The freedom to find and choose a project that suits your own interests comes with the responsibility to identify your wants and needs, and to search for a project placement yourself. This is not necessarily an easy task, but practicing it within MBCS will pay off once you hit the labour market. This page contains some suggestions that can help you on your quest for a research project that matches your abilities and interests. ## Know what you want As for most important decisions in life, self-knowledge is key. What do you think you want to do in the future? Which skills do you think you need to acquire? What kind of work provides you with joy? In what type of work environment do you flourish? These are not easy questions, but they are important. To get started with this, grab three pieces of paper and label them topics, methods and skills. - Under topics, list all the research areas that got you curious, for example during coursework or while reading. For example, you might be interested in the constructivist theory of emotions, or maybe you have a blanket interest in consciousness or decision-making. - Under methods, list the experimental techniques, modelling approaches or other methods that you are interested in. Perhaps you find patient interviews interesting, or perhaps you want to use TMS or train an artificial neural network. - Under skills, list research-related skills you think you should learn. Applying statistics could be one, performing patch clamping could be another, but also soft skills like time management are relevant. Take your time for each page. Spend 5 minutes on each, even if the well runs dry and you think you've listed all the things you're interested in. Whatever you list here can help you in your search. ## Head out and search online There's online repositories, but your best bet is just use a search engine. Query for your research topic, add things like "neuroscience research" or "cognitive science" to zoom in on the field. Add things like "site:uva.nl" to locate work done at UvA. This will work quicker and be more thorough than perusing the faculty websites. There's some repositories that can be of help: - www.mbcsinternships.nl lists projects submitted to our programme - www.abcmembers.nl is a repository of researchers at ABC (it's never complete, but it also never hurts to try) - [psychiatryamsterdam.nl](https://psychiatryamsterdam.nl) lists research projects in psychiatry and allows you to contact the respective researchers directly. ## Be like a spider The common house spider lay 100 eggs in a single sac. Not all of these become spiders (I hope), but the number is rather an insurance against bad fortune. This should go for you, too, because there are many reasons why any given spot won't work out. For example: - The lab may be short on staff to supervise - The lab may have already brought in students - The lab may not see a good match with you or with the constraints of the research project - The timing of your project might not work for the lab This is why you want to send out several requests simultaneously. There's no shame in chasing multiple opportunities at the same time, because if you approach people sequentially, you will quickly run out of time. ## But like a polite spider While you're doing this, do remain considerate of the fact that there's someone reading your email. Let them know who you are, why you're interested in their research and that you'd be interested in talking about any opportunities in the lab, if these exist. Don't press people and don't use ChatGPT (you will not get a response if people notice you use an LLM): keep it civil and demonstrate your genuine motivation. Reminders are fine, though. Sometimes the receiving party does not see your urgency, sometimes they just have difficulty managing emails. If you haven't heard back after a week, don't shy away from a gentle reminder. ## Keep emails brief It is fine to add a CV or resume to your cold call email, but keep your overall message brief. If there is a possibility to do a project, you can always schedule a call or visit later in which you can expand on who you are and what you would like to do. The most important information is: - Who you are and which programme you are doing - Why you care for the research done in the respective lab - What you would hope to learn, if possible ## Make the most out of a no If you receive a no, make sure you: - Understand why it is a no (this might influence your future search strategy) - Check whether the responding party knows of any leads for other positions (and if you contact those leads, feel free to namedrop the person who referred you)