Internship â Ethics Team in Foresight, Leadership & Ethics in Science

Grade :
No grade

Contractual Arrangement :
Intern

Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days) : 24 weeks

Oct 2, 2026, 2:51:33 PM

Oct 23, 2026, 9:59:00 PM

HQ/SFH Science for Health

Full-time

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that the deadline for receipt of applications indicated above reflects your personal device's system settings.

The Ethics team within the science division is the focal point for the examination of ethical issues raised by activities throughout the Organization and develops global norms in the area of health ethics. The team also supports Member States in building health ethics capacities and addressing ethical issues that arise in their public health programs and policies. These issues cover a range of global bioethics topics from public health surveillance to developments in genomics, and from research with human beings to fair access to health services.

This team’s work is particularly important in the context of contemporary global health challenges which present difficult questions in areas such as global governance of emerging technologies, health inequalities, resource allocation and priority setting, emergency preparedness and responses, research and multi-country studies, and climate change and health.

Under the supervision of the Senior Ethics Specialist, the intern will assist the Ethics team at WHO in technical work as assigned in the agreed terms of reference:

• Participate in on-going ethics technical projects and meetings, and FLS unit and SFH departmental projects and meetings, as requested.
• Working closely with the ethics team, support the preparation of technical outputs, including briefs, evidence summaries, meeting notes, draft reports and presentations on a diverse range of ethical issues to help research and develop normative guidance on public health and research ethics.
• Review and synthesize academic and grey literature on specific topics in line with the objectives of the ethics team.
• Support the development, piloting and implementation of TArGET: the WHO-OECD Tool for the. Anticipatory Governance of Emerging Technologies in Public Health.
• Support the development of a programme of work with the health emergencies team to implement the findings of a review of ethical issues related to advances in public health surveillance.
• Support the organization and documentation of consultations, workshops and expert meetings, including agendas, background notes, presentations, participant lists, summaries of discussions and follow-up actions.
• Supporting the teams’ major outreach activities, namely the Global Summit of National Ethics committees and regional meetings, the Global Forum on Bioethics in Research and the Ethics2
  
  Policy Platform.

The purpose of the WHO Internship Programme is to provide an enriching learning experience for students and recent graduates. The Learning Objectives outlined within each internship vacancy are a key component of the programme.

• Understand the objectives of WHOs work in ethics, particularly as it relates to the ethics and governance of emerging technologies, climate change and health action, emergency preparedness and response and uptake of ethics in policy and decision making in global health.
• Understand how WHO engages Member States, expert groups, regional and country offices and external partners in the development and implementation of ethics-related guidance.
• Acquire knowledge about the process of developing international guidelines at WHO.
• Contribute…