
| Japan | 1 | ||
| Iran(*) | 2 | 14 | |
| Indonesia | 1 | ||
| Estonia | 2 | ||
| Ecuador | 1 | ||
| Brazil | 2 | ||
| Australia | 1 |
- Additional nationalities in 2024 include: Austria, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Iran, Russia, Sweden, Venezuela, Vietnam
-
(*) See the FAQ items regarding sanctions
Interns' universities (2024)
| Europe | N. America | Asia | Africa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aalto University(2) | Brown | Beihang University | I. Agronomy and Vet. Med. Hassan II |
| AGH University of Krakow | Harvard | IIIT Hyderbad | |
| Bocconi University | Johns Hopkins | IISER TVM | |
| Brno UT | MIT | IIT Bombay (3) | |
| Cambridge (2) | Monterrey Tech (Mexico) | IIT Delhi | |
| CentraleSupelec | Reed College | IIT Indore | |
| Constructor University | San Francisco State U | IIT Kharagpur (2) | |
| Durham University (2) | U. Alberta | IIT Madras | |
| EPFL (2) | U. British Colombia | Nanjing University | |
| ETH Zürich | U. Calgary | NTU (Singapore) | |
| INSA Lyon | UCLA | Thapar I. of Eng & Tech. | |
| Instituto Superior Técnico | UIUC | U. Hong Kong | |
| Lancaster University | UNC Chapel Hill | U. Delhi | |
| London School of Economics | U. Pittsburgh (3) | ||
| NTNU | UT Austin | ||
| Oxford | |||
| Politécnica de Valencia | |||
| Portuguese Naval School | |||
| TU Catalonia | |||
| TU Chemnitz | |||
| TU Munich (2) | |||
| U. Autonoma de Madrid | |||
| U. Alcalá | |||
| U. Basque Country | |||
| U. Helsinki | |||
| U. Lisbon | |||
| U. Trento + Aalto | |||
| U. Trieste | |||
| U. Zaragoza |
Applications and number of hires
| year | applicants | interns |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 27 | 10 |
| … | … | … |
| 2018 | 350 | 29 |
| 2019 | 509 | 27 |
| 2020 | 597 | 6/41 (*) |
| 2021 | 1096 | 29/44 (*) |
| 2022 | 1335 | 55 |
| 2023 | 1607 | 50 |
| 2024 | 4376 | 68 |
(*) attended/hired due to the pandemic
For questions concerning the programme or application procedures
- Before contacting AScI please carefully read all info on programme webpages including the FAQ
- We receive a HUGE number of message during the application period. Altough we are very nice a helpful people :) we simply do not have time to answer questions for which the answer is easy to find here on our pages. "How do I apply" is not a good question.
- AScI applicants zulip chat platform:
- If you have a question which is not personal then please ask it in public in zulip so others can benefit from the answer.
- For personal questions send us a private message on zulip: David R (AScI coordinator) and Ayse P (AScI admin)
- If you can not access zulip then you may email AScI at ascx-interns@aalto.fi where x=i.
For detailed academic questions concerning the research topic:
- You may contact the academic contact person listed in each topic description. See the "AScI international summer research program: project list" page linked to above. Please not that you should only contact them if you have an important research-oriented question. Just contacting them for the sake of it will not increase your chances of success.
AScI News
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