OVERVIEW

FEBS Short-Term Fellowships are awarded for the purpose of scientific collaboration, advanced training or employing techniques not available at the candidate’s usual place of work. Fellowships are granted for periods of no longer than two or, in exceptional cases, three months.

Applicants must have a PhD or at least one published paper as a main author in an international scientific journal (cited in Scopus). They should normally be scientists who have obtained their PhD degree within the past six years.

In order to be eligible to apply for a Short-Term Fellowship, applicants need to be members of a FEBS Constituent Society, to be working in a laboratory in a FEBS country 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 following carefully.

Guidelines for FEBS Short-Term Fellowships

To be read in conjunction with the General Guidelines for 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 who have obtained their PhD degree within the past six years. 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. The daily subsistence allowance amounts to €100 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. The proposed visit should not overlap with the period from 22nd December until 3rd January.

6. Only one application for a FEBS Short-Term Fellowship can be considered from any given home lab in a 6-month period.

7. Only one application per host lab will be funded within a 6-month period.

8. Candidates already in place in the host lab will not be eligible.

9. The application process is handled via the online application system.

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

a.  An outline of the research proposal, sufficiently detailed, 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. 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.

b.  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.

c.  The host acceptance form 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 uploded with the other applications documents.

d.  A referee’s letter of support. A letter of support is required 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. Referees will be provided with a link for direct upload of their letter. Candidates are advised to notify their referee well in advance.

e.  A dated 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. The letter should be scanned and uploaded with the other documents.

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

12. Within three months of completion of the Fellowship, Fellows must send electronically to the Chairperson of the FEBS Excellence Awards and Fellowships Committee a report (2–3 pages containing 1–2 figures, with Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion) detailing the work done while in receipt of the Fellowship. 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 FEBS Excellence Awards and Fellowships Committee.

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