Internship programme for young researchers

In 2024, the National Bank of Belgium is launching a new internship programme, in the scope of which young researchers will be able to carry out, for a period of one to six months, a research project at the National Bank.

The programme aims to offer researchers active in the fields in which the National Bank specialises the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the Bank's research activities and policy-making work. This experience is intended to allow them to gain insight and encourage them to engage in socially relevant research. The programme will also give the Bank's researchers the opportunity to learn more about the latest scientific research being caried out at universities.

In this respect, the National Bank is issuing a call for proposals to all researchers interested in submitting a project in the fields in which it specialises: microeconomics and macroeconomics, monetary policy, financial policy and financial stability, econometrics and modelling, statistics, economic law, etc. It should be noted that, in the coming years, the Bank's research programme will pay specific attention to new themes such as the economic implications of climate change, digitisation and heterogeneity between economic agents. The objective is to appeal to young researchers who already have a minimum level of experience in the aforementioned areas and give them the opportunity to round it out through practical training at the Bank. The Bank will select the projects it deems most interesting and promising. The duration of the internship may range from one to six months and will be proposed by the Bank. Applicants will be required to write a research paper during their internship. These papers will be presented at an internal seminar and may be published in the Bank's Working Papers series. Applicants should be able to carry out their research project independently but, in doing so, are encouraged to interact with the Bank’s staff.

Applicants are requested to submit a proposal in the form of an abstract outlining the objective of their research and the applicable theoretical and empirical methods. The proposal should also include a description of the planned publication. Priority will be given to researchers who can already submit a publication related to their project. Applicants are also requested to submit a CV, one or more references from sponsors and a list of publications or articles.

The internship programme will be organised in the form of a flexible contract which can be concluded with the researcher directly or with the latter’s faculty or university department. The contract will provide for a fee for the transfer of copyright in the research paper to the Bank, the amount of which will depend on the duration of the internship but is capped at €9,000. The researcher will not be offered an employment contract and is responsible for handling the administrative, social security and tax aspects of the position. Applicants are expected to be regularly present at the Bank during the internship. They may make use of the general IT facilities provided by the Bank and will be able to access public statistics and the scientific library. Access to non-public statistics may be assessed and granted on a case-by-case basis.

The deadline for submission of applications is 18 March 2024. Selected candidates will be able to determine the dates of their internship with the Bank, in cooperation with the relevant department (during the course of 2024).

Belgian universities are requested to publicise this call for proposals to the extent possible and to encourage young researchers to apply. Belgian researchers pursuing training at universities abroad are also eligible for this programme. Project proposals and other questions may be addressed to Raf Wouters (+32 2 221 54 41 or [email protected]).