The Human Past Residential Fellowship Programme (SCAS)

The Human Past Residential Fellowship Programme, an initiative by the Center for the Human Past, is designed to foster a collaborative environment where early-stage and established scholars can converge across a wide range of disciplines, such as archaeology, population genetics and historical linguistics. These fields collectively explore the shared history of the world’s populations over the past 10,000 years, a period marked by the advent of agrarian food production, population growth and linguistic changes, as well as the emergence of early civilizations.

The programme aims to attract research fellows pursuing research on different aspects of the human past, combining methods and materials from different disciplines. The programme's primary focus is on research work relating to three major migration events: The Indo-European-, Bantu- and Austronesian expansions. We invite scholars who are interested in exploring archaeological evidence, linguistic changes, or genetic factors associated with any of these major archaeological and linguistic expansions.

The programme gives fellows the opportunity to concentrate on their own research interests, free from the teaching and administrative obligations of ordinary university life. Fellows are, however, expected to be active members of the scholarly community of the Collegium and to participate in seminars and other academic events beyond their own fields of specialization. The fellows within the programme will also be expected to participate in the activities at the Center for the Human Past.

The Human Past Fellowship Programme is funded by the Swedish Research Council as an integral component of the Center for the Human Past, which is recognized as a Center of Excellence.

The Fellowship Programme offers one Advanced Fellowship, and one Young Scholar Fellowship. For the Advanced Fellowship, the candidate should, at the time of application, have held a PhD (or equivalent degree) for at least seven years, have a track record of significant and original research achievements, and be active at the international forefront of his/her research field. Early-career scholars applying for the Young Scholar Fellowship should have a promising track record of independent achievements at the post-doctoral level (at the most seven years from PhD degree), including significant publications, and be active in international fora.

Candidates are not required to hold a university position at the time of application.

Remuneration

Fellows normally receive a monthly salary. However, the Collegium does not match fellows’ salaries at their home university/institute, and fellows are asked to try to obtain other resources for their support such as sabbatical salaries and/or grants.

In most cases the Collegium will provide and pay for accommodation for fellows who do not live in the Stockholm–Uppsala region. When possible, the Collegium also tries to offer accommodation to fellows from Stockholm who are not able to commute.

Application Instructions and Deadline

Final decisions are taken by the Principalof the Collegium in consultation with a selection committee. This means that all applications (including personal data) will be downloaded by members of the selection committee, and may also be sent to external referees, outside of the EU/EEA.

The application deadline for the academic year 2027-2028 is on 1 June 2026 (23:59 CET).

If you are applying to the Human Past Fellowship Programme, we kindly ask you to only apply to that fellowship programme. Applying to more than one fellowship programme will not increase your chances of being awarded a fellowship at SCAS.

Should you despite this submit more than one application, and not immediately choose a programme when asked to do so, the administrative staff will assign you to a programme. In this case, the selection of the programme will thus be strictly administrative, and it will not be based on your research topic.

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Candidates are advised to submit their applications well ahead of the deadline. It may take a few weekdays to receive assistance should you have questions or need technical support.

Applicants will be notified of the results through the Varbi online application system no later than 28 February 2027. If you get a new email address, please make sure to update it in your Varbi account.

If you have any technical questions related to the Varbi online application system, please see the help page in your Varbi account (or go to Varbi accountExternal link.). If you cannot find the answer to your question on the help page, you can contact Varbi’s support: support@varbi.com.

If you have any questions regarding the thematic focus of the programme, please contact marzena.norling@ebc.uu.se

If you have any questions about the Human Past Fellowship Programme, please contact the secretariat: fellowselection@swedishcollegium.se

• Advanced Fellowship:
  At the time of application, candidates must hold a PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree), awarded on, or before, 1 June 2019.

  Young Scholar Fellowship:
  At the time of application, candidates must hold a PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree), awarded on, or after, 2 June 2019.

• Candidates are not required to hold a current institutional affiliation.

• Candidates may apply for a single semester or for the full academic year:

  Autumn semester: 1 September 2027 - 17 December 2027
  Spring semester: 11 January 2028 - 16 June 2028
  Full academic year: 1 September 2027 - 16 June 2028

• Deadline for application: 1 June 2026 (23:59 CET).

Please note:
Candidates are asked to only apply to one fellowship programme.