2025 WIPO PCT Fellowship Program for Graduate Students

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), through its PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) Translation Division, is offering a Fellowship Program designed to provide hands-on training and professional experience within an international organization. The program is open to graduate students and recent graduates specializing in terminology, translation, post-editing, translation technology, and technical fields. Applications are now open for the 2025 edition.

Fellowship Positions

The program offers five specialized fellowship roles:

Terminology Fellows: Trained in developing terminology entries for the PCT Termbase and publishing them in WIPO Pearl.
Translation Fellows: Trained in translating patent abstracts and patent examination documents.
Post-Editing Fellows: Trained in post-editing machine-translated (PEMT) patent abstracts and examination documents.
Translation Technology Fellows: Trained in using and supporting translation and terminology management systems, as well as machine translation tools.
Technical Specialist Fellows: Individuals with industry or research experience in technical or scientific fields, who will be trained on the PCT system and the role of translation within it.

Program Benefits

Participants receive training and mentorship from WIPO’s PCT Translation Division staff in Geneva.
Fellowships typically last a minimum of three months and include a monthly stipend of 5,000 Swiss francs (taxable).
Medical insurance is provided, and WIPO assists with travel and visa arrangements.
Fellowships are conducted on-site and cannot be completed remotely.

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Eligibility Requirements

Terminology Fellowship

Candidates must be pursuing or have recently completed an advanced degree (Master’s, Doctorate, or equivalent) in terminology, translation, linguistics, or a technical field with strong language skills.
Prior terminology experience is advantageous but not mandatory. Applicants must work in their native language.
In 2025, applications are open to native speakers of Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish with excellent English proficiency.

Translation Fellowship

Candidates must be pursuing or have recently completed an advanced degree in translation, terminology, linguistics, or a technical field with strong language skills.
Technical translation experience is a plus but not required. Applicants must translate into their native language.
In 2025, applications are limited to the following language pairs:

German to English
Japanese to English
Korean to English

Post-Editing Fellowship

Candidates must be pursuing or have recently completed an advanced degree in translation/post-editing, terminology, linguistics, or a technical field with strong language skills.
Experience in technical translation/post-editing is beneficial but not mandatory. Applicants must post-edit in their native language.
In 2025, applications are limited to the following language pairs:

Chinese to English
English to French

Translation Technology Fellowship

Candidates must be pursuing or have recently completed an advanced degree in translation technology, translation, linguistics (with a focus on translation technology), or a technical field such as computational linguistics, IT, or artificial intelligence.

Experience in translation technology is advantageous but not required. Applicants must work in English or French.

Technical Specialist Fellowship

Candidates must hold at least a Bachelor’s degree in a technical or scientific field and have industry or research experience.
Strong linguistic skills in English and a second language (preferably Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish) are required.

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