The EURIAS Fellowship Programme is coordinated by the RFIEA Foundation (Network of French Institutes for Advanced Study), and is an initiative of NetIAS (Network of European Institutes for Advanced Study). EURIAS is an international mobility programme bringing together 14 institutes for Advanced Study in Europe (Berlin, Bologna, Brussells, Bucharest, Budapest, Cambridge, Helsinki, Jerusalem, Lyons, Nantes, Paris, Uppsala, Vienna and Wassenaar).
EURIAS builds on the strong reputation of the Institutes for promoting the focussed, self-directed work of excellent researchers within the stimulating environment of a multidisciplinary international group of fellows. EURIAS builds on and integrates IAS experiences in a way that is mutually beneficial for all participating IAS, as well as for future fellows. It helps to ensure that IAS will provide a critical mass in the European context (as of today, leading IAS in Europe represent 3,500 fellowship months per year), as well as strengthen their overall role within the European Research Area.
NetIAS members share the objective of creating international and multidisciplinary learning communities. This openness and the freedom the fellows enjoy for their researches serve to promote scientific and intellectual exchanges. The fellows are released from their usual teaching and research obligations and pursue their project in a privileged environment that stimulates reflexion and innovation. IAS tend to break from the intellectual routines, thus fostering the emergence of new perspectives, approaches and paradigms. Fellows benefit from the extended scientific networks of the institutes at local, national, and international level. An average of 5,500 € will be at their disposal to cover research costs, e.g. invitation of exterior researchers to seminars, organization of conferences, participation to the annual alumni meeting.
Supported by the European Commission since May 2009, the Programme’s first call for applications was launched in June 2010. EURIAS will offer 99 fellowships over a 3-academic year period (2011-2014). It consists of 10-month residencies. The programme is open to experienced researchers, promising scholars at an early stage of their careers (about 18 junior fellowships per year, 54 on the whole programme) as well as established senior researchers (about 15 seniors fellowships per year, 45 on the whole programme). EURIAS fellowships are mainly offered in the fields of humanities and social sciences but may also be granted to scholars in natural and exact sciences if their proposed research projects do not require laboratory facilities.
In December 2010, the RFIEA Foundation signed a Grant Agreement with the European Commission and a Partnership Agreement with the fourteen Institutes participating in the Programme.
The Programme Advisory Board is composed of three internationally recognized administrators with extensive international experience: Jacques Commaille (President, RFIEA Foundation, Network of French Institutes for Advanced Study), Wim Blockmans (Rector, Netherlands Institutes for Advanced Study) and Krzysztof Michalski (President, Network of European Institutes for Advanced Study, and Rector of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen).
The programme is coordinated by RFIEA under the supervision of Olivier Bouin, Director of the RFIEA Foundation and general secretary of NetIAS.
A full-time Programme Officer is the contact person for candidates, referees, the Selection Committee, the IAS and the Research Executive Agency.
The Programme’s overall budget amounts to 5M€. The EC contributes to 40% of the funding (i.e 2M€) in the frame of the COFUND Programme (Marie-Curie Actions, 7th Framework Programme).
