The Department of Biology welcomes international students who wish to carry out a traineeship at the University of Pisa.

PLEASE NOTICE:

• Students willing to apply for a traineeship within Erasmus+ programme shall first check eligibility criteria and relevant application procedure of their home institution;
• Students willing to apply for a traineeship outside Erasmus + programme shall apply for the Visiting Student programme, see relevant information and application procedure on this link.
  
  

before the mobility

APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Students who have been awarded by their home university an Erasmus scholarship for a traineeship mobility are required to follow the steps below:

1. Contact a teacher of the Department of Biology and discuss about a traineeship project. 
   You will also have to agree with him/her about a short project (about 1000 characters including spaces) that you will later insert in your Learning Agreement. Please, note that your supervisor does not need to sign any document, but only provide a very generic acceptance letter.
   IMPORTANT: please always add our address (Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.) in Cc. when you communicate with your possible supervisor;
   
   
2. Fill the Learning Agreement form provided by your University, including the short project (Detailed Programme of Traineeship) with its title.
   Be careful to indicate EXACTLY the period you plan to spend at our University: you will not be allowed to extend or shorten your stay at UniPI;
   
   
3. Send us (Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.) a PDF copy of the Learning Agreement, signed by yourself AND by your Erasmus Coordinator.
   Please note that the Italian Law does not accept documents with mixed signatures (they must be either ALL digital or ALL hand written);
   
   
4. After final verification we will send you back the Learning Agreement, signed by our International Coordinator. 
   NOW you can start your application procedure (not before).
   
   
5. Register on Alice portal, in order to obtain the credentials required to complete the enrolment procedure at the University of Pisa.
   Guidelines for the compilation are available HERE.
   
   
6. As soon as the Learning Agrement is signed by all parties (three signatures: yours, our Coordinator’s and your Coordinator’s), access the Erasmus Mobility Portal, select the correct accademic year, select "Department of Biology" from the drop-down menu "Unipi Department" on Academic Data, upload the Learning Agreement signed by all parties and complete your application within the following deadlines:
   
   November 15 for traineeship starting from January 1 onwards;
   June 15 for traineeship starting from September 1 onwards. In this case the traineeship must end by November 30 or continue at least until January 31.
   
   
7. If everything is ok, we will approve your application and you will receive an automatic e-mail message from our system regarding the start of enrolment process.

*** See also the  video tutorial for application submission ***

PLEASE NOTE

1. Traineeship can start only after validation of the application by the Erasmus Coordinator of the Department of Biology through the Erasmus Mobility portal. 
   Missing this validation, the student is not entitled to benefit from Erasmus Incoming Student status, nor to start the traineeship at University of Pisa and access the Department facilities.
2. Before starting traineeship activities, students must ask the MENTOR information about health and safety procedure in the laboratory and comply with them.
3. NON- EU student must also comply with VISA and Residence permit regulations, for further information please visit the relevant webpage (see below).
4. Acceptance letter, if required, is provided to the student only after completing application procedure on the Erasmus Mobility portal.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS AND RULES FOR ITALY
Incoming students are required to comply with entry requirements described on the following webpages:
EU Erasmus incoming students
Non-EU Erasmus incoming students

During the mobility

UPON YOUR ARRIVAL IN PISA
Please set an appointment with:

1. the International Central Office, to get your student card. The online agenda is available on your Erasmus Mobility profile by clicking on “Online form for Erasmus+ student”. The International central office is located in Lungarno Pacinotti 44;
2. the International Office of the Department of Biology, to get your arrival certificate, which prooves your arrival at the Department of BIology and states the start date of mobility. The meeting shall be held in presence. Please make sure well in advance that your home institution does not require any specific template otherwise we will provide you with UNIPI template. You can ask for an appointment sending an email to Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.. The office is located at Polo Nobili, Via Alessandro Volta 4Bis.

INSTITUTIONAL EMAIL ACCOUNT
All students are required to use the UNIPI institutional account (Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.) to communicate with teachers and administrative staff. Please access https://outlook.com/ and log in with user name and password received after registration on Alice portal. Further instructions are available on this link.

CHANGES TO THE LEARNING AGREEMENT 
Any changes to the Learning Agreement Before the mobility must be requested by sending the Learning Agreement During the mobility to Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo. at least one month before the end date of the mobility. The Learning Agreement During the mobility must be sent ONCE, any additional requests for changes will not be accepted. Please make sure to fill in the appropriate section, which is usually titled "Exceptional changes to the Learning Agreement", and get the signature of all parties for the approval of changes. Missing the approval of the Learning Agreement DURING by all parties, the request for changes will not be considered valid.

ACADEMIC CALENDAR AND TIMETABLE OF CLASSES
See relevant information on this link.

LOCATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
Classes are held in different buildings (NOB, SR, DST, FIB) located in Pisa, see the maps avaialble on this webpage.

UNIVERSITY LINGUISTIC CENTRE
Erasmus students can benefit from a free Italian Language course at the Centro Linguistico of the University of Pisa. Although these courses are not mandatory, it is strongly advised to take advantage of this opportunity. Student shall pre-register for the assessment test. For further details see the relevant webpage or contact Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.

ERASMUS INCOMING STUDENT GUIDE
General information for Erasmus Incoming students, including accommodation, insurances ecc..can be found on in this guide.

SAVE THE DATE!
Erasmus incoming students are recommended to join the Welcome day for Erasmus Incoming students organized by the Department of Biology as well as the Welcome week for Erasmus Incoming students organized by Erasmus Student Network with the participation of the University of Pisa. Further information about the programme and location will be provided by email to incoming students.

Erasmus Student Network
Get in touch with other Erasmus students in Pisa through Erasmus Student Network.

Unibuddy
Register to UniBuddy platform  and take the chance to chat with our ambassadors! They are international students enrolled at the university of Pisa. You can chat with them and share information about international student life at the University of Pisa. The platform also contains blog, video and post regarding useful issues.

Further information for Incoming students can be found on the following links:

• General information for incoming students
• Factsheet
• Visa and residence permit for non EU students

Students tutors
The list of students tutors can be found on this webpage.

end of mobility

BEFORE YOUR DEPARTURE FROM PISA
Before leaving Pisa, students are required to set an appointment with the International Office of the Department of Biology (Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.).

The meeting with the staff of the International Office shall be held in presence in order to:

1. return the Student card (for reclaiming any leftover credit, please ask Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.)
2. get the Certificate of stay. Please make sure that your home institution does not require any specific template otherwise we will provide you with UNIPI template.

Traneeship certificate with evalutation of trainee will be sent by email shortly after your leaving.

Please also remember to return any book you may have borrowed.