CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

NEW EUROPE COLLEGE FELLOWSHIPS

Academic year 2025/2026

New Europe College – Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest (Romania) launches the annual competition for the 2025/2026 NEC Fellowships. Romanian and international postdoctoral scholars in all fields of the humanities and social sciences (including law and economics) are invited to apply. About 20 – 25 fellowships are available.

What we offer: A monthly stipend of 850 Euros (tax free); accommodation in Bucharest, comprising living quarters and working space; reimbursement of travel costs from the home/residence country to Bucharest and back. Depending on the program, fellows are offered a lump sum for a research trip to an institution of their choice. Fellows have free access to the NEC library and electronic resources.

What we expect: Fellows are expected to work on their projects and take part in the scientific events organized by NEC; presence at the weekly seminars discussing the progress of the Fellows’ work is compulsory. At the end of their Fellowship, Fellows are expected to hand in a research paper, reflecting the results of their work over the duration of the Fellowship. The papers will be included in the NEC yearbook.

Eligibility: NEC Fellowships are open to postdoctoral level scholars, Romanian and international, in all fields of the humanities and social sciences.

Duration: For Romanian citizens: a full academic year (10 months, starting in October 2025); for non-Romanian citizens: a full academic year or one term (5 months, starting in October 2025 or March 2026).

How to apply: Applications (in English, French or German) will be submitted in electronic format only, using the on-line form available at applications.nec.ro. See the guidelines below to make sure you have all the needed documents to fill in the form. Please also note that English is the preferred language of communication during most NEC events.

If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to: applications@nec.ro

Selection process: Applications will be evaluated by NEC’s academic staff, in consultation with external experts.

Stages of the evaluation process:

• Pre-selection – applicants are screened by the selection committee (NEC academic staff, external experts). Candidates will be notified on the results of the pre-selection at the beginning of March 2025, by e-mail.
• Final interviews – shortlisted candidates will be invited to a Zoom interview, scheduled on April 2–3, 2025. The Academic Advisory Board of NEC plays a decisive role in the final selection of the Fellows. For selection criteria, please see the Guidelines. Please note that NEC does not disclose to candidates the assessment reports on the applications.

The DEADLINE for submitting applications is JANUARY 10, 2025

Incomplete or late applications will not be taken into consideration.

Submitting an Application

Applications must be submitted online, by filling in the Application Form available on the institute’s webpage, at the section Apply for a Fellowship: applications.nec.ro

Candidates need to upload the following documents onto the application platform:

• a recent photo
• a scan of the PhD diploma

Candidates need to answer all questions in the application form without exceeding the allotted space. The project description shall not exceed 12,000 characters (with spaces), including bibliographical references. The project should describe the state of research in the candidate’s particular area of interest and indicate the objectives.

Candidates also have the possibility to upload their CV and / or (a) reference letter(s). CVs and reference letters are not mandatory. If the candidates decide to include one (or more), following requirements have to be fulfilled:

• letters of reference (in English, French, or German) have to be written explicitly to support the application for the NEC Fellowship. Once the candidate has submitted the application, the referees receive an automatic message with the link and the deadline for uploading the letter. It is recommended that candidates announce the referees in advance that letters of reference are to be submitted by JANUARY 16, 2025.

 Selection Criteria

• High quality of the candidate’s academic trajectory and publications, participation in international research;
• Innovative research proposal with significant contribution to scholarship;
• Interdisciplinary and/or comparative approaches are an advantage.

GDPR

NEC processes and stores personal data in accordance with current GDPR regulations.

NEC Fellowships (since 1994)

This is the NEC core Fellowship Program addressing scholars working on projects in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. The program originally targeted exclusively Romanian scholars. In this definition, it was active for a number of years, alongside other fellowship programs enabling NEC to include scholars from the neighbouring countries. In agreement with its Boards, NEC decided to go beyond this local and regional opening, and address the world at large, without relinquishing its support of Romanian young scholars. As a result, starting with 2008 its core programme was split into two distinct, though closely interrelated programs: NEC International Fellowships, granted with the financial support of NEC’s institutional sponsors, open to young scholars irrespective of their country of origin, and the Ştefan Odobleja Fellowships, targeting Romanian researchers, with financial support from UEFISCDI (The Romanian Executive Agency for Funding Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation).

NEC Award Fellowships (since 2016)

These fellowships are supported by UEFISCDI and are meant to complement and enlarge the core fellowship program, being identical with the NEC Program. The NEC Award was granted for the first time in 2016 by the Romanian Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI) within the Prize for Excellence in Research awarded to New Europe College for hosting ERC Grants. Since October 2023 NEC has been hosting a new ERC Advanced Grant. This success opened the opportunity for a new NEC application, which resulted in a new Institutional Prize.

The Ameropa Fellowships (since 2020)

Organized with financial support from Ameropa and its subsidiaries in Romania and with academic support from the Centre for Government and Culture at the University of St. Gallen, this program aims to investigate the conditions and prerequisites for democratic stability and economic prosperity in Romania and the neighboring region. The Ameropa Fellowship Program is open to early career Romanian researchers in political science, economics, anthropology or sociology. Their projects should focus on aspects relevant for the challenges to democratic consolidation, economic development and the strengthening of civil society in Romania and the region.

GCE St. Gallen Fellowships (since 2022)

This program is supported by the University of St. Gallen’s Center for Governance and Culture in Europe (GCE) and targets Ukrainian and Russian scholars in the humanities and social sciences whose academic careers have been affected by the current war in Ukraine.

Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship Fellowships (since 2023)

The Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship (SUS) Fellowship Program, proposed jointly by the New Europe College Bucharest and the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia, aims to support scholars from the regions affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The program is aimed at qualified researchers (post-doctoral level) in the humanities and social sciences, including law and economics, who intend to pursue a project of their own choosing. The selected applicants will have the opportunity to spend an extended period (ideally one or two semesters) as fellows, resident in either Bucharest or Sofia, where they will enjoy all the benefits associated with a fellowship. By agreement, financial support can also be granted to researchers who are not in residence for the full period and who want or need to continue their work in their country of residence. Seed funding to support the fellows’ scholarly activities is also available, e.g., for the organisation of small events, for cooperative projects with partners in the host country or at home, or for the provision, development or reconstruction of research infrastructure, especially in the digital arena. Overall, NEC and CAS hope to contribute with this programme to sustainability and renewal of scientific life and work in Ukraine and beyond. Through this fellowship program, NEC contributes to the initiative promoted by the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and supported by the VolkswagenStiftung aiming to found a (for now Virtual) Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS) in Kyiv.

Mattei Dogan Fellowships (since 2023)

These Fellowships, organised with academic and financial support from Fondation Mattei Dogan (Paris), target early career scholars (within five years of receiving their doctorate) from Central and East European (CEE) and Black Sea states (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Belarus, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) who are attached to an academic institution in these countries at the time of application. Candidates should propose original approaches to comparative social science research. The program is open to all academic disciplines in the social sciences. The selected post-doctoral researchers will have the opportunity to work on projects of their choice for one or two semesters, as Fellows residents in Bucharest.

Download the Call as PDF.