Tuesday 22 February 2011

Translation and terminology fellowships at the World Intellectual Property Organization

Seen at the Translation Studies Portal. This looks like a great opportunity for aspiring patent specialists (note 15 March deadline):

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Intellectual Property Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations with a mandate to promote the development and protection of intellectual property rights, notably in the form of copyright, trademarks, patents and industrial designs.   One of its major activities is the registration of patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

The PCT Translation Service of WIPO organizes on an ongoing basis a fellowship programme for assistant translators and for terminologists with an aim to providing on-the-job experience at an international organization. While duties vary according to the language combination, they may include assisting in the translation of patent abstracts and patent examination documents, participating in the development of translation tools and computer-assisted translation systems, and, especially for those with a specialization in terminology, extracting scientific and technical terms from suitable sources and creating or validating terminology entries in the PCT Termbase. Staff of the PCT Translation Service provide training and guidance to participants throughout the period of their fellowship. Fellowships may vary in length but in normal circumstances would not be shorter than three months. Participants in the programme are paid and WIPO may consider paying some travel costs in certain circumstances.

Requirements
Candidates should be currently pursuing or be a recent graduate of an advanced degree programme (Master’s, Doctorate or an equivalent level degree) in translation, terminology or a related linguistic discipline.

For Translation Fellows
Prior experience in technical translation would be considered an advantage and applicants are expected to be working into their native language. In 2011, applications are welcome from candidates working in the following languages combinations only: Chinese to English, German to English, Japanese to English, Korean to English, Russian to English, German to French, and Japanese to French. 

For Terminology Fellows
Prior experience in applied terminology would be considered an advantage and applicants are expected to be working in their native language.
For candidates having a specialization in terminology, applications are invited from native speakers of Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish only, who also have excellent knowledge of English.

Persons interested in applying for a fellowship should send their CV or resume, ensuring that their name is included in all file names, accompanied by a letter of motivation indicating periods of availability, to PCT.Fellowship at wipo.int mentioning in the Subject field “Fellowship application”, their language combination (e.g. Korean-English), and their preference either for “Translation” or “Terminology”. Following an initial screening, candidates will be required to take a translation test and/or a terminology test. Although applications may be submitted at any time, candidates for a fellowship in 2011 should preferably ensure their applications reach WIPO by March 15th.

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