Those who are currently enrolled in their last two years of a Bachelor's degree, enrolled in any year of a Master's degree, or those who have graduated with a Bachelor's or Master's degree are eligible to apply.

Yes! For Bachelor's students, we require applicants to have finished their first two years to learn the foundation upon which their internship skills would build. Applicants who will start their third year by their internship's start date are welcome to apply.

For Master's students, you may apply regardless of your year.

Unfortunately, no. Our Research Internship is intended for those who need more research experience and are interested in joining OIST's PhD Program later. Current or graduated PhD students who wish to collaborate with OIST should look for other opprtunities such as Workshops or Careers at OIST.

This table lists information about research units and their projects available for interns. Additionally, you can learn about more of the research going on at OIST here. Please have a look and see if there is anything suitable to your interests. As we continue to grow new areas of focus will be added, but main fields represented at OIST are in the areas of science and technology.

For students who have not yet graduated or are waiting for the issuance of the official transcript, we are able to accept an unofficial transcript or other official university document showing your courses and grades.

We accept recommendation letters from any supervisor/ professor who is familiar with your work and your character. It is not required that the recommendation be from your current supervisor, but it is in your best interest to request a recommendation from someone who is able to comment on your abilities and potential relevant to research for your proposed internship.

Students are accepted to the OIST program and will go through lab matching process, therefore it is important to list the Faculty of Interest, but it is not necessary to contact faculty to get their approval or support prior to applying. In general, please consider the relevance of your message prior to contacting the faculty.

If you don't know which are your family name/last name and given name/first name, that's OK. Some countries don't have that concept. So please enter "," comma to the family name field and put all your name in the given name field.

To minimize the chance of technical problems, please be sure to have all of the correct documents (as PDF files), your photo (as a JPEG file) and all text answers prepared in advance, and complete the application in one brief session. If your internet connection is not strong, it would be best to minimize the number of tabs open in your browser window(s) while completing the application.

You can no longer make any changes to the application once it is submitted, and you cannot withdraw it yourself. If you really must make some changes to your application, you may request us to reverse the status of your application to “In Progress” by submitting a Contact Us form. However, it is your responsibility to submit your application again before the deadline. Please take enough time to revise your application and make final submission. There are no advantages by submitting the application earlier.

As we have thousands of applicants to our program, we are not able to take the time to individually handle special requests. We would certainly welcome your application in future application rounds if you are unable to make the current deadline.

Deadline for submitting recommendation letter(s) is the same with the application deadline. However, please keep in mind that you can only submit your application after at least one recommendation letter is received in our system, so please make sure to communicate with your referee(s) and give yourself enough time. When the letter is submitted, you will receive a notification from the system, and you can proceed with submitting your application at that time.

Once you have invited your referees, you can check the status of your invitation by logging in to your account. You will be able to see the status of your invitation (Sent, In Progress, Submitted). You can also resend your invitation.
Depending on the settings of your referees’ email accounts, there are cases the invitation letter sent from the system will be classified as Spam or Bulk mails. If your referees cannot find the invitation from their Inbox, please ask them to check Spam or Bulk folder as well.

If it is difficult to provide in English, you may submit your original transcript along with an English translation. The translation may be done by you.

You can upload other government-issued identification documents and enter "0000" in the "Passport Number" section instead. If you receive a positive result, we will need the copy of your valid passport at that time for visa application and travel arrangement.

Yes, leaving this field blank will not affect your application in any way, as we understand many universities do not share class rank information with students.

If you receive an offer from the OIST Graduate School, please refer to this link for details. If you receive and offer directly from the hosting unit, visa application process would mostly be similar, but the unit will be in charge. In the case of Unit-funded internship, please communicate directly with the unit for arrangements.

Minor changes to timing of internships is to be expected, and does not present a problem. For accepted intern candidates, final steps include confirming dates with both the accepting faculty member and the intern. Major changes to internship dates are strongly discouraged and can lead to the cancellation of an internship offer. Please consider timing in advance and apply during the appropriate round for your dates.