Internship: Environmental Governance Programme

Location: IEEP Brussels office

Duration: 3 - 4 months (starting on 17 September)

Salary and expenses: Unsalaried placement with local travel and lunch expenses paid (up to €7/day).

The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) is a leading centre for the analysis, understanding and advancement of environmental, agricultural and related policies in Europe. We undertake work for a wide range of clients from the EU institutions, national and regional government departments in various Member States, agencies, parliamentarians, NGOs, and work closely with partners and academics on cutting edge policy research. IEEP has a full-time staff of about 25 based in London, and 12 based in Brussels, with a network of associates.

We currently have an internship vacancy in our Brussels office within the Environmental Governance Programme to contribute to a research project on the future strategic development of European environmental policy and the EU’s 7th Environment Action Programme. The intern will also support our work related to the future EU budget and the potential of financial instruments to address the EU’s climate change objectives.

IEEP Internship Programme

The IEEP internship programme aims to provide staff with assistance for research, administration and information, give students doing a Masters or PhD thesis an opportunity to get practical insights into their thesis topics, give graduates valuable work experience, and develop relations with university research departments. Interns should expect to gain exposure to current European policy issues and processes and the working methods of a small independent institute. While an element of the internship is likely to be administrative in nature, the focus is to provide interns with the opportunity to assist in research projects and report / paper writing, attend meetings with IEEP research staff and contribute to IEEP’s information and advisory services, where appropriate.

Internship Description

The IEEP Environmental Governance Programme works on a variety of research projects on cross-cutting and strategic issues within the EU. The successful internship applicant would undertake the following tasks within the Programme:

- The major share of the intern’s time will be spent in providing research and organisational support to a project on Charting Europe’s environmental policy future. The main tasks under this project would involve literature reviews and data collection. The intern will also support the organisation of a high level conference in December 2012 which will include participants from EU institutions, Member States and relevant stakeholders.

- The intern will provide research support to a project on the future EU budget and the potential of financial instruments to address the EU’s climate change objectives.

- Collaborating with other Programmes within the Institute, including the Environmental Economics Programme.

- Contributing to other organisational and administrative tasks in the IEEP Brussels office as appropriate.

Interns are normally asked to work 37.5 hours (5 days) per week unless agreed otherwise in advance; however, consideration would also be given to applicants wishing to work part time.

The internship would ideally start on 17 September or earlier.

The internship will be for 3 – 4 months.

During the internship period, interns are covered by IEEP’s workplace accident insurance, covering accidents at work and between home and work. This is not general health or property insurance.

Person Specification

Interested applicants should:

- hold, or be working towards, a degree or equivalent in environmental policy, environmental economics or related subjects;

- have a demonstrated interest in environmental policies;

- capacity to conduct literature research and analysis;

- have initiative and be flexible with regard to the tasks they may be asked to complete;

- be capable of working independently;

- have good communication skills, in particular good written and spoken English and the ability to present information in a clear, precise and accessible style;

- have good organisational skills and time management skills;

- be reliable and capable of paying close attention to detail; and

- have good computing skills.

IEEP is a relatively small organisation so, like other staff, the intern will be required to show commitment and flexibility in undertaking a range of general tasks in pursuit 3 of the smooth running, effectiveness and development of the Institute.

Candidates should either be EU citizens or have a suitable visa already in place that allows an internship in London.

Application

Applicants should send a short (maximum one page) letter of motivation, a CV and an acknowledgement that the position is unpaid, to Annie Glynn, preferably by email using THIS FORM, or in a sealed envelope addressed to:

Annie Glynn,

Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP),

15 Queen Anne's Gate,

London, SW1H 9BU,

UK.

The email/envelope should be clearly marked: ‘Environmental Governance Programme Internship’.

All applications must reach us by 5pm Friday 31 August 2012.

Interviews might be held thereafter by telephone or face-to-face in the IEEP London office.

Due to anticipated interest in the post, we are unfortunately not always able to reply to unsuccessful applicants.