Modalities of M1 internships

The second semester of the first year of the Master’s consists entirely of a training internship, usually abroad, in a research laboratory. This is a full-time undertaking. The internship is normally spent in an academic, government-supported, or private enterprise laboratory. There is some preference for having the internship be taken in an EU country, but it may be spent anywhere in the world. Any internship must be approved by the ICFP teaching staff. A qualified full-time researcher in the hosting lab supervises the work, leaving enough autonomy for the student to benefit as much as possible from this long-term immersion in the milieu of professional research.

The internship program affords each student an exceptional opportunity to broaden his/her horizon and scientific culture. Having a full semester often allows the project to become true, frontline research: it is not rare for the internship to give rise to the student’s first published paper.

The work undertaken is evaluated from a written report describing the results obtained and an oral presentation to a jury consisting of the professor in charge of the internships and researchers. The final evaluation is based on the quality of the written report, the oral presentation, and the research accomplished.

This internship is quite often the opportunity for a first publication.