Junior postdoctoral fellowship

Objective

The junior postdoctoral fellowships are intended to support researchers who have very recently completed their PhD, in developing an independent, international research career.

The FWO collaborates with the Plantentuin Meise, VITO and Flanders Hydraulics for the funding of additional postdoctoral fellowships.

The Suzanne Duchesne Fund is administered by the King Baudouin Foundation and provides €93,000 for the 2024 call in the form of special bench fees for selected postdoctoral researchers in oncology (Med4 panel).

L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science is also offering the three best female candidates from biomedical and STEM disciplines (for applications submitted in the S&T, Bio and Med panels) an additional bench fee of €20,000 to support their research careers.

Important dates

  • 18 September 2023: call opens
  • 1 December 2023 at 5pm: call closes (last application date)
  • 21-28 March 2024: online preselection meetings
  • 29 March 2024: invitation to interviews
  • 17 April - 8 May 2024: (physical) interviews
  • 16 May 2024: announcement of results
  • 1 October or 1 November 2024: start of fellowship

Features

  • Duration of the fellowship: Three years
  • Gross monthly salary (4 years' seniority): €5,189 (index 1,999 from 1/1/2023)
  • Bench fee which can range from €4,000 to €10,000 per year

Profile and conditions

  • See the programme regulations for more details on eligibility conditions
  • You hold a PhD by thesis or a degree or a diploma or certificate recognized as equivalent in accordance with European Union directives or a bilateral agreement
  • You can apply for a junior postdoctoral fellowship if your PhD was obtained not longer than 3 years before October, 1 of the year in which the fellowship would start, or will be obtained at September 15 of that year at the latest (in the latter case you need to informs the FWO of the date of your public defense by 1 July of that year at the latest).
  • You have not yet benefited from this fellowship, not even partially.
  • You can apply maximum two times for the same fellowship. You can apply for a senior postdoctoral fellowship immediately after your junior postdoctoral fellowship.
  • You agree with the Research Integrity Clause.

Application, evaluation and selection procedure

  • You have to find a supervisor at a Flemish host institution (article 3 of the regulations on postdoctoral researchers).
  • You need to submit your application via the online application (addressed to a FWO expert panel).
  • The supervisor receives a request from the FWO to write a letter of recommendation.
  • Once the expert panel has completed the preselection, you will be notified and depending on your result, you will or will not be invited to the second round.
  • If you are invited to the second round, you will be interviewed by the panel between 17 April and 8 May 2024. You will receive an invitation for this on 29 March 2024. Have a look at the dates for the interviews
  • On the basis of the proposals from the expert panels, the board will make the final decision on the selection. The results will be announced via email and via our results page on 16 May 2024.
  • You will get feedback on your evaluation once the decisions have been published.
  • The evaluation and selection procedures are explained in a number of information sessions (see below).

Regulations

Additional information for applicants

Contact:

General information:

  • Evaluation and selection procedures are commented during the information sessions and in this presentation. The presentation allows to better understand the evaluation and selection process, and to prepare an application that meets the selection criteria. Dates information sessions:
    • 03/10/2023 (starts at 10h): VUB
    • 03/10/2023 (starts at 14h30): UGent (online)
    • 05/10/2032 (starts at 15h): UAntwerpen
    • 10/10/2023 (starts at 12h): UHasselt (online)
    • 13/10/2023 (starts at 14h): KU Leuven
      More info and subscriptions via the research coordination of your institution.
  • Example application form: offers a number of screenshots of the online application forms and the project template outline

Support with your application

  • The application form gives attention to various researcher profiles and research results. The purpose is to give researchers the opportunity to demonstrate the building up of their research career through a range of scientifically relevant activities, skills, experiences and achievements. The FWO is thus following an international trend away from a one-sided focus on ‘classical’ output criteria (such as publications, bibliometrics, patents and the like) towards a broader view of what science can be and accomplish, with respect for the specificity of each discipline. The application forms are aimed to help the researcher demonstrate that versatility The evaluation procedure has also been amended accordingly: in the score grids, the score descriptors have been supplemented with the new elements in the application form.
  • Expert panels: make the right choice!
    • You choose the expert panel that best suits your application. Make sure you thoroughly check the overview of panels and scopes for each panel so that you can make the right choice. Select the panel you feel is best suited to assess your project in terms of what it will add to the scientific knowledge base.

    • If the panel judges during the review by consensus that the application falls outside the scope of the panel, they may reject it for that reason. It is important to stress that it is the applicant who is responsible for matching the application with the correct panel.