Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

H (no hardship)

Family

Internship

2025-03-01

January 20, 2025

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full-time internship with the Statistics, Data Science, and Survey Section of the Global Data Service at UNHCR Copenhagen.
Established in December 1950, UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for asylum seekers, refugees, returnees, internally displaced persons and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. UNHCR operates in over 130 countries, using its long expertise to protect and care for millions.

Job Title: Data Science Intern
Duty Station: Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 6 months (with possibility of 2-month extension)
Contract Type: Internship
Earliest Hire Date: 01 March 2025

Organizational context
The Statistics, Data Science, and Survey Section (SDSS) which is located in UNHCR’s Global Data Service (GDS) in Copenhagen, develops statistical definitions and standards, oversees the production of global statistics on refugees and other forcibly displaced populations, and applies innovative methods to answer questions related to forced displacement. Access to reliable, timely and accurate data is essential to achieve the aims of the Data Transformation Strategy 2020-2025, that is to position UNHCR as a trusted leader on data and information related to refugees and other populations of concern. The Section develops external products such as the annual Global Trends report, which analyzes the changes in forced displacement and statelessness and deepens public understanding of ongoing crises, and the Refugee Data Finder, which enables humanitarian workers, decision-makers, researchers and many more to quickly access data and information on affected populations. The Section also uses innovative data sources and methods to help solve some challenges faced by the current and future state of forced displacement.

The position
The internship is in Copenhagen with the Statistics, Data Science, and Survey Section (SDSS) of the Global Data Service. The intern will work as member of the Data Science Team of the Section to contribute to the delivery of advanced analytical products, in consultation with the relevant operational teams, including field operations.

Duties and Responsibilities
This internship offers an exciting opportunity to:
1) Contribute to the CRAF’d-financed project CLIFDEW-GRID that predicts forced displacement at the subnational level with a specific focus on the role of climate change.
2) Support the projects of the Data Science Team in applying statistical and data science techniques to global forced displacement and statelessness situations data to improve the understanding of population behavior and vulnerabilities.
3) Support the design, development, and maintenance of data products which help improve the understanding of forced displacement issues.
4) Document background analyses and the design of final data products.
Minimum qualifications required
To be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria:
• Be either a recent graduate (having completed their studies within two years of applying) or a current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by IAU/UNESCO.
• Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to the work of UNHCR.

Essential Minimum Qualifications and Professional Experience Required
The ideal candidate is/has:
• good oral and written communication skills and interpersonal abilities with fluency in English,
• a university degree (MSc or MA) in Data Science, Data Engineering, Machine Learning Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, or another quantitative field,
• is fluent in a (statistical) programming language such as Python, R, and/or Julia,
• some experience with data management tools (e.g., SQL), information sharing platforms and data visualization tools (e.g., Shiny or Dash),
• some experience with applications of statistical and data science models to real-world data, in particular geo-spatial data,
• some experience with remote sensing data,
• some experience with Azure, Data Bricks, and Data Factory.
The Intern will be expected to engage with and support the following activities:
• Support in defining modelling strategies for the inclusion of climate change into the prediction of sub national forced displacement.
• Support the development of predictive models of refugees and forcibly displaced populations.
• Support the generation and update of data sets on forced displacement or feature variables for predictive models.
• Support collaborative work and communications with external partners in other agencies, governmental bodies, and academic institutions.
• Any other tasks, as needed.

Conditions
It is a full-time role with working hours from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday (40 hours per week). The successful candidate will be assigned to support SDSS at the UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and must be available to work full-time for the duration of the internship.
Allowance: Interns who do not receive financial support from an outside party will receive an allowance to partially help to cover the cost of food, local transportation and living expenses.
Travel: Unless provided or paid by external sponsoring entities, UNHCR reimburse interns engaged from a location outside of the country of the duty station for the ticket costs of their outward and return travel to/from the duty station by the most economical route available on economy class, irrespective of the duration of the journey. Reimbursement shall be limited to the authorized outward and return travel between the intern’s country of residence and the intern’s duty station, or actual route of travel, whichever is lower.
Before travel is undertaken, the selected intern must obtain authorization in writing from the hiring office. Such authorization must include the approved cost of the ticket.
Internships normally last two to six months with the possibility of extension up to eight months for full-time internships and twelve months for part-time internships.
Obligations
Acquiring and renewing current visas, residence permits including all associated costs, obtaining medical certification and compliance with taxation requirements (if applicable), are the responsibility of the intern.
The selected candidate will need to provide UNHCR with a proof of health insurance coverage applicable to the assigned internship location and a certificate of good health from a qualified medical practitioner certifying their fitness for work and travel. In the event the selected candidate is not able to produce the required certificates, they will not be admitted to the Internship Programme.

If you are a person with a disability and you expect you may face challenges during the recruitment process, you can indicate it in your application form.
There are options to select any health conditions you may have and outline any necessary adjustments related to disabilities during the recruitment phases. Providing this information is optional. It will be treated as strictly confidential and used only for the purpose of finding out how to better assist you during the recruitment process.
Adjustments for candidates with disabilities will be provided as best as possible and as needed upon request.
All candidates will be assessed based on meeting the requirements for each vacancy in relation to experience, skills, and education.
The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Please note that UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing, training, or any other fees).
We welcome applications from candidates with a refugee or stateless background

Standard Job Description

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Desired Languages

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Additional Qualifications

Skills

Education

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Other information

The written test might be included in recruitment processThis position doesn’t require a functional clearance

Home-Based

No

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements