Overview

Collaborative Developmental Scholarships are for the exclusive benefit of PhD students engaged in research for a doctoral thesis and early/mid-career PhD holders in certain FEBS countries with Hinari (Research4Life) status* who need to visit a well-funded laboratory elsewhere in Europe for the purpose of carrying out experimental procedures that would be impossible in their home country because of a lack of resources. Scholarships are awarded for periods of no longer than two or three months.

PhD holders must have obtained their PhD up to 6 years prior to the submission of their application OR be up to 40 years old on the 31st December in the year when they apply. In addition, they must have at least one published paper in an international scientific journal (cited in Scopus).

Applications from candidates working in the following countries will be considered: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia and Ukraine**. These Scholarships are for scientific collaboration, advanced training or employing techniques not available at the candidates’ usual place of work.

In order to be eligible to apply for a Scholarship, applicants need to be members of a FEBS Constituent Society and engaged in research in one of the FEBS countries stated above, and to be seeking to work in a laboratory in a different FEBS country.

Applications may be made throughout the year but should be submitted via the online application system at least three months before the proposed starting date.

For detailed information, please read the Guidelines section below carefully.

*FEBS countries are countries with a FEBS Constituent Society. The Hinari initiative was set up by the World Health Organization and major publishers to enable developing countries to access collections of biomedical and health literature, and  is one program within Research4Life.

**Stop press 14 March 2022: Additional FEBS funding for more Collaborative Developmental Scholarships for applicants from Ukraine (resident in Ukraine at the point of application, or displaced from Ukraine as a result of the war) will be available.

Guidelines for FEBS Collaborative Developmental Scholarships

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

1. These scholarships are restricted to students engaged in research for a doctoral thesis or early/mid-career PhD holders in one of these countries: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia and Ukraine. The aim of the Scholarships is to support short visits to well-funded laboratories elsewhere in Europe for the purpose of carrying out experimental procedures that would be impossible in the students’ home countries because of lack of resources.

2. These Scholarships are for short-term visits (normally not longer than two or three months), for the purpose of scientific collaboration, advanced training or employing techniques not available at the usual place of work.

3. Scholarships are not awarded for attendance at courses, symposia, meetings or congresses.

4. Scholarships are intended to cover subsistence and travel costs for the student only; expenses incurred by dependants are not provided for. The daily subsistence allowance amounts to €90 per day. 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 be submitted at least three months before the proposed starting date.

6. The Application process is handled via the online application system.

7. Completed online applications, written in English, will be submitted to the Chairperson of the FEBS Fellowships Committee and will include the following information:

a. An outline of the research proposal on no more than two A4-sized pages of single-spaced text set out under the following headings (to be uploaded in pdf format):
i. for PhD students, title (or prospective title) of the PhD thesis; for PhD holders, title of research project;
ii. nature of the work and outline of the experiments proposed;
iii. how this complements the objectives of the the PhD thesis or (for PhD holders) research project;
iv. why it is necessary to travel to a laboratory in another country to perform the work;
v. why the particular laboratory has been selected, including a list of relevant publications (up to five) from the host laboratory;
vi. why the project will require the time period requested.

b. A short curriculum vitae with a list of publications in the format of the references required by The FEBS Journal and a list of conference abstracts.

c.   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 host acceptance form that can be downloaded from the application system, and should be scanned and uploaded with the other applications documents.

d.  Letter of reference from two different referees, namely:
i. the applicant’s research supervisor confirming the need for the proposed experiments and the fact that they cannot be carried out in the home country;
ii. an experienced scientist and university teacher who can assess the applicant’s abilities and potential as a research scientist and does not work at the host institute.

Both letters should be written on headed paper of the referee’s institution. The referees will be provided with a link for direct upload of their respective letter. Candidates are advised to notify their two referees well in advance.

In the case of an applicant from Ukraine, the letters should confirm the applicant is resident in Ukraine, or displaced from Ukraine as a result of war in the country.

e.  A dated letter from the appropriate FEBS Constituent Society confirming that the applicant is a member at the date of application and indicating the date on which the applicant joined the Society. The letter should be scanned and uploaded with the other documents.

8. The Scholarship 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 Scholarship, Scholarship Holders must send electronically, to the Chairperson of the FEBS Fellowships Committee, a short report detailing the work done while in receipt of the Scholarship. The FEBS Collaborative Developmental Scholarship should be acknowledged in any work published relating to the project funded and one reprint of each article should be sent in electronic form to the Chairperson of the Fellowships Committee.

10. It is expected that there will not normally be more than two visits, at least one year apart, during the period of research for a thesis. Students who have been in receipt of a FEBS Summer Fellowship and fulfil the requirements of the Scholarship Scheme may be eligible to one further visit to a Western laboratory, but may not apply for a Scholarship before at least one year after completion of their Summer Fellowship.