International CaCTüS internship: from potential to impact

Symposium marks the successful completion of the 2025 Computation and Cognition Tübingen Summer Internship
 

CaCTüS, the international internship program at the Max Planck Institutes for Biological Cybernetics and for Intelligent Systems and the Tübingen AI Center, has successfully concluded its fourth round. The program is designed to advance the careers of young talented researchers who have limited access to top-tier higher education. This year’s interns impressed with the results of their three-month research projects.

The CaCTüS Symposium, already a cherished tradition, remains a yearly highlight at the Max Planck Campus Tübingen. On September 19, 2025, nine young research talents from around the world took the stage to share their achievements of their internships with a captivated audience. Their presentations covered a large range of topics, from Artificial Intelligence – “Do Large Language Models feel electrical emotions?”, one speaker asked – to different hot topics in human cognition, such as behavior in groups and communication flow in the brain.

The speakers in the spotlight had been selected for the CaCTüS internship, a program designed to support gifted early-career researchers with restricted opportunities to top-level higher education. Over the course of their fully funded three-month stay, the participants worked on scientific projects under the supervision of experienced scientists at one of the hosting institutions.

A stepping-stone to global research opportunities

“I’m aware that this program alone is modest in scale compared to the magnitude of the challenge, but I hope it inspires similar initiatives”, said Drew Robson in his welcome address. The Max Planck Research Group Leader has been supporting the project since its inception in 2022, initially serving as a scientific advisor to an intern. He was so impressed with the first cohort of CaCTüS students that he assumed the role of program chair, succeeding the program’s initiator, Franziska Bröker.

Beyond academic guidance, the CaCTüS internship distinguishes itself through the comprehensive support it offers. The program not only fully covers living and travel expenses, but also provides support with administrative and practical matters. In addition, each intern is paired with a buddy—a local PhD student who helps them navigate daily life at the institute, take part in leisure activities, and feel at home in their new environment.

The program is further enriched by a wide variety of soft-skill sessions, visits to other research institutes in the area, frequent social gatherings and networking opportunities with fellow scientists. These activities are made possible by the Hanrieder Foundation for Excellence through the Hanrieder Impact Fund. The Hanrieder Foundation for Excellence, established in 2015 by Wolfgang Hanrieder under the auspices of the Max-Planck-Foundation, aims to support outstanding junior scientists in gaining experience at leading research centers abroad, and thus to promote the international exchange of excellence in research.

This year’s nine CaCTüS interns are already taking the next steps to continue their careers at other renowned research institutions. While one of them secured a PhD position at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Frankfurt during her CaCTüS internship, others plan to fan out to other countries. As the interns embark on these new paths, preparations are already underway to welcome the next cohort of talented young scientists. Applications are open from October 16 to November 19.