Guidelines for FEBS Short-Term Fellowships

To be read in conjunction with the General Guidelines for FEBS Fellowships

1. These Fellowships are for short-term visits (not longer than two or, in exceptional cases, three months), for the purpose of scientific collaboration, advanced training or employing techniques not available at the usual place of work. Applicants must have a PhD or have at least one published paper as a main author in an international scientific journal.
   
   

2. Candidates should normally be scientists with no more than six years of post-doctoral experience. However, duly justified career breaks such as compulsory national service and parental leave may be considered.
   
   

3. Short-Term Fellowships are not awarded for attendance at courses, symposia, meetings or congresses.
   
   

4. Short-Term Fellowships are intended to cover subsistence and travel costs for the Fellow only; expenses incurred by dependants are not provided for. The daily subsistence allowance, which in 2011 amounts to €60 per day, will be reviewed and adjusted annually by the FEBS Fellowships Committee, in consultation with the FEBS Treasurer.  Travel costs will provide for a second-class rail fare or an economy flight between the place of residence and the host laboratory.
   
   

5. Applications may be made at any time, but an application should reach the Chairperson of the FEBS Fellowships Committee at least two months before the proposed starting date. Retrospective applications cannot be considered.
   
   

6. Application forms may be downloaded here.
   

7. Completed Application Forms written in English should be sent to the Chairperson of the FEBS Fellowships Committee together with the following documents in English:

1. An outline of the research proposal on no more than two A4-sized pages of single-spaced text set out under the following headings:

i. title;

ii. nature of the work and outline of the experiments proposed;

iii. why it is necessary to travel to a laboratory in another country to perform the work;

iv. why the particular laboratory has been selected, including a list of relevant publications (up to five) from the host laboratory; 

v. why the project will require the time period requested.

2. A short curriculum vitae with a list of publications in the format of the references required by the FEBS Journal. Abstracts should not be included.
   
   
3. A letter of acceptance from the appointed head of the host institute or department, countersigned by the head of the research group(s) in which the applicant will be working, confirming that the applicant will be accepted to work at the institute, that its facilities will be made available to him/her to pursue the research proposed and that it will not ask FEBS or the applicant for any additional research grant, bench fees, or overheads, and indicating any dates the applicant has already spent at the institute. This should be provided on the official form that may be downloaded here.
   
   
4. A letter supporting the application from an experienced scientist who knows the applicant and does not work at the host institute. This letter should be written on headed paper of the referee’s laboratory and should be sent directly to the Chairperson of the FEBS Fellowships Committee, independently of the other documents.
   
   
5. A letter from the appropriate FEBS Constituent Society confirming that the applicant is a member and indicating the date upon which the applicant joined the Society.
   
   
6. An estimate of the cost of travel, in EUR, provided by a travel agent, between the place of residence and the host laboratory.

All the documents should be sent electronically, preferably as a single pdf file (excepting the reference letter, which should be sent separately by the scientist writing it). In addition, the original signed application form and the letter of acceptance should be sent in paper. Should difficulties arise in sending the documents electronically, the entire application can be sent in paper form.

8. The Fellowship should be taken up within six months of its award. Any delay will require the authorization of the Chairperson of the FEBS Fellowships Committee. 
   
   

9. Within three months of completion of the Fellowship, Fellows must send electronically a short report detailing the work done while in receipt of the Fellowship to the Chairperson of the FEBS Fellowships Committee. The FEBS Fellowship should be acknowledged in any work published relating to the project funded and two reprints of each article should be sent electronically to the Chairperson of the Fellowships Committee.

   
   
   
10. A period of at least two years must elapse before applications for a second award of a FEBS Short-Term Fellowship will be considered.