Internship – Data Science and AI pipelines for the management of the Animal Health Research Needs database (STAR-IDAZ), DIAD – WOAH HQ
Paris, France
| Context |
| The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH – founded as OIE) 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. WOAH coordinates a large international research effort on animal health known as STAR-IDAZ (Global Strategic Alliances for the Coordination of Research on the Major Infectious Diseases of Animals and Zoonoses). Among other tasks, WOAH coordinates the collection of research needs expressed by Members, experts and partners. These research needs are collected through various channels, mostly through free-text forms, which makes their consolidation, analysis and publication labour-intensive.In this context, DIAD, in collaboration with the Science Department, is offering an internship opportunity for a motivated student interested in data science and artificial intelligence applied to research data. Based at WOAH Headquarters in Paris, the intern will develop pipelines to automate the management of research needs and the publication of animal health research priorities. |
| Job Description |
| Positioning and reportingThe intern will join the Data Science Lab (DS Lab) team of the Data Integration and Analytics Department (DIAD), under the authority of the Head of DIAD and the direct supervision of the Data Manager and the AI Scientist of the DS Lab. The intern will work in close collaboration with the Science Department, which coordinates WOAH’s contribution to STAR-IDAZ. |
| Job purposeThe purpose of this internship is to design, develop and document data science and AI pipelines that automate the internal management of the collected text data, and automate the extraction, summarisation and publication of animal health research priorities. The internship will contribute to the work of the DIAD Data Science Lab on the responsible use of AI for WOAH’s data assets, and will produce reusable, well-documented tools handed over to WOAH teams at the end of the assignment. |
| Missions and activities1. Data understanding and preparation– Review the structure, content and quality of the WOAH Animal Health research needs database and the different collection channels (forms, templates, exports).– Develop reproducible pipelines (Python and/or R) to ingest, clean, standardise and de-duplicate the research needs records.– Propose and document a consistent data model and controlled vocabularies (e.g. diseases, species, research areas, geographical scope) in agreement with the Science Department. 2. AI-supported text processing– Develop natural language processing and large language model (LLM) pipelines to classify research needs, extract key entities (pathogen, disease, species, research topic, stakeholder) and detect duplicates or near-duplicates.– Develop pipelines to cluster and summarise related research needs into consolidated research priorities.– Design an evaluation approach (benchmark sample, accuracy metrics, human-in-the-loop review) to assess the quality and reliability of the automated outputs. 3. Publication of research priorities– Automate the generation of outputs presenting research priorities (e.g. summary reports, tables, dashboards or web-ready content) for internal review and publication.– Integrate the pipelines, where relevant, with DIAD data platforms and tools, following WOAH data management and IT security rules. 4. Documentation and knowledge transfer– Use AI-supported coding tools (e.g. Claude Code, Codex) in line with good software engineering practices: version control, code review, testing and documentation.– Document the pipelines, prompts, models and limitations, and prepare a user guide and a final internship report.– Present the work to DIAD and Science Department colleagues and ensure hand-over of the tools to the teams in charge. The Head of DIAD may, when necessary, assign to the incumbent any other duties, responsibilities and activities within the intern’s area of competence. Expected deliverables– A documented, reproducible pipeline for the ingestion, cleaning and structuring of research needs.– AI/NLP pipelines for the classification, extraction and summarisation of research needs, with an evaluation of their performance.– An automated output (report and/or dashboard) presenting consolidated research priorities.– Technical documentation, a user guide and a final internship report. |
| 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, computer science, statistics, artificial intelligence or a related quantitative field.– Experience: academic or practical experience (projects, previous internship) in data processing and analysis with Python and/or R, including work on text data. Additional experience (asset)– Experience with natural language processing, text mining or LLM-based applications (e.g. prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings).– Interest in or exposure to animal health, veterinary or public health research, or the One Health approach.– Experience with data visualisation or reporting tools (e.g. Quarto, R Markdown, Power BI, Streamlit/Shiny). Expected SkillsTechnical skills– Strong programming skills in Python and/or R for data science.– Hands-on use of AI-supported coding tools (e.g. Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot).– Good knowledge of text processing / NLP methods and of working with LLM APIs.– Good practices in reproducible code: version control (Git), documentation, testing.– Knowledge of SQL and data modelling is an asset.– 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 awareness of responsible AI and data protection issues.– Ability to work in a multicultural and multidisciplinary team and to explain technical work to non-specialists. |
| 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 date– This 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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