Internship
A twelve-week, stage-gated research internship. Free to every learner, remote, project-based, and ending in a real manuscript — not a certificate of attendance.
Six stages, each with a gate
Students advance only by clearing the previous stage. Teams form and re-form as the work gets harder. This keeps quality high without spending a single taka on staff.
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Stage 0 · Week 0
Onboarding
Self-paced Learning Hub modules: Git and GitHub, Python or R basics, mining NCBI, OpenAlex and other public repositories, plus research ethics and authorship norms.
Gate: onboarding quiz and a working local environment.
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Stage 1 · Weeks 1–2
Foundations Challenge
Small individual tasks: a data-cleaning script, a literature-mining exercise, a public-dataset query. Everyone does the same tasks; effort is visible.
Gate: only qualifying students are promoted to Stage 2.
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Stage 2 · Weeks 3–5
Team Formation & Applied Analysis
Assigned teams of four to five tackle an applied problem under a core mentor — for example the AMR Genomic Analysis Group.
Gate: a documented, reproducible analysis published to GitHub.
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Stage 3 · Weeks 6–10
Capstone Research Project
Teams narrow to one original research question and draft a manuscript with mentor and advisor supervision.
Gate: the manuscript draft passes internal review.
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Stage 4 · Weeks 11–12+
Publish & Present
Submission to a preprint server or journal, and presentation at a BORA virtual symposium.
Gate: preprint or publication housed in the BORA archive.
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Stage 5 · Ongoing
Train-the-Trainer
Published alumni return as team leads or core mentors for the next cohort.
Gate: mentor onboarding. No paid teaching staff, ever.
Who should apply
- Undergraduate or postgraduate students in life sciences, medicine, veterinary science, agriculture, public health, statistics, or computer science
- Recent graduates with no research output yet
- Anyone who can commit consistent weekly hours for twelve weeks
What you need
- A laptop and a stable internet connection
- Working English reading and writing
- Roughly 8–12 hours per week
- Willingness to be evaluated and to be told when work is not good enough
What it costs
৳0
No application fee, no tuition, no certificate fee, no hidden charges. If anyone asks you to pay for BORA, it is not BORA.
What you get
- Structured mentorship from an active researcher
- A public GitHub portfolio of real analyses
- Authorship on any manuscript you materially contribute to
- A route to become a mentor yourself
Common questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Every tool, dataset, and learning resource BORA uses is free and openly licensed, mentors volunteer their time, and the platform runs on free-tier hosting. The only recurring cost in the whole organisation is the domain renewal.
Do I need coding experience?
No, but you need willingness. Stage 0 covers Git, Python or R basics, and public database querying from zero. Stage 1 then tests whether you actually did the work.
Will I definitely get a publication?
No. You get a genuine shot at one. Reaching Stage 3 depends on your work clearing each gate, and publication additionally depends on peer review. We would rather be honest about that than sell a guarantee nobody can keep.
Is this remote?
Yes, entirely. All tracks are computational and run on public data, so participation does not depend on which institution you belong to or where you live.
How is authorship decided?
Students who do the core analysis and writing are first authors; mentors and advisors take senior or corresponding positions. The policy is fixed at Stage 0 so nobody negotiates it at submission time.
What if I drop out midway?
Tell your mentor. Attrition is normal and honest withdrawal is far better than a silent disappearance that strands your team. You can reapply to a later cohort.
Applications for the pilot cohort
Start with one well-scoped track so we can test the full pipeline end to end.