PIASt Warsaw Research Fellowships
Polish Institute of Advanced Studies PIASt is an independent centre of research located in Warsaw. It offers a base for an international community of high-level scholars willing to devote themselves entirely to their research work, while being freed from their usual teaching and administration constraints.
To fulfil this goal the PIASt selects Fellows for a period of five months. The fellowships are offered mainly to scholars active in the fields of the humanities and social sciences, but projects where these disciplines interface with life and exact sciences are also welcome.
The programme supports outstanding researchers from all regions of the world who want to pursue self-directed work in fine research conditions. They will form a small but stimulating community which will benefit from its multi-disciplinary composition, that enables free exchange of ideas and opinions in a spirit of a cross-disciplinary dialogue.
The programme welcomes applications of high scientific standard. Both, leading senior researchers and promising younger scholars are offered an opportunity to devote themselves full-time to their research. Applicants must all submit research proposals, supported by evidence of their former achievements on the international stage, demonstrated by high quality publications. The Institute especially welcomes applicants with abilities to build ties and collaborate with research institutions and individual researchers in Poland.
The PIASt selects applicants with regard to how interesting and innovative their research projects are, and to the quality of their scientific experience. We are open to a variety of research methods, including theory, analyses of original sources, and analyses of large secondary data sets. We seek candidates with a strong research background in their own discipline, but willing and able to develop research projects drawing on PIASt's interdisciplinary atmosphere and ready to take part in PIASt internal and external activities - seminars, workshops, etc.
Call for applications
Polish Institute of Advanced Studies PIASt invites applications for 5-month research fellowships, starting their residencies from March 2023.
NB!
Candidates apply exclusively online; paper applications are not accepted.
Before applying, please read carefully all instructions below because late or incomplete applications will not be considered!
ELIGIBILITY
At the time of the application, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Poland for more than 6 months during the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date - December 31st 2022 (short stays such as holidays do not count).
Ukrainian scholars are subject to another recruiting process.
Applications are open to active researchers at two stages of their careers:
• fellowships for juniors/postdocs, who have obtained their PhD in the last 10 years and have subsequent working experience as researchers for at least three years prior to the application date, i.e. not later than by the end of December 2022. (PhD training is not included in the calculation of research experience);
• fellowships for seniors/professors, who have minimum 10 years of full-time research experience after obtaining a PhD, including emeritus professors.
SELECTION PROCEDURE
The Institute attaches great importance to the quality and fairness of the selection process. All applications go through a four-stage procedure:
1/ formal checking the eligibility and completeness of documents by the Institute's staff;
2/ peer-reviewing by independent evaluators;
3/ ranking by the international Scientific Advisory Board responsible for the final selection of successful fellows;
4/ signing individual Stipendist Agreements.
The deadline for applications within this call is January 20th 2023. Later applications will not be considered.
Selection conditions and criteria
The selection of applicants who are eligible for fellowshisps is competitive, merit-based and conducted through an independent peer review process.
APPLICATION
Applications are submitted online here.
Applicants are required to submit (typed in Times Roman 12 pts in English exclusively):
- a CV (full contact details, academic and professional experience) - up to 3 pages;
- a list of publications - up to 3 pages;
- 3 recent publications in PDF format (in case of texts published in a language other than English, an English-written summary is required)*;
- a detailed research proposal - up to 10,000 signs (spaces included);
- two letters of recommendation by senior scholars foreign to the applicant's country of residence;
- a copy of the PhD diploma in PDF format (if the writing system used in the diploma is not Latin, a Latin script university certificate or official translation must be attached as well).
The following aspects should be tackled in research proposals:
- motivation for participating in the PIASt fellowship programme;
- importance of trans-national mobility for achieving planned research objectives;
- connections to Polish research institutions, which may result in joint publications and/or joint applications for grants;
- relevance and connections of the research to the wider academic context;
- aims and methodology of the planned research;
- current state and schedule of the planned research;
- interdisciplinary dimension of the research, if relevant.
SELECTION
Assessment of applications
Eligible applicants for the PIASt fellowships are subject to the independent selection process that meets high standards of competitiveness. The merit-based qualitative assessment is based on the following criteria:
1. Excellence of the applicant proved by her/his: career path (especially international experience and high quality publications), which allows assessment of her/his capacity to carry out the planned research proposal;
2. Quality of the research proposal, which must be: innovative, connected to current debates and literature, methodologically sound, feasible, significant for the international academic community, and with potential impact of the expected output;
3. Relevance of the sought PIASt fellowship residency for the research project and for the expected applicant's career development;
4. Declared capacity of English which is the operation language at the PIASt.
For the peer reviewing of the PIASt fellowship applications, external referees are appointed according to their specific research experience and an overall coverage of the humanities and social sciences.
The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), composed of 10 internationally recognized researchers, decides the final list of successful fellows. Their assessment includes: expected interaction with the prospective co-fellows and local researchers, and relevance of the PIASt choice by the applicant.
Information to applicants
Applicants are notified by e-mail of the results of their project assessment after the final selection by the SAB.
Calendar of actions:
• Application deadline → January 20th 2023 at 23:59 Warsaw time;
• Check of the eligibility and completeness of applications → January 25th 2023;
• Peer reviewing → February 18th 2023;
• SAB final list of fellows → February 20th 2023;
• Negotiation of individual Stypendist Agreements with successful fellows → February 28th 2023;
• Arrival of fellows → March 1st - March 31st 2023.
- Incomplete applications will not be considered.
- Late applications will not be considered.
CONTACT
Additional questions may be asked by writing to piast@piast.pan.pl
*Each submitted publication must comply with the following expectations: - clear bibliographical references; - the maximum length of 30 pages; - English-written summaries for texts published in another language than English to enable international peer review.
Conditions of residency
Successful fellows who signed Host Contracts for five months are provided with furnished office space and flats.
The provision of a living allowance (in the range of up to PLN 8 000/month for a junior fellow and up to PLN 10 000/month for a senior fellow - depending on the individual financial situation), accommodation, and coverage of travel expenses (one round trip) will be provided.
STIPULATIONS
Eventual residencies shall not be construed as establishing any relationship of subordination or employment ties between fellows and the PIASt.
Successful fellows are expected to spend their time in Warsaw to undertake and complete their projects in the planned period.
Fellows remain the owners of results of their research. Fellows are required to acknowledge PIASt suport in all publications, documents and presentations related to their PIASt project and resulting from the research carried out during their fellowships. Upon completion of the project fellows will submit final reports outlining their scientific achievements.
The fellowship programme complies with the European Commission ethical provisions on privacy, data protection, confidentiality and intellectual property rules.
An application that is not accepted for a PIASt fellowship can be re-submitted only once, but with information what has been corrected in the application that had been rejected.
”Junior” researchers may receive a scholarship in this category only once.
Former PIASt Senior Fellows cannot submit a new application within five years of the end of their stay at the PIASt Institute.
