Welcome to submission page of CERN openlab and MS/NMS summer student project proposals!
Welcome to the submission page for CERN openlab and MS/NMS Summer Student project proposals!
On this site, we collect all project proposals for Summer Students who will be hosted in the IT Department (funded through MS/NMS or openlab) as well as proposals for Summer Students who will be hosted by other Departments (funded by openlab or other project sources).
The CERN Member and Non-Member State (MS/NMS) Summer Student Programme welcomes around 300 students each year. This programme is funded either by central CERN funds or by external sponsors for the Non-Member State component. The IT Department has slots for 10 MS/NMS students. Students assigned to IT come from the MS/NMS student pool at no cost to the groups.
The CERN openlab Summer Student Programme usually welcomes around 30–40 students, who are distributed across several Departments. The programme has three different funding mechanisms:
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Full openlab funding – For projects related to an ongoing openlab activity sponsored by an external openlab partner (in any Department). Students come from the openlab student pool at no cost to the group.
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openlab IT Department funds – Groups within the IT Department not directly involved in openlab projects may request “extra” students funded by openlab central funds, sponsored by the IT Department. Students come from the openlab student pool at no cost to the group.
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Self-funding – Groups outside the IT Department that are not part of openlab projects may apply for an openlab Summer Student; however, funding must come from the group’s own budget. (The group’s material budget code should be included in the project proposal.) The cost for a 9-week student is approximately 6000 CHF. Students come from the openlab student pool fully covered by the hosting group budget.
We kindly ask you to submit your proposals for any of the programmes before 20 January 2026. After this date, we will provide a suggested distribution of submitted projects for discussion with IT management. Once the final list is confirmed, projects selected for the MS/NMS programme will be asked to resubmit their proposals in the MS/NMS tool, following our instructions.
Self-funded projects from outside the IT Department and openlab projects will be validated by the openlab management. Should we receive more proposals than can be hosted in either the openlab or MS/NMS programmes, excess projects will be placed on a waiting list.
Access to the respective student pools for the selection process will be granted once your project is accepted. Please note that all students follow the same eligibility criteria, receive similar contracts (with minor variations in contract length), and are invited to attend all lecture programmes. Detailed instructions regarding the selection procedure will be provided by the coordinator of each programme (MS/NMS or openlab) in due time. openlab Summer Students receive the same contracts and benefits as MS/NMS students.
Please note that each supervisor may submit only one project. If you are involved in more than one project, your co-supervisor must submit the additional proposal.
A short presentation outlining expectations for summer student supervisors is attached to this page.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact it-hiring-ssp-team@cern.ch (Kristina, Arash)
