Internship – WTO SPS data analysis and refinement of Observatory’s monitoring indicators, DIAD – WOAH HQ
Paris, France
| Context |
| The World Organisation for Animal Health is a leading intergovernmental organisation representing 183 Members worldwide. Through its activities, WOAH makes a decisive contribution to improving animal health, protecting animal welfare and strengthening Veterinary Services. The Organisation provides transparent information on world’s animal health situation, and promotes international standards, particularly in terms of the safety of trade in live animals and animal products. More information can be found on WOAH’s website. Joining WOAH means taking part in the development of one of the leading international organisations, recognised and associated with other multilateral institutions, in the field of worldwide health. It means helping to build a global approach to health, combining animal and human health in a “One Health” approach. It means joining teams motivated by the impact of their actions, the sense of their collective commitment and their recognised professionalism in their respective fields of expertise.WOAH’s headquarters are based in Paris. The Organisation is present on every continent through 13 Regional or Sub-regional Representations. WOAH has 250 staff members, two-thirds of whom are based at headquarters. The mission of the Data Integration and Analytics Department (DIAD) is to enhance WOAH’s decision-making capacities by analysing data from diverse internal and external sources and providing evidence-based insights for WOAH, its Members and partners. Through advanced analytics, data integration and knowledge generation, DIAD supports data-driven decision-making across the Organisation. Within DIAD, the WOAH Observatory monitors the implementation of WOAH international standards by its Members, through a set of monitoring indicators presented in its reports, including most recently published ‘ Implementation of WOAH Standards: the Second Observatory Monitoring Report’. Among other sources, the Observatory monitors the number of World Trade Organization (WTO) data, such as notifications regarding Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regulations and SPS-specific trade concerns (STCs) submitted by WOAH Members, which are publicly available through the ePing SPS&TBT platform. These documents are largely free text, and their links to the chapters of the WOAH Codes and Manuals are not yet systematically established. In addition, the current Observatory indicators are primarily descriptive and lack measures of statistical uncertainty, such as confidence intervals, limiting the robustness and interpretability of findings. In this context, DIAD is offering an internship opportunity within the Observatory team for a motivated student interested in data science, natural language processing and statistics applied to international trade and animal health standards. Based at WOAH Headquarters in Paris, the intern will contribute to refining the Observatory’s monitoring indicators. |
| Job Description |
| Positioning and reportingThe intern will join the Observatory team of the Data Integration and Analytics Department (DIAD), under the authority of the Head of DIAD and the direct supervision of the Senior Scientific Officer of the Observatory, with functional supervision by a Data Scientist of DIAD. The intern will have the opportunity to interact with internal and external stakeholders, such as the WOAH Standards Department and the WTO SPS Secretariat. |
| Job purposeThe purpose of this internship is to map the SPS notifications and STCs submitted by WOAH Members to WTO against the chapters of the WOAH Codes and Manuals, and to quantify the level of relevance of each chapter to national regulations in the context of trade. To do so, the intern will develop data pipelines involving large language models (LLMs) to extract structured information from SPS notifications, and will triangulate the outputs with other sources. The intern will also strengthen the statistical basis of the Observatory’s indicator matrix, beyond indicators based on WTO SPS data, by reviewing indicator definitions, computing basic statistics and proposing appropriate approaches to quantify their uncertainty. |
| Missions and activities1. Data pipeline development that involves LLMs– Develop a reproducible data pipeline (R or Python) to collect SPS notifications and STCs from the ePing SPS&TBT platform.– Integrate use of LLMs into the pipeline to map SPS notifications and STCs against the relevant chapters of the WOAH Terrestrial and Aquatic Codes and Manuals.– Document the pipeline, methods and results, and present the work to DIAD and relevant WOAH colleagues. 2. Triangulation of the pipeline outputs (e.g. comparison of national regulations)– Triangulate the pipeline outputs with other sources, for example by comparing them with national regulations.– Assess the quality of the automated extraction and mapping (e.g. manually reviewed validation sample, accuracy metrics) and document its limitations.– Quantify the level of relevance of each WOAH Code or Manual chapter to national regulations in the context of trade. 3. Scoping of the Observatory’s thematic study on trade– Contribute to the scoping of the Observatory’s thematic study on trade.– Interact with internal and external stakeholders, such as the WOAH Standards Department and the WTO SPS Secretariat. 4. Basic statistics for the Observatory’s indicator matrix– Perform basic statistics to add to the current indicator matrix of the Observatory, not limited to those using WTO SPS data.– Assess and understand each definition of the indicators that have been developed to monitor the levels of implementation of WOAH Codes by its Members.– Propose the most appropriate approaches to quantify the uncertainty of the indicators, such as confidence intervals. The Head of DIAD may, when necessary, assign to the incumbent any other duties, responsibilities and activities within the intern’s area of competence. |
| Requirements |
| Qualifications and ExperienceRequired qualifications and experience– Education: currently enrolled in a Master’s degree (M1/M2) or final year of an engineering school in data science, statistics, computer science, epidemiology, economics or a related quantitative field.– Experience: academic or practical experience (projects, previous internship) in data processing and statistical analysis with R or Python. Additional experience (asset)– Experience with natural language processing, text extraction or LLM-based applications.– Knowledge of international trade, the WTO SPS Agreement or international standard setting.– Interest in or previous exposure to animal health sector, public health sector or the One Health approach. Expected SkillsTechnical skills– Strong data science programming skills in R or Python.– Knowledge of natural language processing or other technologies relevant to text extraction, including the use of LLMs.– Sound knowledge of statistics, including estimation and uncertainty quantification (e.g. confidence intervals).– Good practices in reproducible code: version control (Git), documentation, testing.– Excellent command of English (written and spoken); knowledge of French or Spanish is an asset. Personal and Interpersonal skills– Analytical mind, rigour and attention to data quality.– Autonomy, curiosity and ability to learn new tools quickly.– Critical approach to AI outputs and to the interpretation of statistical results.– Ability to work in a multicultural and multidisciplinary team and to communicate with internal and external stakeholders. |
| Additional Information |
| Working conditionsThe post is a full-time internship position based at the WOAH Headquarters in Paris. It requires long hours in a seated position at a computer. – Type of contract: Internship.– Salary: 715€ / month.– Duration: six (6) months.– Start date: as soon as possible.– Location: WOAH Headquarters, 12 rue de Prony, 75017 Paris, France. Eligibility and start dateThis internship requires an agreement with the student’s academic institution. The selection of the candidate and the internship start date will depend on the suitability of the candidate’s profile for the position, as well as on the operational and funding constraints associated with the internship. The selected candidate must be able to commence the internship in person in Paris, France, no later than 4 January 2027, to ensure that the internship activities can be carried out within the applicable funding period. |
| General InformationWOAH places high value on a multicultural and positive work environment. WOAH is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all qualified candidates, irrespective of their origin, gender, opinions or beliefs. If you are interested in this internship, please complete your application online at the latest by 4 November 2026.All applications will be reviewed after the closing date of the publication. |
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