TIAS Call
TIAS invites applications for four (4) Collegium and three (3) Postdoctoral Fellow positions for three-year period starting from 1 September 2025.
TIAS selects its Fellows via an international call for applications and welcomes applications from all disciplines within its five constituent faculties (Economics, Education, Humanities, Law and Social Sciences). Selection of successful applicants will be on the basis of academic excellence.
Call deadline: 8 January 2025 at 16:00
Applicants should note that in TIAS Calls the success rates for applicants have generally been around 2 % and that only exceptionally strong candidates are likely to be successful.
Please note that you are allowed to submit only one (1) application either for the Collegium Fellow position or the Postdoctoral Fellow position after choosing the one that best fits your current academic career path.
TIAS Postdoctoral Fellows
The purpose of TIAS Postdoctoral Fellowship is to advance professional competence of researchers who have recently gained their doctorate and have participated in international activities and collaboration. Postdoctoral is defined as being within five (5) years of applicants having passed their PhD. Applicants are also expected to have attained other academic achievements.
Applicants must have completed their doctoral degree by the end of the application period. They must have gained their doctoral degree a maximum of five years before the end of application period, 8 January 2025. This date should be taken as being the date at which all work for the PhD is successfully concluded, rather than the date of formal graduation. In cases where the PhD has been successfully completed but the degree certificate has not yet been issued, applicants should provide confirmation from the University where the PhD was undertaken that the PhD has been successfully completed and that no additional work is required. Please note that by the time the employment contract is signed, the doctoral certificate must be delivered to the University.
Only for special reasons, such as maternity, paternity or parental leave, military service or non-military service, or a long illness may more than five years have passed since the successful completion of the degree. Applicants who wish to plead special reasons should justify this in their curriculum vitae.
The salaries of TIAS Fellows are determined within the university salary system for teaching and research personnel. The salary for Postdoctoral Fellow (official title Postdoctoral Researcher) positions corresponds to a requirement level 5 and the pre-estimated personnel percentage of 17 % (current euro-denominated gross salary 3 759 € per month). Progress in the researcher’s personal performance can be taken into account when determining the salary level during employment.
TIAS Collegium Fellows
The purpose of TIAS Collegium Fellowships is to offer researchers an opportunity to gain competence for the most demanding research posts or other expert positions after the postdoctoral research stage. Successful publishing and other scientific work as well as significant activity and engagement in international academic networks after gaining the doctorate are requirements for appointment to a Collegium Fellow post.
Applicants are expected to have ambitious research plans that aim at new scientific breakthroughs. They must have been awarded their PhD no more than twelve years before the end of the application period, 8 January 2025. Only for special reasons, such as maternity, paternity or parental leave, military service or non-military service, or a long illness may more than twelve years have passed since the successful completion of the degree. Applicants who wish to plead special reasons should justify this in their curriculum vitae. Tenured Professors (i.e. those with the title of Professor) are not eligible to apply.
The salaries of TIAS Fellows are determined within the university salary system for teaching and research personnel. The salary for Collegium Fellow (official title Collegium Researcher) positions corresponds to a requirement level 7 and the pre-estimated personnel percentage of 17 % (current euro-denominated gross salary 5 054 € per month). Progress in the researcher’s personal performance can be taken into account when determining the salary level during employment.
Tasks of TIAS Fellows
The main task of TIAS Fellows is to carry out an internationally excellent research project over a three year period, during which the results of the project should be disseminated in a number of ways including books, book chapters, peer reviewed articles, newspaper articles, conference papers, public dissemination events etc. Fellows are also required to contribute to the intellectual life of the Institute via such things as attending and presenting at TIAS meetings, organising TIAS events and cross disciplinary working with their co-Fellows.
In their motivation letter, applicants should state how their work supplements existing work at the University, identifying both the department within which they wish to be located and relevant members of staff whose work aligns with their own. Please note that it is not necessary for applicants to contact departments or staff members. Applicants should also outline how their work relates to one or more of the multidisciplinary themes and areas of strength of the University of the University of Turku: 1) New technologies and digitalisation, 2) Health, diagnostics and drug development, 3) Children, young people and learning, 4) Cultural memory and social change and 5) Biodiversity and sustainability (see multidisciplinary themes and areas of strength on the UTU website). Successful candidates are requested to demonstrate engagement in international academic networks and must provide evidence of their ability to work in a research environment of high international standard.
The positions are located at one of the campuses of the University of Turku and successful candidates are required to live in Finland. Applicants should be aware that they are applying to an interdisciplinary research Institute and should therefore be committed to interdisciplinary working. Such working includes an obligation to attend regular TIAS meetings and events and to make contributions to the academic and social life of the Institute. In addition to TIAS meetings, Fellows are expected to attend the campus regularly.
TIAS Fellows have the opportunity to contribute to teaching activities at the University of Turku. Such contributions will make up a maximum of 5 % of a Fellow’s annual work load of 1612 hours. In addition, they may devote another 5 % of their total work time to other academic and administration duties.
Applying
Applications must be submitted via University of Turku’s electronic application form:
>> Postdoctoral Fellow applications
>> Collegium Fellow applications
The application deadline is 8 January 2025 at 16:00 (Finnish time, GMT +2). Late applications cannot be submitted and applications cannot be completed after the application deadline.
You’ll receive a confirmation email from the application system once you have successfully submitted an application.
Please note that once the application has been submitted the applicant can still make further adjustments to the application up until the end of application period. We strongly recommend that the application is completed as early as possible.
In the application form applicants are asked to choose the department/unit within which they wish their research to be located. Please choose from the list further down on this page.
Application documents
The application must contain all the following documents, which must be in the following order:
- Research plan abstract (1 page; max 2 500 characters, without spaces)
- Research plan (maximum 25 000 characters, without spaces)
- Curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
- List of publications (maximum 2 pages; please indicate the five most important)
- Letter of Motivation (maximum 2 pages)
- Copy of doctoral certificate (if unavailable please supply a copy of official confirmation that the PhD has been passed)
Documents i-v must be compiled together into one PDF document, so there will be two attachments: documents i-v and the doctoral certificate document.
All the documents must be written in English with Times New Roman, font size 12. This font size must be used throughout including in the Bibliography. Footnotes and tables must be font size 10. Any words within maps, pictures etc. must be at least font size 9. Any words within maps, pictures, tables etc. must be included in the character count.
The documents must be named by using the last name of the applicant and the document title (e.g. Smith_Documents_1_5, Smith_DoctoralCertificate.) Both attachments must be in PDF format. The maximum file size for the attachments is 10 MB. Please upload the documents 1–5 as a “CV” attachment on the application form.
Incomplete applications will not be processed and we reserve the right to automatically exclude applications which do not follow the limits listed above and the structure below. We further reserve the right to automatically exclude applications which have the incorrect font size in any part of the application. Applicants who have any questions about this should contact TIAS as soon as possible and at least one week prior to submitting their applications.
