Are you interested in energy research and looking for a summer trainee opportunity? Would you like to work in a meaningful role with real responsibility and excellent learning opportunities? Do you want to work with superb colleagues who are experts in their field to drive a sustainable future and tackle the greatest challenges of our time? VTT might be just the place for you.  

VTT is one of the leading applied research organisations in Europe. What unites us are curiosity, a passion for learning, and a purpose: to solve the biggest challenges of our time and turn them into sustainable growth and well-being. Our cross-disciplinary community of over 2300 brilliant minds from over 55 different nationalities is focused on creating impact through science-based innovation. Now, we are looking for passionate changemakers – you – to join us as summer trainees.

Our last summer's trainees rated their summer job experience at VTT 4.6/5 in Oikotie's Responsible Summer Job survey. Below are some excerpts from their feedback when asked what was the best part of their summer job:

“Great team, interesting tasks, enough responsibility, and opportunities to make an impact.”
“I got to know a lot of professionals from different fields with this summer job. So, networking is the best part.”
“Interesting projects, nice and helpful colleagues, work-life balance, and equal treatment with permanent colleagues.”

We are now looking for a Research Trainee to join our Energy Transition team for next summer. Join us - and let’s make an impact together! 

As a Research Trainee, your key goals are to update and extend the documentation and wiki pages of the Backbone energy system model developed by VTT. In this position, you will have an essential role in our task to support our users with up-to-date information about our energy system models and their features. The work will directly support our ambition to develop the best open-source energy system models in the world.

Our team, Energy transition, focuses on supporting decision-making. We are an interdisciplinary research team of 18 professionals, and we combine quantitative and qualitative analysis methods in analysing technical and social change. Our mission is to solve global challenges in climate change, environment, and social well-being through comprehensive analysis of future systems. The team is part of the Energy research area, that drives technologies and solutions for energy transition and industrial de-carbonisation: hydrogen, electrification, CCSU and power systems, as well as digitally powered fast scaleup and systemic solutions supporting clean transition.

As a Research Trainee, you will:

• Improve the documentation of our Backbone energy system model (https://gitlab.vtt.fi/backbone/backbone/)
• Draft and create new content to the Backbone wiki regarding the model features and their documentation (https://gitlab.vtt.fi/backbone/backbone/-/wikis/home)
• Work in collaboration with our team of experienced energy system modellers.

Who we are looking for?

• A highly motivated student with a relevant educational background in software documentation and energy system modelling.
• The Backbone model is written with GAMS. It is beneficial if you have previous experience with GAMS but that is not strictly required.
• Experience of generating code documentation with advanced AI coding tools, is also highly preferred.
• Excellent skills in English (reading and writing).

As a person, we hope that you are:

• A curious mind who is eager to develop and take on new challenges. We appreciate ambition and willingness to learn, over having all the answers or skills ready when you start.
• A person who appreciates a good software documentation and has enough patience to actually write one.

With VTT, you’ll enjoy:

• Impactful work for the future. As a leading applied research organisation, we are on a mission to bring exponential hope to the world by joining together people, businesses, science and technology. We tackle the biggest challenges of our time – from climate change and resource sufficiency to industrial renewal and smart healthcare – and turn them into sustainable growth. Read more about our strategy, the path of exponential hope, and our organisational culture as the builder of the world's most meaningful place to work.
• Career opportunities, top-level mentors. At VTT, young professionals' skills are appreciated and supported with the opportunity to learn from the top experts in their field. You’ll get to discover our community of over 2300 experts representing 60 nationalities working across cutting-edge fields of science and technology.
• Meaningful projects, real responsibility. At VTT, emerging talents get to take on meaningful projects in research or supporting researchers’ work. We treat emerging talents as equals and give them real responsibility from the start. VTT is a caring employer that supports your growth and work–life balance and offers a range of well-being services.

What is like to work with us solving the biggest challenges of our time? Check from the video what kind of experiences Aymara, Daniil, Eric and Isabella had from their summer traineeships and what kind of change did they drive.

Apply now and join our community of brilliant minds!

Please send your CV and application via our recruitment system as soon as possible but at the latest by 25 May 2025. We will process applications as they come in, and fill the position as soon as we find the right candidate. The length of the traineeship and the exact starting date can be discussed with the hiring team.

All VTT summer traineeships are paid, and the salary is determined based on study credits: for Master's students the monthly salary is between 2600€ and 2800€, and for Bachelor's students the monthly salary is between 2100€ and 2400€.

Please read more of VTT Summer of Changemakers trainee programme from here: https://www.vttresearch.com/en/summer-changemakers

Interested and want to hear more?

For further information, please contact Research Team Leader Miika Rämä, miika.rama@vtt.fi, tel. +358 20 722 5794 on Friday 16 May at 9:00 - 11:00 (Finnish time UTC+3).

We look forward to hearing from you!