Choose a different fellowship program

Current Fellowship Programs

Fellowships

Since 1994 NEC has awarded around 1000 fellowships to selected researchers from all over the world.

 

Browse through our fellowship programs:

Browse through our fellowship programs:

NEC (since 1994)

This is the NEC core fellowship program, which during the institute’s first years targeted exclusively Romanian scholars from the humanities and social sciences. Fellows are invited on the basis of their own freely chosen research projects for a full academic year. From 2000 onward, NEC has opened its doors first to researchers from the neighboring countries, later from the world at large, without relinquishing its support of Romanian young scholars. As a result, starting with 2008 the core program was split into two distinct, though closely interrelated lines:

  • Ştefan Odobleja Fellowships Program, supported by the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI) of the Ministry of Education of Romania, offering up to ten Fellowships per year to young Romanian researchers, and
  • NEC International Fellowships Program, with funding from our traditional supporters, which offers up to ten Fellowships per year to young scholars, irrespective of their country of origin.

View fellows by year:

NEC International

NEC started this programme in 2008, as part of its core Fellowship Programme. Fellowships in this programme target young / early career international scholars, irrespective of their country of origin. The Fellows are chosen by the NEC international Academic Advisory Board for the duration of one academic year, or one term. They work during this time on the projects presented in their applications, and for which there are no thematic or disciplinary constraints, they gather for weekly seminars to discuss the progress of their research, and participate in the scientific events organized by NEC. The Fellows receive a monthly stipend. Fellows invited for one academic year  are given the opportunity of a research trip abroad, at a university or research institute of their choice. At the end of the academic year, the Fellows submit papers representing the results of their research, which are published in the New Europe College Yearbooks.

View fellows by year:

NEC-Odobleja

This programme continues the NEC core Fellowship Programme, with which it started in 1994, and which originally targeted exclusively Romanian scholars. In this definition, the programme was active for a number of years, alongside other Fellowship programmes enabling NEC to include scholars from the neighboring countries. In agreement with its Boards, NEC decided in 2008 to go beyond this local and regional opening, and address the world at large, without, however, relinquishing its support of Romanian young scholars.

The NEC Odobleja Programme, funded by the Romanian Executive Agency for Funding Higher Education, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI), offering up to eight Fellowships per year to young/early career Romanian researchers, enabled us to maintain this support. The Fellows are chosen by the NEC international Academic Advisory Board for the duration of one academic year. They work during this time on the projects presented in their applications, and for which there are no thematic or disciplinary constraints, they gather for weekly seminars to discuss the progress of their research, and participate in the scientific events organized by NEC. The Fellows receive a monthly stipend, and are given the opportunity of a research trip abroad, at a university or research institute of their choice. At the end of the academic year, the Fellows submit papers representing the results of their research, which are published in the New Europe College Yearbooks.

View fellows by year:

Landis & Gyr (since 2000)

These Fellowships are awarded under the umbrella of the studio program for artists, writers and cultural critics in London, Zug, Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia, offered by Landis & Gyr Stiftung, Zug (Switzerland).

Landis & Gyr Foundation (one of the main supporters of NEC since its inception) has the use of one of the apartments on the NEC premises, where recipients of a grant offered by the Foundation are hosted. They work on their own projects, give presentations of their current work and are welcome to take part in all NEC activities.

View fellows by year:

UEFISCDI Award (since 2016)

The outstanding scientific activity of the NEC was formally recognized in Romania in 2016, when the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation organized a competition for institutions coordinating ERC projects. New Europe College applied and won two institutional prizes for coordinating, at that time, two ERC grants. A part of this prize was used to create the UEFISCDI Award Program, consisting of fellowships targeting young international researchers, also meant to complement and enlarge the core fellowship program.

View fellows by year:

Spiru Haret (since 2017)

The Spiru Haret Fellowship Program targets young Romanian researchers/academics in the humanities and social sciences whose projects address questions relating to migration, displacement, diaspora. Candidates are expected to focus on Romanian cases seen in a larger historical, geographical and political context, in thus broadening our understanding of contemporary developments. Such aspects as transnational mobility, the development of communication technologies and of digitization, public policies on migration, ways of employing transnational communities, migrant routes, the migrants’ remittances and entrepreneurial capital could be taken into account. NEC also welcomes projects which look at cultural phenomena (in literature, visual arts, music etc.) related to migration and diaspora.

The Program is sponsored through a grant from UEFISCDI (The Romanian Executive Unit for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding).

View fellows by year:

Gerda Henkel (since 2017)

This program, developed with the support of the Gerda Henkel Stiftung (Germany), invites post-doctoral researchers and academics working in the fields of humanities and social sciences (in particular history, art history, history of law, history of science, historical Islamic studies, archaeology, prehistory and early history) from former Soviet countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan), Afghanistan and China (only Tibet and Xinjiang Autonomous Regions). The terms of fellowship are similar to those of the NEC Fellows: residencies of one or two terms at the New Europe College to work on projects of their choice.

View fellows by year:

Lapedatu (since 2018)

Supported by the Lapedatu Foundation, the Lapedatu Fellowships started at NEC in June 2018.

According to its Statute, the Lapedatu Foundation supports research activities on ‘the life and work of Lapedatu family members and the socio-cultural and political context’ during which they lived. Thanks to a generous financial contribution from the Lapedatu Foundation, NEC invites to Bucharest a foreign researcher specialized in the field of Romanian Studies, who is currently conducting research in one of the world’s top universities. On this occasion, he will spend a month in Romania and work with a young Romanian researcher to organize an academic event hosted by the NEC. At this colloquy, the Lapedatu fellows and their guests will present scientific papers and initiate debates on a theme that covers important topics of the Romanian and Southeastern European history in both modern and contemporary epochs. The contribution of the Lapedatu family members to the development of Romania will particularly be taken into consideration.

Public events within the Program:

-International workshop
Tourism, Infrastructure, and Modernity in the Carpathians from the Nineteenth Century to the Present
November 18, 2024, at NEC

-International workshop
Transgressing Boundaries: The History and Memory of the Religious Underground in Romania, Moldova and Beyond
December 4, 2023, at NEC & via Zoom

-International workshop
Rural Voices
November 11, 2022, at NEC & via Zoom

-International workshop
A New World after the Great War? Romania and South-Eastern Europe between Modernization, Nationalism and Violence
October 21, 2021, Zoom

-International workshop
Urban Communities and Urban Transformation in the Romanian Principalities/Old Kingdom Romania (1831–1914)
April 16, 2019, New Europe College

News:

>An editorial release authored by Andreas Wild, President of the Lapedatu Foundation:

The Lapedatu brothers – artisans of modern Romania in the generation of the Great Union (2024)

Photo: Administration Council of the General Insurance Bank (Ion I. Lapedatu seated, second from right)

>Programul de „Burse Lapedatu” la Colegiul Noua Europă (2023)
>Programul de „Burse Lapedatu” la Colegiul Noua Europă (2021-2022)
>Programul de „Burse Lapedatu” la Colegiul Noua Europă (2020–2021)

View fellows by year:

Porticus N+N (since 2020)

The ‘Nations and Nationalisms’ (N+N) Program, developed with financial support from the Porticus Foundation, aims to approach one of the main challenges faced by societies around the globe, but mainly in Central and Eastern Europe: a growing tension between nationalizing and globalizing forces in a world dominated by migration, entanglement, digitization and automation. The N+N Fellowships are open to international candidates working in all fields of the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the study of nations, varieties of nationalism and/or populism, and the effects of globalization on national identities. Fellowship criteria are aligned with those in the other programs hosted by the institute. NEC aims to use the expertise of the N+N Fellows to encourage scholarship and critical thinking among targeted groups of students in Romania and the region.

View fellows by year:

AMEROPA (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 neighbouring region. The Ameropa fellowship program is open to early career Romanian researchers in history, anthropology, political science, economics or sociology. Their projects should focus on aspects relevant for the challenges to democratic consolidation, economic development and strengthening of civil society in Romania and the region. Conditions and selection criteria are similar with those specific to all NEC fellowships. Each year, an annual workshop will be organized in the framework of the Ameropa Program.

View fellows by year:

DigiHum (since 2021)

The program, proposed jointly by the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia and the New Europe College Bucharest and developed with the financial support of the Porticus Foundation, aims to underscore the cognitive functions of the humanities and their potential as critical disciplines in approaching issues with which they are being confronted by the contemporary digital world. The program is intended to accommodate the broadest range of themes pertaining to humanities and social sciences provided they link up to contemporary debates or address major challenges to the human condition stemming from technological advances and ‘digital modernity’. The program addresses international scholars.

View fellows by year:

TANDEM, Author with Translator – Translator with Author (since 2022)

TANDEM is a program dedicated to literati: to writers and translators from the cultures and countries around the Black Sea. By promoting translation from and into languages spoken on the shores of the Pontos Euxeinos, it aims to contribute to understanding and connection among the region’s neighbors. Tandems of authors and their translators are jointly invited for two months in residence at the NEC, to work on the translation of a specific text (novel, poetry, children’s literature). The program is supported by S. Fischer Stiftung, Germany.

News:

– Tandem Fellows attended prestigious literary events

– Tandem Fellow Cătălin Pavel, nominated for the 2023 “Monica Lovinescu” Prize

– Six Fellows in TANDEM Translation Residences at New Europe College, Bucharest

View fellows by year:

Botnar Digital Wellbeing (since 2022)

The Botnar Digital Wellbeing Fellowship Program supported by the Botnar Foundation is addressed to Romanian and international researchers in the field of social and human sciences, interested in studying the effects of digital technologies on the quality of life of young people. The program aims to strengthen the role that New Europe College plays in this field, contributing to the production of knowledge and competences on the impact of digital transformations. To this end, the program uses the potential of the humanities and social sciences as key disciplines to analyze the opportunities and risks posed by the digital revolution (particularly in post-communist and transitional societies), while encouraging the exchange of ideas and critical debates between researchers in the social humanities and those in the IT production and development sector.

View fellows by year:

Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship (SUS-VUIAS) (since 2023)

The ‘Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship’ (SUS) fellowship program, run jointly by the New Europe College (Bucharest) and the Centre for Advanced Study (Sofia), aims to support scholarship in the regions affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine. It targets qualified researchers (post-doctoral level) in the humanities and the social sciences, including law and economics, who wish to work on a project of their own choosing. Selected applicants are offered the opportunity to spend an extended period (ideally one or two semesters) as Fellows, residents in either Bucharest or Sofia, where they enjoy all the benefits associated with a fellowship (stipend, accommodation, academic and administrative assistance, integration into international academic networks). By agreement, financial support can also be granted to researchers who are not in residence for the full period and who need to continue their work in Ukraine. Additionally, Fellows can also apply for seed funds for specific projects that contribute to the long-term strengthening of Ukraine’s academic system (e.g., the provision, development or reconstruction of research infrastructure, especially in the digital arena). The program is financed by the VolkswagenStiftung (Germany).

With shared fellowships, NEC and CAS also contribute to the initiative promoted by the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, to establish an (for now virtual) Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS) in Kyiv.

View fellows by year:

IWM for Ukrainian Scholars (2023-25)

After Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion in Ukraine, the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM in Vienna) made special funds available to the NEC to invite further Ukrainian researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

View fellows by year:

GCE St. Gallen (since 2022)

Mattei Dogan (starting 2023)

These Fellowships, organised with academic and financial support from Fondation Mattei Dogan (Paris), targets 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.

View fellows by year:

Former Programs