Greetings,

We are excited to share this funding opportunity from the French Institutes for Advanced Study (FIAS). The FIAS Fellowship Programme offers 10-month residential fellowship positions in France across the seven Institutes for Advanced Study (IAS). More information about the award can be found in the synopsis and links below. For a full list of currently open opportunities that have been announced through our office, please visit our new Current Opportunities web page. As a reminder, our Research Development team is available to provide proposal development support to FAS ladder faculty.

French Institutes for Advanced Study (FIAS) Fellowship Programme

• OSP Deadline: Not applicable for individual fellowships
• Sponsor Deadline: June 25, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET
• Award Amount: Ten-month academic year fellowships with living allowance of €2,200 per month, individual research and training budget equivalent to €2,500 per year, round trip travel from home country, and accommodation or support for relocation

Program Overview

The FIAS Fellowship Programme invites applications from outstanding scholars and scientists to develop their innovative research projects during a residency in one of seven IAS locations. Initiated in 2020, the Fellowship Programme will now run until the 2029-2030 academic year. Fellowships are open to all disciplines in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH) and to all other research fields interfacing with these areas. Characterized by a multidisciplinary cohort of fellows and strong connections to local research centers and laboratories, FIAS Fellowships provide recipients with uninterrupted time to conduct individual research with the greatest academic freedom, a stimulating scientific environment provided by the host institutes, and exposure to the collective, benevolent intelligence of international cohorts of fellows. The standard duration of these residential fellowships is September through June. For the 2027-2028 year, FIAS will offer 29 fellowship positions, distributed amongst the seven sites: 7 in Aix-Marseille, 3 in Cergy, 2 in Loire Valley (Orléans-Tours),3 in Lyon, 2 in Montpellier, 4 in Nantes, and 8 in Paris. 

Priority Areas

• Applicants are strongly encouraged to check individual IAS websites to learn more about their specific priorities, areas of focus, and institutional partners, as well as their potential considerations of disciplines outside the humanities and social sciences. 

Eligibility Criteria

• Researchers from all countries and nationalities are eligible to apply to the programme.
• At the time of the application deadline, researchers will have to be in possession of a doctoral degree plus 2 years of full-time research experience after the degree (PhD training will not be considered in the calculation of experience).
• Applicants must fulfil the transnational Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) mobility rule: incoming researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in France for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline.
• Applications in languages other than English (even partially) will not be considered. 

Application Materials

• A completed FIAS online application form. See account creation instructions in the FIAS guide for applicants.
• A detailed Curriculum Vitae, including a list of publications and the contact details of three scholars familiar with the applicant's academic work.
• A copy of the PhD diploma in PDF format. 
• A detailed research proposal (maximum five pages and one additional bibliography page), to include: 
  • Detailed scientific goals of the project and its relation to the current state of the art.
  • Proposed methodology.
  • Expected scientific outcomes. 
  • Justification for the fellowship duration in light of its anticipated impact on the research project and the applicant's career development.
  • Names of up to three scholars to be excluded from the peer-review process may be listed at the end of the document.
• A selection of three to five key publications (articles or book chapters).
• Optional : Up to two letters of recommendation.

Selection Criteria

• All eligible applications will be evaluated by independent international experts and by the FIAS Scientific Committee according to two criteria: 
  • The scientific excellence of the applicant (40% of the mark). 
  • The quality of the research proposal (60% of the mark). 
• The scientific selection will be competitive, merit-based, and conducted through international independent peer review.
• The final decision will be carried out at the level of each IAS with its Scientific Advisory Board. Applying the same two evaluation criteria, selection will be based on the marks, evaluations, and ranking of the applicants as well as on:
  • Alignment with the Institute’s research priorities (as published at the time of application).
  • Potential contribution to and interaction with the IAS scholarly community.
  • Collaborative opportunities with local academic and intersectoral partners.
  • Ability to nurture long-term scientific and non-academic collaborations.
  • Expected impact on the applicant’s career.

Additional Information and Resources

 

 

All FAS Research Development newsletters are currently on pause. We will continue to send out information related to limited submission opportunities and other notable opportunities on a one-off basis. Additionally, the funding search resources below are available to all members of the Harvard community:

 

SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES WITH PIVOT
All Harvard affiliates can search for opportunities and set up alerts using Pivot, a searchable database of federal and private funding opportunities. Information on Pivot, including a one-page user guide, and other funding opportunity databases available to the Harvard community can be found at research.fas.harvard.edu/funding-databases.

 

Curated funding opportunity lists are funding search topics of broad interest. The following curated lists can be viewed as a search and further refined based on your funding needs. To view the results you must be on a Harvard network or logged in to your Pivot account. Information on setting up a Pivot account can be found in our one-page user guide. 

Arts

Environmental and Climate Science

Humanities

Social Sciences

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