Trainee (Veterinary Pharmacovigilance)

About the traineeship programme

The Agency is looking for motivated, qualified recent graduates or students on an Erasmus+ or other programme or PhD students or Master's students (who posses a previous degree), who are interested in gaining experience and contribute to the Agency’s work for every patient in Europe. The purpose of a traineeship at the Agency is to perform tasks that are predominantly in the interest of the trainee’s training and principally serve to increase the trainee’s knowledge and to gain relevant experience.

Placement description

We are looking for a trainee in the Veterinary Medicines Division.

Specific objectives and projects

The selected trainee will work on the following projects:

Project 1: Improving post-marketing safety monitoring and information for veterinary medicines authorised via the EMA (Implementation phase of an already initiated project):

The goal of the project is to extract relevant information from the approved product information (e.g. package leaflets) of veterinary medicinal products (indications, target species, administration routes, adverse events, special precautions, contraindications).  The extraction uses machine learning techniques. This will facilitate and strengthen the decision-making process during post marketing safety monitoring and consequently allow to improve the quality of safety information (including any new findings)  available to veterinarians and animal owners.
The trainee will work on the implementation of the project, undertake quality review of the information, present the project progress and liaise with relevant stakeholders internally and externally (pharmacovigilance experts with the regulatory network, industry).  

Project 2: Creating a dictionary of layman's terms for adverse events (side effects) to be used in the package leaflet for veterinary medicinal products where the current terminology used may not be "comprehensible to the general public", which is a legal requirement under the new veterinary legislation that came into effect in 2022:

This project aims at developing a dictionary of layman's terms for adverse events (side effects) to be used in the package leaflet for veterinary medicinal products. This will increase the understanding of the general public of the safety sections of the package leaflet. The source of information for the development of such a dictionary will be: the current package leaflets for centrally authorised veterinary medicinal products and human medicines (for those adverse events which have an equivalent from the human to the veterinary field) and collection of information from pharmacovigilance experts in the EU regulatory network and industry. 

Learning outcomes

The trainee will get an understanding of key pharmacovigilance concepts (e.g. adverse events reporting, signal management, safety profile of a medicinal product), as well as of regulatory aspects related to the authorisation process of veterinary medicinal product

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 Veterinary (minimum of three years or more) that must have been obtained between 6 May 2024 and 6 May 2025 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

For criteria 1 and 2, you will be required to provide proof in the application form and at the interview stage. Failing to present these documents may result in the disqualification from the procedure.

Behavioural Competencies

You will demonstrate the following behavioural competencies:

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

Expected selection timelines

Conditions of traineeship

The traineeship is offered for 10 months (1 October 2025 – 31 July 2026) 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 €1,942.19 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.

The conditions of employment are stated in the Executive Decision on rules governing the traineeship programme at the EMA available here.