BR-2618 BRIDGE Living Evidence for Grassland Management Graduate Intern

US-DC-Washington
Type: Short Term (Fixed Term)
# of Openings: 1
WWF Washington, DC

Overview

WWF Overview

For 60 years, WWF has worked to help people and nature thrive. As one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, WWF works in nearly 100 countries, connecting cutting-edge conservation science with the collective power of our partners in the field – nearly one million supporters in the United States and five million globally, as well as partnerships with communities, companies, and governments.

At WWF, we are working to create an organization where the richness of all our unique views, experiences, and backgrounds combine to create the most sustainable and inclusive conservation outcomes possible, bringing the greatest benefit to the planet and every person who lives on it.

Across the many cultures and individuals that represent WWF, we are unified by one mission, one brand, and one common set of values: Courage, Respect, Integrity and Collaboration.

BRIDGE is WWF’s summer internship program. Launched in 2021, it is a paid internship opportunity aimed at a pool of talented undergraduate and graduate students who could bring fresh thinking and innovation to the environmental sector. In particular, WWF aims to employ interns who have not previously had a breadth of professional experience and have not previously considered conservation as a career pathway.

Position Summary

WWF seeks a BRIDGE Living Evidence for Grassland Management Graduate Intern.

This project systematically maps and evaluates available research on grassland and grazing management effectiveness in North American ecosystems. The intern will help the Global Science and Great Plains Teams expand our understanding of how grazing management practices of cattle and bison impacts ecological aspects of grassland ecosystems, particularly in the case of ecosystem services. Uniquely, this project will be one of the first tests of LLM and AI techniques to semi-automate the development and updating of the science base to create a “living” evidence resource to continually inform WWF’ work on the area. They will support our efforts to develop and test an automated workflow for living evidence systems that can inform resilient and sustainable grassland management approaches in real-time. This work will be done in collaboration with WWF’s Global Science Team, the Great Plains Team, and DataKind, a data science for social good nonprofit organization. Specifically, this work will leverage existing open-source tools for mapping evidence – including colandr and other commonly available LLMs.

The work will include:

Reviewing research papers on cattle and bison management and ecological outcomes, regionally, to develop a training data set.

Testing accuracy, performance, and reliability of AI tools for finding relevant studies and labeling pertinent topics and locations.

Developing a searchable database of included studies alongside summarizing and visualizing other relevant datasets for interpretation.

Developing and testing agents for answering questions about information contained in the resulting evidence map.

The work will culminate in (1) an interactive evidence database, (2) a report on AI tool performance for application in evidence synthesis in this discipline, and (3) a draft of questions that can be used in Microsoft Copilot as an agent to investigate patterns and insights in the resulting evidence database.

Responsibilities

Internship Description:

Learn about methods for effective and transparent evidence synthesis and apply them to conducting a desk-based evidence synthesis on grassland management in North America.

Learn about methods for applying AI tools for evidence synthesis and test their performance and reliability for grasslands management research.

Develop and implement a protocol for assessing accuracy, reliability, and efficiency of AI tools with partners at DataKind.

Partner with the Great Plains team to validate outputs of AI tools and determine when and how to use AI tools in living evidence workflow.

Visualize outputs of the evidence synthesis.

Develop and test queries for a Microsoft CoPilot agent to generate insights from the evidence database with the Great Plains team.

Present results and findings to the WWF Global Science, WWF-US Great Plains team, and DataKind in a final interactive seminar.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements:

Pursuing a graduate program in data science, information science, biology, environmental science, or agriculture. Those studying outside these areas are still highly encouraged to apply. Must be an actively enrolled student and not received degree at time of internship start date (June 1, 2026).

Identifies and aligns with WWF’s core values: Courage, Integrity, Respect, and Collaboration.

Demonstrates courage by speaking up even when it is difficult, or unpopular.

Builds trust with colleagues by acting with integrity, owning mistakes, and holding oneself accountable.

Welcomes other points of view and ideas, recognizing and embracing different and contrary perspectives with kindness, curiosity, and encouragement.

Makes conscious efforts to promote cooperative practices, behaviors, and ways of working across many groups and individuals.

Strong reading and writing skills.

Some experience or exposure to conservation science or sustainable development (e.g. via coursework).

An interest in working in a cross-disciplinary environment, conducting groupwork, and the ability (or interest in learning how) to translate research information to actionable insights.

Familiarity with programming languages such as Python and understanding of computing environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

Subject expertise in one or more of the following areas is preferred, but not required:

Past experience with conducting systematic evidence syntheses and meta-analyses.

Knowledge of agricultural management approaches.

Experience in developing analytical workflows and visualizations.

Experience in investigating large-language models and AI approaches

Learning Outcomes

Conducting evidence reviews using robust systematic methods.

Understanding applications and trustworthiness of AI for informing conservation evidence synthesis.

Project management and coordination.

Technical knowledge of grassland management and conservation.

Experience in generating evidence insights for conservation decisions and programs

Presentation and communication skills.

Group work and collaboration.

WWF interns will be offered a set of professional development opportunities, aimed at increasing their exposure to conservation and sustainability careers. This includes:

Development discussions with their manager;

Up to two online courses through Cornell University’s eCornell program;

Speed mentoring with different WWF teams;

Opportunity to present their work to intern peers and WWF staff;

Session on resume and interviewing best practices.

Interns will also have access to an array of networking opportunities. This includes meetings with WWF’s staff and leadership team.

Location:

DC-Remote.This position is flexible on location.The intern may complete the internship either in Washington DC or other states,with the exception of: Hawaii, Kentucky, Nevada, Oklahoma, Wyoming.

Compensation:

Paid - $23 per hour (full-time, 35 hours per week)

Internship Dates:

Internship will run from June 1 to August 7, 2026

How to Apply:

Pleasesubmita resume & cover letter through our Careers page. In your cover letter, please describe:

Your relevant skills and interest for this position

Your connection to nature and the environment

Howyou couldcontribute to the field ofconservation.

If selected for the role, you will need to provide 1 letter of recommendation as part of the WWF application process.

This job will be posted and open for applications until Monday, March 16 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Please note: Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. This position is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship.In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will berequiredto verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.