Below you can find a few project suggestions from Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Send an e-mail to fs-info@kth.se if you are interested in one of the projects.
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) — bridging science, policy and practice
We are an international non-profit research and policy organization that tackles environment and development challenges. We connect science and decision-making to develop solutions for a sustainable future for all. Our work spans climate, water, air and land-use issues, governance, the economy, gender and health. Stakeholder involvement is at the heart of our efforts to build capacity, strengthen institutions and equip partners for long-term change. Our knowledge and findings are accessible to decision-makers and civil society: as our own open access material, in leading academic journals, and repackaged for effective decision support. SEI has seven centers in the UK, the US, Thailand, Kenya, Estonia and Colombia. Our headquarters is in Sweden.
About the SEI internships
We aim to attract the most competent and skilled students and support their development by offering a competent supervisor and a professional environment. Recruitments are based on respect for the individual regardless of gender, gender identity or expression, age, union representation or political opinion, functional variation, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality and marital or parental status.
General information on internships
These internship opportunities are directed to students at the master's level. While internships are generally open to all students, priority is given to matriculated university students for whom an internship is either part of their curriculum or a thesis project. Priority is also given to students from universities with whom SEI has collaboration agreements, such as KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, and Lund University. We welcome applications from those that have specific interests that are of relevance to the work of SEI. In general, we expect candidates to have some prior knowledge of the research area in which they will be working. The internship is linked to the writing of a master’s thesis. All interns will have an SEI supervisor assigned and are welcome to be part of our teams and knowledge sharing activities.
Internship period
We offer two internship periods per year: January–June and August–January.
Internship opportunities at SEI Asia
• Unlock a World of Impact with an Internship at Climate Change, Disasters, and Development (C2D2)
At C2D2, we are passionately dedicated to mitigating the impact of climate change and disasters on the most vulnerable in our society. From cis/trans/non-binary individuals to Indigenous Peoples, children, older people, migrants, and those with diverse abilities, we stand as their unwavering shield against environmental adversity. As thought leaders in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, we aim to create a more resilient world.
Get ready to dive into exciting research topics such as:
• EBA-Enhanced Climate Field School for Resilience (ECCLIRe): Where you'll harness the potential of the climate field schools to build climate resilience in remote communities in Indonesia.
• GMS Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Program (CCESP): Contribute to regional work to develop a multi-stakeholder platform to address climate change and disasters and promote environmental sustainability.
• Enabling inclusive climate finance in Asia through fit-for-purpose capacity development planning and action: Pave the way for inclusive climate finance for everyone.
Your presence with us will catalyse outcomes that matter:
• Empowering policy, academic, and research stakeholders to champion the cause of marginalised and at-risk communities in their climate and disaster initiatives.
• Strengthening the capacities of these communities, using co-produced knowledge, to actively engage in climate action, disaster resilience, and sustainable development policy processes.
• Amplifying the reach of our knowledge across policy echelons, driving more effective implementation of global frameworks like the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across Asia.
Internship opportunities at SEI Latin America
Proposed research area No.1
SEI LAC is implementing a programme related to bioeconomy and cassava with a consortium of research centers, universities, and enterprises funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Colombia. The programme (to be implemented until 2025) has 3 work packages, and its objective is to strengthen the cassava value web in Colombia through co-innovation in primary production, transformation, and access to markets with sustainability, competitiveness, and circularity.
SEI is participating in 2 work packages and is leading components related to: a) promote sustainability agreements for the value chain; b) monitor economic impact on job and income generation along the value chain, with an emphasis on bioplastic production; c) enhance capacities for policy making focused on bioeconomy within local governments; d) research on market, technology watch and competitive intelligence for bioplastics.
For this programme SEI LAC would need an intern (I semester of 2024) to support research related to:
• Identify information to carry out a PESTEL analysis (Politics, Economics, Social, Technological, Ecological and Legal) for bioplastics including technology watch and competitive intelligence.
• Identify national and international experiences related to the implementation of sustainability agreements between the actors of agricultural value chains for circular bioeconomy.
These activities should be related or aligned to the student’s thesis. The minimum time required is 4 months, but 5-6 months would be ideal.
Proposed research area No.2
• Evaluate the comparative implications in terms of energy consumption, water consumption, water quality, and total cost of lithium extraction from briny groundwater based on evaporation ponds and direct extraction methods.
Internship opportunities at SEI Africa
Integrated Management of Natural Resources for Resilience in the ASAL (IMARA)
Background
The Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) make up to 89% of Kenya with approximately 38% of the country’s population. According to the State Department for ASALs, these regions are home to more than 90% of the wildlife that supports the tourism industry, contributing to 12% of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). More importantly, the ASAL regions host 70% of the National Livestock herd; these assets represent a major source of livelihood for the local communities. Further, ASALs have enormous potential for renewable energy (both solar and wind) and other natural resources and are as well strategically positioned for cross-border trade and social cultural interaction with Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Somalia.
In spite of these advantages, the ASALs have historically had the lowest development indicators in the country. The Government of Kenya has in recent years since promulgation of the new constitution in 2010 sought to close the development gap through various policy and development initiatives. However, various developmental, livelihood and environmental challenges persist in Kenyan ASALs. Some of the protracted crises including droughts, famine and communal resource conflicts are attributed to human pressure on the environment and impacts of climate variability and change.
The Integrated Management of Natural Resources for Resilience in the ASAL (IMARA) project goal is increased resilience of vulnerable households to climate change- related shocks through diversified livelihoods and improved natural resource management in four (4) ASAL Counties of Elgeyo Marakwet, Narok, Turkana and West Pokot. The expected outcomes of the project includes;
1) Secure Livelihoods and Strengthened inclusive market systems that support Sustainable Natural Resources Management
2) Sustainable and restored social-ecological landscapes for enhanced biodiversity and ecosystems services
3) Strengthened governance systems and structures for conflict sensitive and sustainable Natural Resource Management (NRM) and climate change adaptation at community, county and national levels
4) Program Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Research and Learning effectively coordinated
Project link:
Potential areas for Internship engagement
1) Economic analysis of livelihoods and environment
2) Participatory stakeholder engagement and communication
3) Land use and land cover change and ecosystem services
4) Environmental and climate change policies at national and sub-national levels
5) Sector specific analysis on resource dynamics and development challenges, including application of relevant decision support tools. The key sectors include land, water, agriculture, livestock, forestry and wildlife
Other areas of internship interest can be considered based on the skills and interest of the intern
Project lead: Anderson Kehbila
Applying the Water-Energy-Food Nexus to promote Ecosystem Based Adaptation in the Ewaso Ng’iro North River Catchment, Kenya
Background
Kenya aims to achieve middle income status through the Kenya Vision 2030 plan and integrated SDG and NDC implementation and their targets on climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Ewaso Ng’iro North Catchment Area located in the arid northern Kenya, consists of 10 Counties with an estimated population of 4 million people. The project is being piloted in the Counties of Laikipia, Samburu, Isiolo, Meru and Nyeri, where rapid transitions in agriculture, energy systems and water and land use are ongoing. Over 3 million people and large numbers of livestock, wildlife and ecosystems rely on the Ewaso Ng’iro, the only perennial river. As a consequence of the Vision 2030 and its flagship projects (a Mega dam along the Ewaso Ng‘iro River, the Isiolo City resort, and the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport Corridor), the prevailing competition among different water land, biomass and energy users in the basin is projected to intensify further. Additional pressures arise from upstream commercial agriculture expansion, population and urban growth and climate variability (in particular droughts and floods) and change. This factors in combination lead to increased abstraction of water for irrigation, thereby critically reducing the water flow during the dry season, land degradation, loss of ecosystems and eventually loss of water-, energy- and food security.
The project Applying the Water-Energy-Food Nexus to promote Ecosystem Based Adaptation in the Ewaso Ng’iro North River Catchment, Kenya applies a combination of Ecosystem-based Adaptation - EbA and the nexus approach, for addressing the combination of pressures in an integrated and sustainable way. Through the project, we will generate evidence that coordination and cooperation across sectors (water, energy, agriculture / land, and environment / ecosystems) and scales (local and national) can promote synergies and bring benefits over and above taking a single sector approach and that an EbA nexus approach can strengthen resilience. This knowledge will be co-developed with stakeholders so it can be applied in decision- and policy making, ensuring policy coherence. The planned measures include:
1) Stakeholder analysis, mobilization, sensitization and engagement
2) Development of water, energy and food/biomass scenarios, simulating different interventions and development pathways, using the nexus toolkit
3) Knowledge co-creation, mutual learning and capacity strengthening for stakeholders and scientists, e.g. by way of an EbA nexus platform which can become part of the existing nexus resource platform
4) Scaling and transfer of EbA nexus solutions
Potential areas for Internship engagement
1) Economic analysis of livelihoods and environment
2) Modelling of energy and water systems using SEI tools (WEAP and LEAP)
3) Modelling of ecosystem services and landuse and landcover changes and interactions with system dynamics (human and animal population change, climate change)
4) Land use and land cover change and ecosystem services
5) Environmental and climate change policies at national and sub-national levels
6) Sector specific analysis on resource dynamics and development challenges, including application of relevant decision support tools. The key sectors include land, water, agriculture, livestock, forestry and wildlife
Other areas of internship interest can be considered based on the skills and interest of the intern
Project lead: Philip Osano
Engineers Without Borders (EWB)
What we offer: Doing your thesis with EWB-SWE you will get concrete experience in how international development projects is run. We offer experts within different competence areas that will support you throughout the process. EWB-SWE do not offer any additional funds.
Requirement: We want everyone who do their master thesis with us commits to provide EWB-SWE with a project report in addition to the academic report that you provide the university. We also expects the master students to be active as volunteers before and after their field visit to ensure that they are well integrated with other volunteers and our systems. From experience we know that this is most efficient.
Project: Investigate more ways to improve sustainable construction for Build up Nepal
This project aims to build on previous experience in working with sustainable construction and find new ways to ensure lower CO2 emission and air pollution in the construction industry in Nepal. We collaborate with the local organisation
who has been a partner with us for many years. In order to lower the environmental footprint of the compressed stabilized earth blocks Build Up Nepal are working to reduce the cement content in them. Some research has already been performed and it shows that this can be accomplished with both an improved manufacturing process and by substituting the cement with other materials. A field study in Nepal would serve the purpose of combining competence not found in Nepal with a deep understanding of the prerequisites and working conditions in Nepal under which the blocks are manufactured. The students would work under supervision of the established project management with the goal of accelerating the process of reducing cement content through testing and analysis of test results. The details of the project will be settled with the students together with Build up Nepal. This is an opportunity to learn more on Compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEB) which is a more eco-friendly alternative to fire bricks. Build up Nepal empowers rural entrepreneurs and communities to build safe, affordable homes and resilient incomes.
Country: Kathmandu, Nepal
What are we looking for: We are interested in persons who have good project management skills or interests or education within construction.
Project: Feasibility study for safe and reliable water in school in the community in Ghana
This is a feasibility study for a new partner called Vulnerable aid and aims to ensure access to safe water and sanitation i several schools in the community. Access to safe drinking water in Nkwanta district is particular very low. About 69% of the total population in the district have access to safe drinking water and out of this only 10% of the villages has access to safe drinking water. The communities sources of drinking water are mainly from streams, hand dug wells, ponds where animals (cattle) also drink from and that dry up in the dry season. This project aims to conduct a feasibility study to set the conditions for future implementation projects.
Country: Nkwanta, Ghana
What are we looking for: We are interested in persons who have good project management skills or interests or education within WASH.
Project: Strengthen the community in Kigoma through access to safe water, sustainable food and/or digital literacy
This is a feasibility study that will investigate what opportunities we can contribute to social and environmental impact in the community through community participation. The project will be conducted within one or several of the areas: WASH, digitalisation and/or Sustainable food. The project is in partnership with the community based organisation Help community initiative (HCI). Kigoma region is among the least served regions of the country. Most of villages and communities lack water infrastructure, electricity, communication networks, etc. some villages which had infrastructure like schools, dispensary or water systems are now overwhelmed by the increasing population.
Country: Kigoma, Tanzania
What are we looking for: We are interested in persons who have good project management skills or interests or education within WASH, digitalisation and/or Sustainable Food.
Project: Feasibility study for a new compound center to strengthen the local community
This project aims to conduct a feasibility study for the local community partner Asulma center with focus on evaluating what social impact a community compound center can create for the society and what technical solution that would be best for this solution.
Country: Nairobi, Kenya
What are we looking for: We are interested in persons who have good project management skills or interests or education within construction.
Project: Development of solar plastic incinerator
This project aims to, with our new partner Wastefree23, develop and enhance mechanical/solar solution for plastic shredding and plastic re-shaping products Remote support or standard project. For more information about the mechanical prototype of the plastic bags slicer and improvement of our solar powered plastic recucling, please
see here
.
Country: Nairobi, Kenya
What are we looking for: We are interested in persons who have good project management skills or interests or education within mechanical or environmental engineering.
