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N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative

Professional Development Opportunities

Events and Conferences
Internships and Fellowships
Other Opportunities
Additional Resources

Events and Conferences

Don’t Reinvent: Accelerate Your Ag Product Through Partnerships!

Join us April 24th at First Flight Venture Center for an engaging panel session designed to equip you with the knowledge to bring your innovation to market faster. Learn about exciting opportunities to accelerate your agricultural product development through strategic partnerships!

Location: First Flight Venture Center
Date: April 24, 2025 from 4-6 p.m.

Learn more and register 

BASF’s 2025 North American Research Forum

BASF invites Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers to apply for the 2025 North American Research Forum. The Research Forum includes an all-expenses-paid visit to showcase your research and learn about careers at BASF.

Application Deadline: Friday, May 2, 2025
Location: Wyandotte, MI
Date: July 7-9, 2025

Learn more and apply 

2025 N.C. PSI Hackathon

The N.C. PSI Hackathon is an exciting opportunity for students to tackle real-world challenges at the intersection of agriculture, technology, and data science. By participating, students gain hands-on experience applying their skills in coding, design, and problem-solving in a dynamic, interdisciplinary environment. The hackathon offers 3 tracks of different difficulty levels, and prizes for winning teams in each track. 

Hackathon Dates: September 12-14, 2025

Learn more and Register

NC State Career Fairs

Explore upcoming career fairs and events offered by various colleges and disciplines across NC State!

Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs

Discover OUIP’s list of interdisciplinary events across NC State

Conferences

IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference

April 22-25, 2025
London, UK

Learn more and register 

BioAgTech World

April 23-25, 2025
Delhi, India

Learn more and register 

Geoscience Alliance Conference

April 24-26, 2025
NC Research Triangle

Learn more and register 

PNNL’s Predictive Phenomics Conference

April 29-May 1, 2025
Richland, WA

Learn more and register 

SAS Innovate 2025

May 6-9, 2025
Orlando, FL

Learn more and register 

2025 NC ACE Women’s Network Annual Conference

May 30, 2025
Greensboro, NC

Learn more and register 

18th International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis

June 9-13, 2025
Durham, NC

Learn more and register 

International Conference on Plant Vascular Biology

July 7-11, 2025
Osaka, Japan

Learn more and register 

Plant Biology 2025

July 26-30, 2025
Milwaukee, WI

Learn more and register 

Upcoming PSI Events

All PSI Events
Apr 19

Saturday

12th Annual Southeastern Biogeochemistry Symposium
May 01

Thursday9:00 AM

Invited Guest Seminar: Dr. Christine Picard
May 28

Wednesday9:00 AM

N.C. PSI Pitch Open Session

Internships and Fellowships


SAPLINGS “AI in Ag” Graduate Student Training Award

The SAPLINGS “Al in Ag” Training Award provides 1 year of support to N.C. PSI-affiliated Ph.D. students engaged in machine learning and Al research to identify new solutions in agriculture. We invite N.C. PSI-affiliated faculty to nominate a doctoral student for this 1-year award. Research should focus on the application of Machine Learning, Data Science and/or Al to plant science or agricultural use-cases.

Application Deadline: May 16, 2025 at 5 p.m.

Learn more and apply

CERSA Graduate & Undergraduate Internships

The Center of Excellence for Regulatory Science in Agriculture (CERSA) provides undergraduate, graduate and continuing education training in regulatory science and workshops and sponsored research for the advancement of regulatory science in agriculture. Applications are now open for the summer internship programs for graduate and undergraduate students. Students in the program will be offered a stipend by CERSA.

Application Deadline: April 30, 2025

Learn more and apply
Rocio Davila CERSA intern

2025 ARIS Research Fellowship Program

The ARIS Research Fellowship Program is designed to support and advance the careers of exceptional researchers in expanding their Broader Impacts work.
Application Deadline: April 18, 2025
Learn more and apply here

NSF I-Corps Program

The I-Corps Program at NC State offers a NSF training program aimed at helping scientists and engineers extend their ideas, research and inventions into the marketplace. This program consists of a four-session course focused on entrepreneurship and exploring the commercial viability of innovations.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Program Dates Vary 
*If accepted, your team will be placed in the next available cohort.
Learn more and apply

Learn more and apply 
Man in a research lab

SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program

Offers STEM students who are currently pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D. a full scholarship, internships, annual stipends, and guaranteed employment with the Department of Defense.

Applications Deadline: December 1 at 5:00 p.m. EST
The SMART Program accepts applications annually from August 1 to December 1.

Learn more and apply 
Oak Ridge National Labs

Student Opportunities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Enhance your expertise and collaborate with many of the nation’s leading science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) experts as you complete your research. Opportunities are available for current undergraduate and graduate students to participate as members of research teams at ORNL. All internships come with a stipend.

Learn more 

NC State LanchPad

NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship has developed an incubator program to support early-stage undergraduate and graduate student startups.

Learn more and apply

Other Opportunities

N.C. PSI Educational Outreach Opportunities

There are many ways to get involved with the N.C. PSI’s Educational Programs for K-12 students. Whether its developing activities from your research, talking with students about career paths, or getting hands-on in the demo lab, the possibilities are endless. Click the link below to learn about some of the ways you can help out!

Learn More and Volunteer
N.C. PSI graduate students teach high school students how to perform experiments in the Demo Lab.
N.C. PSI graduate students teach high school students in the CAALS 3D program how to perform experiments in the Demo Lab.

Resources

Career resources

The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) Job Board

International and domestic postdoctoral, faculty, research, field technician positions and more are listed for those interested in plant science careers.

Visit 

Plantae’s Career Center

Search for jobs, internships and mentorships in the US and abroad across a variety of industries and types of institutions.

Visit 

Ag Career Job Board

Search by sector, specialty and career type for job opportunities in every stage of the food system.

Visit 

National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Job Board

Job opportunities in ag engineering and all other engineering disciplines.

Visit 

NC State Career Development Center

Take advantage of university career resources available to all NC State students

Explore 

N.C. PSI Certificate Programs

N.C. PSI offers two certificate programs, one for Ag Data Science and the other for Regulatory Science in Agriculture.

Discover