ARABIC REGION > FRANCE┋ATLAS INCOMING POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) are pleased to announce the eighth call for applications for their joint program titled “Short-Term Postdoctoral Mobility Fellowship Program in the Social Sciences and Humanities.” This program aims to:
- Support postdoctoral fellows from Arab countries and enable them to conduct research or research-related activities in France.
- Strengthen research networking and collaborations between Europe and the Arab region.
Short-term fellowships (2-3 months) will be available to individual researchers who 1) are citizens and nationals of the Arab region, 2) have received their PhD degree within 0-6 years, and 3) and wish to conduct research in France (including field research, networking, library and archival work, as well as other types of data collection.)
Fellowship Details
Fellows will receive a monthly stipend of €1,800 (paid at the beginning of each month of stay in France). The stipend is intended to cover accommodation, living and transportation costs, as well as research costs. The ACSS and FMSH will also cover the cost of one roundtrip ticket for each successful applicant from their country of residence to France and back.
FMSH will also provide support for obtaining a visa to France and guide potential fellows to plan the logistics of their stay. This includes help with finding accommodation, contact with French research centers, and letters to libraries and archives.
Fellows have the choice between two fellowship periods: Between April 2025 and June 2025, or between September 2025 and November 2025. Fellows can also choose between staying a minimum of two months or a maximum of three months in France.
Eligibility Criteria
Nationality/Residence: Applicants must be citizens of an Arab country (defined as a member of the League of Arab States) or refugees and/or stateless individuals from Arab countries, who are currently residing in the Arab region. This program does not fund scholars who reside and/or work outside the Arab region. Priority will be given to scholars who are marginalized, at risk, or dispossessed.
Pays concernés par l'appel : Algérie, Arabie Saoudite, Bahreïn, Comores, Djibouti, Egypte, Emirats Arabes Unis, Irak, Jordanie, Koweït, Liban, Libye, Mauritanie, Maroc, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Somalie, Soudan, Syrie, Tunisie, Yémen.
Education: This program targets scholars who are 0-6 years out of a PhD program in the social sciences or humanities. Applicants should have obtained their PhDs at the time of application. In case the PhD was obtained from a university outside the Arab region, the applicant should have been a resident in the Arab region for at least two years prior to the time of application. The program does not have any age restrictions.
Discipline: This program is open to PhD holders in the social sciences or humanities fields. This includes disciplines such as anthropology, demography, economics, history, political science, psychology, sociology, geography, law, and philosophy. Interdisciplinary fields are also accepted and include gender studies, cultural studies, media studies, development studies, and urban studies. Due to French funding restrictions, the program is not open to linguistics, archaeology, literary studies, and arts.
Position and Employment: Applicants can be affiliated with a public or private research institution in the Arab region, but they do not necessarily need to have a permanent position. However, applicants should be engaged in research in addition to teaching. The proposed project could be either ongoing or new.
French Host Institution: Before submitting their application, applicants must have secured a French research institution willing to host them during the time of their fellowship. Applicants must submit a letter from the hosting institution addressed to the FMSH and the ACSS expressing the institution’s willingness to host the applicant during the time of the fellowship and confirming readiness and capacity to provide academic support and supervision to the prospective fellow during the period of his/her fellowship. Applicants who are not able to establish contact with a French institution can visit ScanR, where all French research centers are listed, or contact FMSH to ask for assistance at the following email: atlas@msh-paris.fr.
Requirements of the Fellowship
- During the fellowship period in France, fellows are required to attend professional development events/activities organized by the FMSH.
- One month after completing the fellowship period, fellows will submit a short narrative report detailing the work done and progress made during the fellowship period. In addition, each fellow will be requested to contribute an abstract concerning their project to the FMSH and ACSS websites.
- Fellows must submit a working paper to the ACSS Working Paper Series. (Please see the guidelines for the Working Paper Series on this page.)
- Fellows will be invited to present their research project at the ACSS Research Forum that is organized in an Arab country every two years. Participation costs will be covered by the ACSS, and dates of the event will be communicated well in advance to fellows.
Application process
Applicants must submit an online application (including research proposal and appendices) through the FMSH website, AND fill out a profile page on the ACSS website. Applications for this round will be open as of September 16, 2024. Completed proposals can be uploaded to the application portal at any time before the application deadline on December 09, 2024 at 17:00 (Paris time).
Application materials (proposal and attachments) can only be submitted in French or English and they should be written in only one of these languages; mixing different languages in the same proposal will disqualify the application. Only fully developed proposals will be examined by the Selection Committee. Final proposals should include all information and details necessary for the Selection Committee to understand the research ideas and plans. The final proposal should not exceed 5-8 pages (typed, 1.5-spaced pages, 12-point font).
Guidelines for writing the proposal
Selection Process
A multi-disciplinary Selection Committee composed of distinguished Arab and French scholars with established research and publication records will review and select proposals for funding. The selection procedures abide by the highest standards of academic and ethical judgment. Final decisions are based on the following evaluation criteria:
- Research proposal’s contribution to knowledge, including clarity of research questions and significance, quality and originality or project.
- Competence of the applicant, including academic credentials and potential.
- Candidate’s fellowship plans, including the relevance and significance of the selected host institution and the fellowship plan outlined in the proposal.
- Expected outputs, which include planned activities, publications and career development plans.
