Strengthen your skills and career opportunities
An innovation internship grant offers PhD candidates who have recently submitted their dissertation at Arts the opportunity to develop innovation skills, build new academic collaborations, and gain experience working outside their own research environment.
As a pilot initiative, the Faculty of Arts offers three-month internship grants linked to the faculty’s strategic focus on innovation.

Who can apply?
The internship grants can be applied for by PhD students who have submitted their dissertation at Arts. Grants can be applied for up to three months before and three months after submission. The scheme is only open to PhD students expected to submit on time; an employment contract for the internship can only be concluded once the dissertation has been submitted.
The internship must begin no later than four months after submission of the PhD dissertation.

What does the internship involve?
During the internship, the grant holder must be affiliated with a different department at Arts than the one where the PhD education was completed.
The internship may be related to innovation environments at AU such as:

• Distinguished Senior Innovators
• Culture and Health (hArts)
• START
• Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) groups

Collaboration may also take place with other faculties at AU or external partners, such as the healthcare sector, industry, NGOs, or cultural institutions.

Application
The internship grant is applied for using a short application form including:

• Project description
• Work plan for the internship period
• Description of collaboration and expected learning outcomes
• Perspectives for further project or collaboration opportunities

Applications are received and processed on a rolling basis, with a final deadline of 1 September 2026. For internships applied for in 2026, it is required that the internship is also completed in 2026 and therefore planned to start no later than 1 October 2026. Application form.

Assessment of applications
Applications are assessed on an ongoing basis by a panel consisting of the Vice Dean for Research, the Deputy Heads of School for Research, the faculty’s Distinguished Senior Innovators, and Kitchen.

In the evaluation, emphasis is placed on:

• Relevance to the faculty’s innovation agenda and its goal of research and innovation in collaboration with external partners
• The quality and feasibility of the project
• The strength and anchoring of the collaboration
• The applicant’s competence development and perspectives for further collaboration, innovation, or research

Reporting

• After the internship, the grant holder must prepare a short written report to ensure knowledge sharing and collection of experience within the faculty. The report must be submitted to the faculty no later than 14 days after completion of the internship.