Hi. So this is a bit of a different kind of post from normal because it’s about opportunities rather than concepts.

I am a PhD student in physics doing observational cosmology. I am going to be taking my qualifying exam in a few months, and have about 6 months after that to write my thesis proposal. So I’ve gotta hop on trying to get an idea for my dissertation.

My group is a small group with, uh…let’s say minimal funding. But also not…the most opportunities in the world. My advisor is a “make your own opportunities” kind of person.

That’s my background. Here’s my question: I’m wondering if there is a place I could look for internship-type collaborative deals that I could apply to where I’m kind of collaborating with people at a larger organization.

I’m not necessarily interested in something that would give RA funding (although that would be very nice) because my department guarantees TA funding for 6 years. I’m more interested in the opportunity and collaborating with a larger/more diverse group.

Here’s an example of what I’m maybe thinking of: the CosmoSat project has a few French internships listed that seem to just be research opportunities, but they’re in AI and I’m observational, so it’s not really my thing.

The only other opportunity board that I really know of it the AAS job register, but those are like actual job postings, whereas I’m looking for more like collaborative educational opportunities?

I know I’ve heard of this happening in other disciplines, but I’m not sure about astro. If anybody knows, that would be cool.