Visiting Professors Fellowship at ICUB Bucharest

According to its mission of promoting excellence in research and encouraging international collaborations, the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB) offers each year a number of research fellowships for visiting professors to senior researchers with an outstanding track-record.

The main objective of these fellowships is to facilitate building up research networks and international collaboration. The visiting professors are expected to contribute with their expertise to the formation and development of working research groups at the University of Bucharest. Their activity will be within one of the four research divisions of the ICUB (Exact Sciences, Life Environmental and Earth Sciences, Social-Sciences, and Humanities) and we expect it to stimulate a dynamic research environment within the institute and the University of Bucharest.

The ICUB fellowships for visiting professors are residential scholarships for a period that can vary between 14 days and 12 months. The purpose of these fellowships is to foster scientific collaborations and to encourage the development of high-quality international co-operative projects (conferences, courses, research seminars or exploratory workshops). 

Eligibility criteria

The candidates must be senior researchers with a noteworthy international experience in their area of study, willing to conduct a research project under the auspices of the ICUB. The project can include organizing a scientific event (conferences, presentations, colloquia, workshops), writing applications (individual or collaborative), providing expertise, guidance for postdoctoral scholars or cooperation with fellows from the University of Bucharest on particular projects.

Tenured, associated, emeritus, or retired professors of the University of Bucharest, as well as professors who have a permanent or temporary ongoing contract with the University of Bucharest are not eligible for this scholarship.

Terms

• For the visiting professors who are staying more than one month and do not have their own source of funding, the stipend is 3500 lei/month. For those who are staying between 14 days and one month, the stipend is 100 lei/day. The ICUB provides reimbursement for international transport (one round-trip), and can also contribute towards the covering of accommodation expenses (within a maximum limit of 1500 lei/month);
• During their stay, the visiting professors will be full members of the ICUB, and will benefit of the research facilities of the Institute. They are expected to take an active part in the life of the academic community of the University of Bucharest;
• During their stay, visiting professors can use the facilities of the Institute to organize scientific events. They will be given assistance and logistic support for such activities.
• If the visiting professor is not from a European Union country, the director of the ICUB will acquire from the External Relations Office of the University of Bucharest all the necessary documents by which the visiting professor can obtain the Romanian visa.

Selection 

The application file will be put together by the invited professor and the ICUB division that issued the invitation. The application file will contain:

• CV and list of publications (in English);
• A short presentation of the research project or/and of the scientific event/events in which the visiting professor will be engaged, also highlighting the benefits which the ICUB will have from granting the scholarship (for instance: establishing a new direction of research; creating a new workgroup; launching an international project; writing a paper for a prestigious journal or a publishing house etc.);
• The agreement of the ICUB director, based on the recommendation of the division coordinator. 

In case the available funding of the ICUB for the visiting professors is not sufficient for financing all approved applications, the director of the ICUB appoints an expert committee for the respective field which ranks the applications based on the following criteria: 1) the prestige and the international visibility of the applicant, 2) the quality of the project proposed to the ICUB, 3) the feasibility of the project development in the ICUB. This ranking is then debated in the board of directors of the ICUB who will agree on rescheduling the proposed projects for a later time.