Traineeship/PhD Traineeship in Forecasting and Policy Modelling

General Information

Type of contract

Traineeship

Who can apply?

EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme

Grant

The trainee grant is €1,170 per month plus an accommodation allowance (see further information section), The trainee grant is €2,120 per month plus an accommodation allowance (see further information section)

Working time

Full time

Place of work

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Closing date

20.10.2026

Your team

You will be part of the Forecasting and Policy Modelling Division in the Directorate General Economics. The Division develops and maintains a wide range of models, for both the euro area and its largest member countries, together with the associated data and model platforms. It makes model-based contributions to macroeconomic projections and policy deliberations. It employs around 20 members of staff with recognised expertise and strong publication records in macro modelling. Modelling approaches include dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE), heterogeneous agent New Keynesian (HANK), semi-structural, time series, machine learning and deep learning models.

The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other characteristics.

Your role

As a trainee you will:

• work closely with the Division’s economists to develop and maintain structural, semi-structural, time series, machine learning and deep learning models for the euro area and its largest member countries;
• programme and maintain the mathematical, statistical and econometric procedures required to support policy input and research projects and enhance analytical, numerical and econometric tools;
• contribute to the ECB and Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area, e.g. by supporting the preparation and presentation of model-based forecast interpretations and risk scenarios;
• work with, maintain and update datasets (including monetary, financial, economic, textual and other unstructured data) to support research projects on forecasting, macroeconomic modelling and policy analysis;
• contribute to quantitative analyses and analytical projects that inform policy reports and working papers, including those intended for external publication.

The traineeship offers you excellent opportunities to work closely with an experienced and highly motivated team of economists and managers, typically in analytics, research support or model development.

These traineeships are aimed at students and recent graduates with strong quantitative skills and an interest in policy-related applied research. You will have the chance to develop your analytical skills and gain insights into the ECB’s research activities and policymaking processes, while being exposed to new ideas and experiences that will support your future professional development.

Throughout the traineeship, you will acquire valuable hands-on experience, significantly strengthening your programming, data analysis and modelling skills by applying them in a real-world policy context. The role also provides a unique perspective on economic analysis and policy preparation within a central bank, allowing you to make a meaningful contribution to the ECB’s mission.

You will be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens.

Qualifications, experience and skills

Essential:

• for a traineeship paid at €2,120: a master’s degree and at least two years of PhD studies in economics, statistics, finance, data science, applied mathematics, computer science or a related field;
• for a traineeship paid at €1,170: a bachelor’s degree or higher in economics, statistics, finance, data science, applied mathematics, computer science or a related field;
• in addition to the above, practical experience of data-intensive projects and familiarity with macroeconomic and financial statistics from international databases, such as the ECB Data Portal, IMF International Financial Statistics and those maintained by Eurostat, the OECD or Bloomberg;
• a sound knowledge of spreadsheet and data visualisation tools, such as MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, R and Python graphics libraries;
• strong programming skills with practical experience, preferably in MATLAB, Python or R;
• experience in macroeconomic modelling, particularly in one or more of the following areas: semi-structural, DSGE, Bayesian vector autoregression (VAR) and factor models; sequence-space Jacobians, structural identification and non-linear filtering in time series models; textual analysis and natural language processing, deep learning, random forests and other machine learning methods; or econometric modelling software (e.g. MATLAB toolboxes or Dynare) and deep learning applications (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch or Hugging Face);
• a good knowledge of the MS Office package;
• an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Desired:

• for a traineeship paid at €1,170: at least one year of completed master’s studies in economics, statistics, finance, data science, applied mathematics, computer science or a related field;
• a sound understanding of macroeconomics and monetary economics;
• knowledge of version control systems (e.g. Git);
• a completed project (e.g. a thesis, dissertation or research paper) demonstrating advanced quantitative modelling and/or data processing skills; this may include the use of DSGE models, Bayesian techniques, advanced machine or deep learning methods and non-standard or complex data sources (e.g. web data or newspaper articles);
• familiarity with one or more of the following: designing database schemas, writing SQL queries, connecting to databases programmatically (e.g. with Python, R or MATLAB), using object-relational mapping (ORM) tools such as SQLAlchemy and working with cloud or NoSQL databases;
• familiarity with software development and machine learning engineering practices, such as automated testing, containerisation or cloud computing, for building reproducible and scalable analytical workflows.

You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.

You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe. You are keen to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the aims of this position.

Further information

Initial traineeship/PhD traineeship of six months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total.

Applications from candidates who are available outside the summer months are particularly welcome.

Applicants for the PhD traineeship should submit a two-page reasoned summary of their research agenda and explain why it would be of interest to the Forecasting and Policy Modelling Division. The document should be uploaded as a single PDF file in the “Further information” section of the application before the closing date for applications.

Applicants may share a link to their personal webpage or portfolio (e.g. a GitHub profile), if available.

Other details on the conditions applicable to traineeships at the ECB can be found on our website.

Application and selection process

The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview.

Further information on how to apply is available on our website.

If you are not selected for this position but are still considered suitable, you will be placed on a reserve list for 12 months from the closing date for applications, from which you might be considered for other traineeship positions within the ECB.