Internship | Unravelling Innovation Trends with AI & NLP

The modern innovation landscape is highly interconnected, with supply chains, markets, and research ecosystems spanning countries and sectors. For effective governance, policy‑making and security, it is crucial to maintain a clear and comprehensive overview of these complex dependencies and connection points. Achieving such insight however is a complex task that requires integrating data from many diverse sources to reveal hidden risks, bottlenecks, and opportunities. A particularly significant challenge lies in leveraging text data, which often arrives in unstructured forms and contains critical contextual information that is difficult to extract, compare, and analyse at scale.

During this internship, you will investigate novel approaches to extract strategic insights from large-scale, unstructured labor market data. You will be studying and applying the current state-of-the-art in Natural Language Processing (NLP), text mining, and innovation metrics. You will then explore how these data science methods can be applied to answer complex questions regarding innovation policy, such as identifying emerging technology clusters or mapping trends like regional skill evolution.
You will act as a bridge between technical possibilities and societal impact. You will collaborate with TNO Vector (Centre for Societal Innovation and Strategy) to validate how your data-driven findings can support decision-making in innovation policy. Your insights have the potential to create new methodologies for monitoring the Dutch innovation ecosystem and identifying future control points.

You are a highly motivated student with a background in:

• Data Science, Computer Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Information extraction or Natural language processing or related fields.
• Excellent communication skills
• Interest in the innovation and policy making sector

You want an internship opportunity on the precursor of your career; an internship gives you an opportunity to take a good look at your prospective future employer. TNO goes a step further. It’s not just looking that interests us; you and your knowledge are essential to our innovation. That’s why we attach a great deal of value to your personal and professional development. You will, of course, be properly supervised during your work placement and be given the scope for you to get the best out of yourself. Furthermore, we provide:

• A highly professional, innovative internship environment, within a team of top experts.
• A suitable internship allowance (615 euro for wo-, hbo- and mbo-students, for a full-time internship).
• Possibility of eight hours of free leave per internship month (for a full-time internship).
• A free membership of Jong TNO, where you can meet other TNO professionals and join several activities, such as sports activities, (work-related) courses or the yearly ski-trip.
• Use of a laptop.
• An allowance for travel expenses in case you don’t receive an OV-card.

At TNO, we innovate for a healthier, safer and more sustainable life. And for a strong economy. Since 1932, we have been making knowledge and technology available for the common good. We find each other in wonder and ingenuity. We are driven to push boundaries. There is all the space and support for your talent and ambition. You work with people who will challenge you: who inspire you and want to learn from you. Our state-of-the-art facilities are there to realize your vision. What you do at TNO matters: impact makes the difference. Because with every innovation you contribute to tomorrow’s world. Read more about TNO as an employer.

At TNO we encourage an inclusive work environment, where you can be yourself. Whatever your story and whatever unique qualities you bring to the table. It is by combining our unique strengths and perspectives that we are able to develop innovations that make a real difference in society. Want to know more? Read what steps we are taking in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Please apply before the 27th of February, 2026. The preferred start date is the 1st of April, 2026.

After the first CV selection, the application process will be conducted by the concerning department. TNO will provide a suitable internship agreement. If you have any questions about this vacancy, you can contact the contact person mentioned below.

Important to be aware of before applying:

• Before the start of the internship, the internship agreement from TNO needs to be signed. For students at a college or university based in the Netherlands, TNO uses the UNL-template (supplemented with a number of specific agreements from TNO). For students of foreign and MBO educational institutions, the TNO internship agreement applies. TNO does not sign any other internship agreements.
• Before the start of the internship, the educational institution will need to confirm in writing that:
  • 1) you are enrolled at the educational institution during the internship, and;
  • 2) the internship takes place as part of the programme of the study.

• The confirmation of educational institution takes place by signing the UNL template or forms prepared by TNO.
• Interns at TNO must be in possession of a Dutch residential address at the start of the internship. Performance of internship activities from abroad is not possible.