The ”la Caixa” Foundation is offering 20 three-year postdoctoral fellowships to recruit experienced researchers to carry out their projects at accredited centres with the Severo Ochoa or María de Maeztu excellence award, Institutos de Salud Carlos III and R&D units classified as Excellent by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia of Portugal. The research must be carried out in the research areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), including Bio and Health Sciences.

Funding Information

• The maximum payment amount will be 320,100, broken down as shown below:
  • Three maximum annual payments of €102,500 which include:
    • Labour costs (salary included): a maximum of €64,000 to cover the total labour costs of the host institution hiring the fellow.
    • In any case, the minimum annual gross salary to be offered to the fellow by the host institution must be €47,000.
  • Annual research project costs of €38,500, which include:
    • Purchase and maintenance of scientific equipment and consumables;
    • Travel expenses and daily allowance;
    • Registration fees for scientific congresses, seminars and conferences;
    • Management fees for industrial and intellectual property rights related to the project;
    • Patenting costs;
    • Personnel hiring costs linked exclusively to the fellowship project; » Expenses related to the mandatory secondment;
    • Overheads;
    • Other expenses directly related to running of the research project.
  • Gross annual family allowance of €1,200 for each of the researcher’s dependent children.
  • Mobility allowance (moving and housing) of €5,400 gross to be paid at the start of the fellowship.

Eligibility Criteria

• Nationality:
  • Postdoctoral researchers of any nationality are eligible to apply for the postdoctoral Junior Leader Fellowship– Incoming programme.
• Research training:
  • Those who obtained their doctoral degree (PhD) two to seven years prior to the application deadline are eligible. For such purposes, candidates must have obtained their doctoral degree between 25th September 2018 and 25th September 2023, both inclusive. The date of the defence for the doctoral thesis will be understood as the date the doctorate (PhD) was obtained. Therefore, a document must be provided where the date of the thesis defence is certified.
  • Should an applicant hold more than one doctorate (PhD), the above-mentioned period will be calculated for the first degree earned.
  • In the event of an interruption of the research activity between the date of obtaining the doctoral degree and the call deadline (25th September 2025), the period in which the doctoral degree must have been obtained may be extended beyond seven years on the following causes:
    • Illness or accident that led to sick leave of three months or more. An extension may be given for the duly justified number of months.
    • Maternity. An extension of 1 year can be given for each child born after the PhD defence date. If the candidate can justify longer maternity leave, the eligibility period will be extended to cover the documented leave taken until the call deadline.
    • Paternity. An extension of 1 year can be applied for each child born after the PhD defence date.
    • Compulsory National service: An extension may be applied for the demonstrated number of months.
• Mobility:
  • Candidates who wish to join a Spanish centre or university cannot have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the application deadline.
  • A candidate with an uninterrupted period of research inactivity of at least 2 years (e.g. unemployment, periods of employment outside research, parental or long-term sick leave) must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 36 months in the 5 years immediately prior to the call deadline.
  • Those candidates who wish to join a Portuguese centre or university cannot have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the application deadline. Short stays, such as holidays, in a country other than their usual country of residence (where they carry out their main activity), will be considered as time spent in their usual country of residence.

Selection Criteria

• The process is comprised of three parts:
  • Eligibility check: all applications received are screened to ensure that they comply with formal requirements.
  • Shortlisting: each eligible application is sent to an evaluation panel made up of two to four experts with broad experience in the discipline of the application and an extensive list of publications or contributions within this field.
  • Interviews: The candidates whose applications have passed the shortlisting stage will be invited for a face-to-face interview.

For more information, visit "la Caixa" Foundation.

https://lacaixafoundation.org/en/postdoctoral-junior-leader-fellowships-incoming-call