Trainee (Artificial Intelligence for Knowledge Mining in Information Processing and Analytics)

Selection procedure reference: EMA/TR/10919 

Deadline for applications: 6 May 2025 23:59 CET 

 

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU), located in Amsterdam. It began operating in 1995. It is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU.

 

This traineeship opportunity is now open for applications until 6 May 2025 23:59 CET, with an intake on 1 October 2025.

About the traineeship programme

The Agency is looking for motivated, qualified recent graduates or students on an Erasmus+ or other programme or PhD students or Master's students (who posses a previous degree), who are interested in gaining experience and contribute to the Agency’s work for every patient in Europe. The purpose of a traineeship at the Agency is to perform tasks that are predominantly in the interest of the trainee’s training and principally serve to increase the trainee’s knowledge and to gain relevant experience.

Placement description

We are looking for a trainee in the Information Management Division.

Specific objectives and projects

During this traineeship you will be involved in the process of enabling access to unstructured scientific data through knowledge mining with artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques.  

 

EMA receives a large amount of data around the safety and efficacy of new and/or existing medicinal products, which is used to drive decision making on scientific advice and marketing authorisation of medicines. As the amount of available data goes up, it becomes increasingly difficult for humans to have a comprehensive overview of all the information and patterns hidden therein. For this reason, there is an urgent need for algorithms that would enable easy access to the wanted information (indexing) and that would provide a comprehensive overview of summary statistics on a given topic (reporting). In this context, we are looking into ways of identifying documents containing information on the scientific assessment of medicines, and of extracting the relevant information therein. 

 
In this project, we will use an AI-enabled knowledge mining method established in-house, in order to extract information from regulatory EMA's documents. Together with the project team, you will be involved in validating the extensibility of the method to different sources of documents and implementing the pipelines needed to scale-up the experimental work and formalize it into data jobs that run routinely against the different data sources. To achieve this, we will work together to develop Python code and use common machine learning libraries (e.g., Pandas, Scikit Learn, …) as well as Large Language Models (e.g., Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, …) and leverage cloud native orchestration frameworks (Azure Functions, Databricks, ...). Besides, you will participate in building analytical reports and interactive visuals (Streamlit, Plotly, Shiny, …) to communicate your findings with the relevant stakeholders. 

 
The work will be aligned with our cloud architecture principles, leveraging the advantages of cloud native and 'serverless' applications on Azure and/or Amazon Web Services. 

 

Learning outcomes

As a member of the I-SP-IPA service, you will have the chance to work on real-world analytics and make an impact on defining novel computational methods to be adopted at EMA. 

 

Additionally, you will be able to develop your technical skills, with access to some of the most advanced NLP frameworks and to cutting edge cloud analytics technology. 

 

This is an opportunity to share your academic knowledge and your perspectives related to data science and data analytics whilst getting to know how the Agency works and discover the challenges of the pharmaceutical regulatory lifecycle. 

 

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for consideration for this placement, you are required to:

1. enjoy full rights as a citizen of a European Union Member State or Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway;
2. possess a university degree in computer sciences or related degree (minimum of three years or more) that must have been obtained between 6 May 2024 and 6 May 2025 or be a university student on an Erasmus + or a similar programme or a PhD student or a Master's student with a previous fully finished degree in the areas mentioned before.
3. a thorough knowledge of English (at least level C1) and good knowledge of other official EU language (at least B2) of the Common European Framework for Languages

For criteria 1 and 2, you will be required to provide proof in the application form and at the interview stage. Failing to present these documents may result in the disqualification from the procedure.

Additional skills

• Proficiency in python (or equivalent programming language) 
• Analytical mindset 
• Affinity with scientific concepts 
• Ability to work independently 
• Problem solving skills 
• Communication skills 

 

Behavioural Competencies

You will demonstrate the following behavioural competencies:

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Working with others
• Adaptability
• Research and analytical skills
• Learning and development

Expected selection timelines

Deadline for applications  6 May 2025 23:59 CET  Assessments (remote)  From end of June 2025 to mid-July 2025 Decision and offers  By end of July 2025 Placement start  1 October 2025

 

Conditions of traineeship

The traineeship is offered for 10 months (1 October 2025 – 31 July 2026) and takes place at the Agency’s premises in Amsterdam with possibility for teleworking up to 40% of working time from The Netherlands and occasional teleworking from outside The Netherlands. Traineeships are offered for either full-time or part-time (80% or 50%) if combined with university studies.

The Agency pays a monthly stipend of €1,942.19 for a full-time traineeship (reduced accordingly for 80% or 50%) and a travel contribution upon joining the Agency.

Each trainee will have a mentor at the Agency who will guide the trainee through the programme.

The conditions of employment are stated in the Executive Decision on rules governing the traineeship programme at the EMA available here.

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Domenico Scarlattilaan 6 - 1083 HS Amsterdam - The Netherlands

Telephone +31 (0)88 781 6000 - Email recruitment@ema.europa.eu

 

© European Medicines Agency, 2024. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.