Funding

Partial / Stipend

Program dates

Jun 9, 2026 – Aug 7, 2026

Internship•Japan · Wako

RIKEN CBS Summer Program

RIKEN Center for Brain Science (RIKEN CBS)

Application Deadline

Closed · January 7, 2026

Reopens ~Jan 2027

Official Page

The RIKEN Center for Brain Science (RIKEN CBS) is the brain science arm of RIKEN, Japan’s national research institute, based on the Wako campus in Saitama just outside Tokyo. Its Summer Program has run almost every year since 1999 and brings around 50 participants to the campus, roughly 85 percent of them students from outside Japan. Applicants choose one of two plans: Plan A places an intern in one of thirteen CBS laboratories for two months of research inside that group, and Plan B is a five-day lecture course taught in English by invited faculty from Japan and abroad.

Interns on Plan A may also attend the lecture course when their laboratory schedule allows. The 2026 theme was “Development and Disorders: Genes, Networks, and Behavior Across Life”, with speakers from UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, KAIST, the University of Basel, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the University of Tokyo. Everything runs on site and in English; the 2026 round closed on 7 January 2026 and has already been held, so the next call is the one to watch for.

Benefits & funding

  • Plan A: two months inside one CBS laboratory, taking part in that lab’s research activities. The last round ran 9 June to 7 August 2026.
  • Plan B: a lecture course held 22 to 28 July 2026, five teaching days excluding the weekend, covering basic concepts through to current research on the year’s theme.
  • The lecture week includes a CBS poster session, open-lab visits and a discussion session with postdocs.
  • Financial support is requested inside the application and granted separately. If approved, RIKEN reimburses round-trip airfare, or Shinkansen fare for participants travelling within Japan, plus accommodation for the program period.
  • Reimbursement caps run by region: 300,000 JPY for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and Latin America; 150,000 JPY for India and Oceania; 100,000 JPY for the rest of Asia.
  • Participants book and pay for travel themselves and are reimbursed after submitting the required documents on return home. Supported participants must follow RIKEN’s travel itinerary rules.
  • Accommodation is arranged by the center: RIKEN I-House (buildings E, G and H) for interns, and the Toyoko Inn by Wako-shi Station for lecture-course participants.
  • No stipend or salary is published. RIKEN CBS describes the package as covering part of a participant’s stay costs.

Eligibility

  • Applicants must be beyond high school level. High school students are not eligible.
  • Applicants must be enrolled at an academic institution or a company when they apply, and stay enrolled for the whole program period.
  • Anyone on a gap year, or not yet enrolled at the time of application, submits a certificate of enrollment from the institution or company they will belong to during the Summer Program.
  • Both courses require full on-site attendance for the entire period. Shortened participation is not allowed.
  • Applicants who are not Japanese nationals need a valid passport. Obtaining a visa, where one is required, is the participant’s own responsibility.
  • No nationality, residency, age or work-experience requirement is published. RIKEN’s own event listing describes the intended audience as graduate students, young postdocs and people holding other research positions.
  • The program and all application documents are in English.

Can you apply?

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  • Education required

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Application process

  1. 1
    Read the Before Applying page, check the eligibility conditions, and confirm whether your nationality needs a visa for Japan.
  2. 2
    Choose Plan A or Plan B, and confirm you can attend the full dates on site.
  3. 3
    Prepare the documents in English: a CV and a motivation letter of roughly 500 words. Plan A applicants add an internship project description.
  4. 4
    Nominate an academic supervisor as recommender. One letter of recommendation is required for both plans, and the recommender uploads it directly through a link the system emails them.
  5. 5
    Request financial support in the same application if you need it, and add a financial support letter where one applies.
  6. 6
    Submit through the application website inside the open window. The 2026 round ran from 18 November 2025 to 7 January 2026, 9:00 JST, and late applications were not accepted.
  7. 7
    Wait for the result, announced by email around mid-February.

Program timeline

  1. Applications open for the 2026 round

    Nov 18, 2025

  2. Application deadline, 9:00 JST

    Jan 7, 2026

  3. Selection results announced by email, around mid-month

    2026-02

  4. Internship course begins

    Jun 9, 2026

  5. Lecture course begins

    Jul 22, 2026

  6. Lecture course ends

    Jul 28, 2026

  7. Internship course ends

    Aug 7, 2026

  8. Late 2026

    Next round expected to open, following the 2026 pattern. RIKEN CBS has not published dates for it yet.

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