TÜBINGEN · MUNICH
Research on light, sleep and circadian rhythms. Projects include human experiments, evidence synthesis, engineering and social research. Scope and suitability for BSc or MSc requirements are agreed individually.
All projects and internships require attendance in person at the agreed host location. Remote arrangements are not available.
Theses · Research internships · Erasmus+ placements · Engineering projects
Applications are open. Deadline: 16 November 2026. The application window opened on 21 October 2026.
CaCTüS offers paid, three-month research internships in Tübingen or Stuttgart during July–September 2027, through the Max Planck Institutes for Biological Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems and the Tübingen AI Center. Projects cover machine learning, neuroscience, cognition and related fields.
The programme is aimed at BSc/MSc students whose access to research and higher education is constrained by personal, financial, regional or social circumstances. Applicants must not have started a PhD; undergraduates must have completed at least four semesters before the internship. These are voluntary internships and cannot fulfil a compulsory course-credit requirement. See the official guidance for full eligibility and project-specific conditions.
Apply through the CaCTüS application portal, choosing from the programme’s advertised projects. The programme asks applicants not to send applications by email or contact supervisors to promote an application. Selection and placement are organised centrally; a place in the unit is not guaranteed.
Apply to CaCTüS 2027 → · Programme and application guidance · Official timetable
Call checked on 22 October 2026.
Search across titles, methods and suitable backgrounds. Locations and scope are agreed individually.
Tübingen · Munich
Does darkness change how we respond to the next light we encounter? Understanding the influence of prior darkness could help explain why the same light exposure does not always have the same physiological effect.
Tübingen · Munich
Could a smartphone help estimate the light reaching the eye? Corneal irradiance is relevant to understanding light exposure, yet measuring it reliably outside a specialised laboratory remains a practical challenge.
Tübingen · Munich
Advice about healthy daily routines often assumes that people can choose their schedules. How much control do people actually have over the timing of sleep, work, meals, exercise and daylight, and who has the least flexibility?
Tübingen · Munich
Does radiation beyond the visible spectrum influence human physiology in ways relevant to photobiology? Answering this requires distinguishing possible responses from thermal effects and other confounding influences.
Tübingen · Munich
A photograph describes how an environment looks, but can it help estimate the light that matters for circadian physiology? The challenge is to connect visual information with a physical exposure measure.
Tübingen · Munich
Research reports describe light interventions in inconsistent ways. Could AI help researchers locate and organise relevant information while keeping uncertainty and source evidence visible?
Tübingen · Munich
Smartphones are carried through many everyday environments. Could their measurements support useful estimates of circadian light exposure, and where would those estimates become unreliable?
Tübingen · Munich
How do news media explain seasonal clock changes, and whose concerns receive attention? Scientific evidence, everyday experience and political debate can appear in very different frames.
Tübingen · Munich
Can workplaces support circadian health for people with different schedules and needs? Access to daylight, opportunities for breaks and control over work timing may be unevenly distributed.
Tübingen · Munich
What do people encounter about circadian health on social media? Advice about sleep and light may combine accurate explanations, personal experience, commercial promotion and unsupported claims.
Tübingen · Munich
Could a game help people explore circadian rhythms and understand the consequences of everyday timing choices? An engaging experience needs to remain scientifically careful as well as playable.
Tübingen · Munich
Light can influence melatonin, but does it matter whether a visual scene moves? This question connects visual processing with the pathways through which light affects circadian physiology.
Tübingen · Munich
We usually study the response to light as a problem of the eye. Could signals associated with balance and bodily orientation also matter for how the human body responds?
Tübingen · Munich
Do measures of visual performance vary across the menstrual cycle? Reports may depend on the visual task, how cycle phases are defined, and how hormonal status is measured or reported.
Tübingen · Munich
Public-health advice often discusses sleep, but does it address the timing and quality of light exposure? Guidance can shape what people and institutions recognise as a health-relevant environment.
Tübingen · Munich
Clinical decisions happen in time, yet recommendations do not always discuss biological timing. Where do clinical guidelines engage with sleep and circadian principles, and how specific is their guidance?
Tübingen · Munich
How is light exposure related to affective disorders, and what can different kinds of studies establish? Associations in everyday settings and effects of light interventions need to be interpreted with different assumptions.
Tübingen · Munich
Can light-based interventions improve outcomes for people with neurodegenerative disorders? Clinical studies vary in their participants, interventions and outcomes, making the evidence difficult to interpret as a whole.
Tübingen · Munich
What does human neuroimaging reveal about the brain across sleep and circadian time? Findings are spread across imaging methods, participant groups and study designs that are not always directly comparable.
Tübingen · Munich
Our days involve changing light, activity and other environmental conditions. How can we describe these exposures together, without losing their timing or the uncertainty in the measurements?
Tübingen · München
Was lernen Schülerinnen und Schüler über Schlaf und die innere Uhr? Biologieunterricht kann helfen, tägliche Rhythmen zu verstehen und gesundheitsbezogene Aussagen kritisch einzuordnen.
Tübingen · Munich
Both eyes receive light, but how do their signals contribute to responses beyond vision? Investigating binocular input could refine our understanding of human circadian photoreception.
Tübingen · München
Wird Schlaf im Unterricht als persönliche Entscheidung oder auch als gesellschaftliche Frage behandelt? Arbeitszeiten, Fürsorgearbeit und soziale Ungleichheit prägen, wann Menschen schlafen können.
Munich
What makes healthy sleep and daily routines difficult for TUM students? Academic demands, travel, paid work and social expectations may interact in ways that generic advice overlooks.
Tübingen · Munich
Clinical encounters leave limited time to understand sleep and daily timing. Which questions could provide a useful starting point without making a brief screen promise more than it can deliver?
Tübingen · Munich
How do governments decide what time people live by? Debates about daylight saving time bring scientific arguments into contact with economic interests, public preferences and institutional constraints.
Tübingen · Munich
Access to daytime light depends on more than personal choice. How do housing, work and neighbourhood environments shape opportunities for light exposure, and how might those opportunities be unequally distributed?
Try a broader topic or another location.
Projects are suitable for students in health sciences, neuroscience, engineering, computing, education and the social sciences. Each advert lists relevant backgrounds and methods.