Trainee (Database of centrally approved antibiotics and antifungals)

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) offers a traineeship opportunity in its Therapeutic Areas Department as a Trainee (Database of centrally approved antibiotics and antifungals).

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a decentralised agency of the European Union (EU). It is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU.

Placement description

We are looking for a trainee in the Therapeutic Areas Department.

The Office for Vaccines and therapies for infectious diseases (H-TA-INF) manages the benefit-risk assessment of medicinal products related to infectious diseases, including antivirals, antibiotics, antiparasitics, antifungals and vaccines, throughout their lifecycle. In this context, maintaining oversight of all centrally approved antibiotics and antifungals is essential, to support the preparation of key meetings, the preparation of EMA annual reports and addressing internal and external queries.

The objective of this traineeship is to create a database recording historical information of approved products as well as an overview of currently ongoing procedures, prospective forthcoming applications, and all relevant pre-submission interactions with EMA. The data used to populate the database will be retrieved from an existing internal EMA database and completed as needed with information from EMA assessment reports and/or publicly available information.

The database is expected to include functionalities enabling easy visualisation of information and allowing sub-analyses (e.g. approval patterns over time, paediatric use, route of administration, break-down of therapeutic indications etc), so a critical review and harmonisation of the structure and format of the data will be required as well as experience in database creation or data management and visualisation.

Learning outcomes

• Achieve increased knowledge of the functioning of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and its scientific committees, the centralised marketing authorisation procedure and the EU regulatory network
• Achieve in-depth regulatory knowledge and experience in the area of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), antibiotics, antifungals
• Experience working in a multi-cultural and international environment
• Develop technical and soft skills such as communication and project management

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for consideration for this placement, you are required to:

1. enjoy full rights as a citizen of a European Union Member State or Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway;
2. possess a university degree in life science (minimum of three years or more) that must have been obtained between 6 May 2025 and 6 May 2026 or be a university student on an Erasmus + or a similar programme or a PhD student or a Master's student with a previous fully finished degree in the areas mentioned before.
3. a thorough knowledge of English (at least level C1) and good knowledge of other official EU language (at least B2) of the Common European Framework for Languages

Additional skills

• Pharmaceutical / microbiology background
• Good project management skills and knowledge of different IT systems
• Good communication skills
• Good analytical and organisational skills

Behavioural competencies

You will demonstrate the following behavioural competencies:

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Working with others
• Adaptability
• Research and analytical skills
• Learning and development

Conditions of traineeship

The traineeship is offered for 10 months (1 October 2026 – 31 July 2027) and takes place at the Agency’s premises in Amsterdam with possibility for teleworking up to 40% of working time from The Netherlands and occasional teleworking from outside The Netherlands. Traineeships are offered for either full-time or part-time (80% or 50%) if combined with university studies.

The Agency pays a monthly stipend of €2,049.77 for a full-time traineeship (reduced accordingly for 80% or 50%) and a travel contribution upon joining the Agency.

Each trainee will have a mentor at the Agency who will guide the trainee through the programme.