International Incoming Fellowships (IIF)

Overview: The International Incoming Fellowships funds a salary for researcher (outside Europe) for a period of 1-2 years. The IIF aims to reinforce the scientific excellence of the EU Member States through knowledge sharing with incoming top-class researchers active in countries outside Europe with the view to developing mutually-beneficial research co-operation between Europe and non-EU countries.

It aims to encourage these researchers to plan their period of international mobility within the framework of a coherent professional project and thus enhances the possibility of future collaborative research links with European researchers and organisations active in research in their future research career.

Key Eligibility Criteria: Open to researchers active in countries which are neither EU Member States or associated countries. Researchers must be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience. Researchers shall be selected on the basis of a proposal submitted in liaison with a host organisation in the EU. Researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the submission date.

Duration: International Incoming Fellowships have a duration of between 12 and 36 months, with an incoming phase of 12 to 24 months and a possible return phase of 12 months (full time equivalent) (2012 Work programme). The return phase will normally begin not later than 6 months after the end of the incoming phase.

Topic of the Project: The International Incoming Fellowship programme has a bottom-up approach i.e. all fields of research of interest to the European Union are eligible for funding (except areas of research covered by the EURATOM Treaty). Proposals will be classified into Evaluation Panels under eight major areas of research: Chemistry (CHE); Social and Human Sciences (SOC); Economic Sciences (ECO), Information Science and Engineering (ENG); Environmental and Geo-Sciences (ENV); Life Sciences (LIF); Mathematics (MAT); Physics (PHY). The applicant chooses the panel to which the proposal will be associated at the proposal submission stage and this should be considered as the core discipline. The REA reserves the right to move proposals from one panel to another.

Typical Activities of an IIF: The main activities of an IIF will be based on a research project prepared by the experienced researcher in coordination with University College Cork. This project is tailored in order for the experienced researcher to transfer knowledge and significantly develop the competences of the host research group in UCC (in particular in terms of multi- or interdisciplinary expertise and in creating long term collaborations and mutually beneficial co-operation). The possible return phase of up to one year aims to provide the experienced researcher with the possibility to share his/her experience gained during his/her period of international mobility in the return country. In this case, the proposal must include a project description of a possible return phase in an identified return host organisation. The return phase must begin not later than 6 months after the termination of the incoming phase. A separate grant agreement will be issued with the return host organisation, which will commit itself to ensuring an effective return of the researcher.

Salary and expenses: The financial support for International Incoming Fellowships takes the form of a grant comprising the following components:

• A monthly living allowance (In 2012 the base rate for experienced researchers with 10 years experience was €87,500. These rates are adjusted for the cost of living in the host country).
• A monthly mobility allowance (this is a monthly payment, adjusted for the cost of living in the host country, to cover expenses related to the mobility i.e. relocation, family expenses, language courses, travel expenses etc. There are two reference amounts depending on the family situation of the experienced researcher: €1000/month for an experienced researcher with family obligations and €700/month for experienced researcher without family obligations.
• A contribution to the training expenses of the researcher that covers costs related to the project (e.g. consumables, participation in conferences and training courses, memberships of scientific associations etc. This contribution consists of a flat-rate amount of €800 per researcher-month.

Next expected call: March 2013

Further Information: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/mariecurieactions/iif_en.html