É«É«À²

What is NII?

National Institute of Informatics (NII), established in April 2000 from the reorganization of RCLIS and NACSIS, both laboratories of the University of Tokyo, is the Inter-University National Research Institute dedicated to Informatics. From the basic theory of informatics to cutting-edge fields such as AI, big data, IoT, and information security, NII carries out long-term basic research as well as practical studies that attempt to address current social issues. NII undertakes diverse services, including development and operation of the Science Information NETwork (SINET) and other essential scientific information infrastructures used by the academic community in Japan. Furthermore, NII is engaged in graduate education with the aim of fostering original world-class academic research and pioneering advanced fields of study.

NII hosts 140 foreign Ph.D. and Master students every year via the NII International Internship Program.

The internship program

The NII International Internship Program is an exchange activity with NII and its partner universities. The selected students will work on a research topic chosen among a list proposed by NII researchers. The working language is English.

At Aalto, the program is open to master and doctoral students in the School of Electrical Engineering and the School of Science. During the internship, master students can work on their master's thesis or some other research project. It is recommended that also master students have experience in conducting research.

The duration of the internship is 2-6 months (60-165 days excluding travel days). Students have to be enrolled as attending at Aalto for the full duration of the internship.

Available internship places and funding

For the 2nd call of 2026, Aalto can nominate up to three students. For this call, students are encouraged to start the program after 15th of March, 2027.

NII covers 5,700 JPY per day as sojourn expenses (171,000 JPY/month) while the students are staying at NII. Sojourn expenses are not covered for doctoral students who hold a salaried position at Aalto for the duration of their internship.

Master students can apply for additional TECH internship grant from Aalto. Students in international joint programmes will not be granted any mobility scholarships administrated by Aalto University.

Application documents and selection process

To apply, students need to provide the following documents:

• filled out NII internship program application form (found on the NII website above)
• transcript of records from Sisu
• CV indicating clearly all past employment and educational history
• evidence of the correspondence with potential NII supervisor(s) (email correspondence)

Send the documents above by email to karoliina.kekko@aalto.fi by 8 October 2026 at 4 p.m. (Finnish time). Write "NII internship application" as the subject line.

The best applicants are invited for interviews that are conducted between 19 and 21 October.