Summer Internship 2026

We are offering an internship position for Summer 2026, with a flexible start date from late June/early July - early/mid September, lasting 6-8 weeks.

The application form can be found here

We are looking for a motivated summer intern to support a podcast in development in collaboration with the Plasticity Lab exploring what restorative and assistive neurotechnology reveals about hidden human capacity. The show is hosted by Gregory Warner, Peabody Award-winning creator of NPR’s Rough Translation and host of The Last Invention, and developed with Dani Clode, designer, researcher, and creator of the Third Thumb.

The closing date is 11:00 am BST on Monday 15th June 2026. Interviews for the top candidates will be held between 16th and 22nd June 2025. The selected candidate will be notified by Wednesday 24th June.

Details of the project are listed below.

Project details
The podcast will explore the science and stories behind restorative, assistive and augmentative neurotechnology, such as prosthetics, robotic augmentation, neural interfaces, sensory substitution, and other technologies that challenge assumptions about the limits of the human body and brain.

Can neurotechnology change how we relate to each other? Can it change how we think about disability, human potential, or our own ageing? The people best positioned to address these questions are often those encountering these technologies in their own lives: patients, prosthesis users, researchers, clinicians, designers, engineers, carers, and others navigating the promises and limitations of these tools firsthand.

The show asks what these technologies reveal not only about recovery or enhancement, but about plasticity, adaptation, embodiment, expertise, and human potential. It sits closely alongside the Plasticity Lab’s research into how people learn to control new body parts, integrate novel sensory feedback, and develop new movement abilities through experience.

This role is approximately 70% research and investigation, and 30% research/audio organisation.

Internship role
This role requires the ability to critically evaluate scientific and technological claims in neurotechnology, assistive technology, and human augmentation. Applicants must be comfortable engaging with primary scientific literature and assessing the quality, limitations, and implications of research and innovation in this space. You will be required to:

  • Investigate scientific questions and track down the people, studies, histories, and sources behind them.

  • Identify relevant researchers, clinicians, engineers, participants, artists, patients, and others whose experiences may illuminate the science.

  • Prepare pre-interview research documents, including background notes, timelines, key papers, possible questions, and areas of uncertainty.

  • Follow up on details that are difficult to verify online, including contacting (calling and emailing) relevant people or organisations where appropriate.

  • Help organise research materials and audio files, including folders, labels, transcripts, notes, and source lists.

  • Clean and structure transcripts so they can be searched, annotated, and used in episode development.

  • Pitch people, angles, questions, and stories worth pursuing.

  • Support the Plasticity Lab on various research activities

The work will involve scientific literature review, online research, source tracking, interview preparation, fact-checking, and practical organisation. Much of the work will be independent, with regular guidance and short daily check-ins.

We particularly encourage applications from people whose perspectives are shaped by lived experience of disability, assistive or augmentative technologies, prosthetics, rehabilitation, or neurotechnology, and will be happy to make accommodations to the work environment to support individuals living with disabilities.

Skills developed
The student will gain experience in research-led science communication and podcast development: moving from a broad scientific question to a structured research file, identifying credible sources, preparing for interviews, and translating complex scientific material into compelling narrative possibilities. They will also gain experience with research organisation, transcript management, factchecking, scientific literature review, and the early development of long-form non-fiction audio.

Funding 
The student will receive a stipend for the course of the internship. In line with National Living Wage, the student with receive a stipend of £445/week. We will support the student in organising accommodation, including the possibility of staying in one of the University of Cambridge colleges. 

Further reading: Kieliba et al (2021) ; Clode et al (2024); Schone et al (2023) ; Parajuli et al (2019); Krakauer et al (2019); CTRL-labs at Reality Labs et al (2024)

Click here to go to the application page

 

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