Second-Year Students Anastasia Narkhova and Dmitry Plekhanov: About ‘Learning–by–Living’ Approach During Their Summer Internship at OECD

Anastasia and Dmitry: Our lives can be divided into «before» and «after». Taking an internship in a highly influential international organisation was an amazing experience. If we hadn’t been students of “Governance of STI” Master’s programme, we wouldn’t have got an opportunity to be among the trainees at the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD.  All first-year Master’s students of the programme “Governance of STI” who have high academic achievements and are interested in pursuing academic career may apply for the internship. But be ready for a tough competition at the selection stage!  

Anastasia: Exactly! Take preparation of application documents very seriously. What you write in a motivation letter will influence your chance of success to get an internship. During the interview the OECD representative asked me several questions about what he had found “catchy” in my motivation letter. That allowed me to elaborate more on my own experiences in innovation management and my research interests. The writing skills that I acquired during the course on research methods and term paper writing helped me a lot in preparing application documents for an internship.

Dmitry: There is no secret of getting an internship. Be ambitious and confident during an interview. Get ready to be asked lots of questions. The question “how do you see yourself in 5 years” is one of the easiest.

Anastasia and Dmitry: We were working on two projects “Bringing STI Policy and Governance into the Digital Era” and “Scientific Skills for a Digital World”. These topics are rather new. It was really inspiring to know what it feels like to work on a cutting-edge research. Each week we discussed our work progress with our colleagues. OECD is a very dynamic organisation open to new ideas and approaches.

Anastasia: At the very first week of our internship we were lucky to attend the meeting of the Working Party on Innovation and Technology Policy (TIP) where we were able to see the work of international organisation from the inside. What made me especially curious is the quality of OECD presentations: a minimalistic style without black letters on a white background. During the internship I was working on digitalisation of science and its implications for researchers’ skills. I analysed Open Science framework and the way digitalisation affects the whole scientific process and how the skills sets relevant for each stage are changing.

Dmitry: We took part in developing recommendations in the field of digitalisation of STI policy. Our main task was to find out which innovation policy instruments contribute to the digitalisation of STI. This includes the creation of modern digital infrastructures, open databases, repositories; development of policy frameworks and guidelines for open access, laws on privacy protection, programmes targeted at support of highly skilled data analysts. During the internship we significantly expanded knowledge in the area of digitalisation. As a result, a joint preprint The Meaning of Digitalization for Research Skills: Challenges for STI Policy was published. Also, our Master Theses will be completed under the joint supervision of Prof. Dirk Meissner, Dr. Michael Keenan, and Dr. Carthage Smith.

– Wow, that’s a solid work!

Anastasia and Dmitry: Yeah, you’re right. Our work was really tough and extremely interesting. But we also managed to have dinner with Mona Lisa. There is no city in the world which has as many museums as Paris. We were greatly impressed by the Museum of Arts and Trades and its exhibits, which demonstrate the history of technological development. We got inspiration to go to this museum from the novel “Foucault’s Pendulum”. Highly recommended!
Dmitry: Perhaps the next publication will be called “Unbelievable Adventures of Interns in Paris”.
Anastasia: We tested ‘learning–by–living’ approach and now we can confidently say that it’s the best approach for studying and making your mind open.

Anastasia: It is selfless creative work!

Dmitry: I guess it is openness and diligence. That helps you to get connected with amazing people with a wide vision and great experience. And OECD is a right place to meet them. Sometimes you may get more new insights on STI policy while drinking morning coffee and chatting with your colleagues than from reading a bunch of scientific papers. Anastasia and I enjoyed discussions with the colleagues from South Korea on the IoT (Internet of Things) implications for medicine. Also we had a chance to discuss STI policy evaluation in Australia.

Dmitry: You may notice the real outputs of your work immediately. OECD contributes a lot to creating the best worldwide policies. I consider it to be extremely motivating.  It gives inspiration to come up with really creative ideas.

Anastasia: OECD has a strong focus on the implementation of the recommendations it designs. It is a place for highly skilled professionals capable of thinking out of the box.