Studying abroad

The Gene Center is home to scientists from many different countries at every career stage, fostering a truly international atmosphere in research and teaching. We welcome students and scientists from other countries to our Master's, PhD, and post-doctoral programs. Conversely, we encourage our Master's students to gain international experience by doing their laboratory rotation or their thesis project abroad.

Here, we provide some general information for incoming and outgoing projects. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the coordinator for international exchange, Klaus Förstemann (foerstemann@genzentrum.lmu.de).

Outgoing students

We strongly encourage our Master's students to seek international experience by going abroad for a lab rotation or thesis project. You will experience different academic and scientific cultures and learn what it is like to live in a foreign country. Apart from the more personal aspects of working abroad, however, the principal motivation should be scientific: Which scientific question(s) do you find most exciting and important? Search for a foreign lab whose main focus is aligned with your scientific interest. Then, you can get in touch with Klaus Förstemann (foerstemann@genzentrum.lmu.de), who can provide some advice on how to establish contact with the foreign lab and discuss how your planned project fits best into your individual study program. Although our intention is to provide mentoring beyond the mere administrative issues, there are some rules to respect. Therefore, you must contact Klaus Förstemann BEFORE leaving - prior approval is mandatory. For this, we need a short proposal (~1 page) and a letter of acceptance from your host laboratory.

Since going abroad also involves an extra financial burden, we will also support your application(s) for a fellowship.

• An overview of the different fellowship programs can be found on the website of the LMU career service (German only).
• In addition, you can apply for financial aid for individual study programs. You can get reimbursed for a certain amount of your expenses.

Please note that a small collection of links cannot answer all of the questions you may have concerning your internship abroad. We therefore encourage you to contact Klaus Förstemann already at an early stage of your planning.