Over the past two years, the Estonian Research Council (ETAG) has applied the Seal of Excellence (SoE) principle in awarding support for incoming postdoctoral fellows. This means that applicants who submitted an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship application with the intention of conducting research in Estonia but were not funded may apply for support from ETAG to carry out their project. ETAG no longer organizes a new scientific evaluation of such applications but bases its decision on the MSCA evaluation report.
Until now, the condition was that the MSCA application had to be prepared in cooperation with an Estonian research institution. Going forward, ETAG will also allow support to be applied for by those whose original MSCA project was submitted in collaboration with another European research institution. With this, ETAG aims to offer more young researchers the opportunity to bring their high-level research project to Estonia and implement it here. The condition remains that the application has received a Seal of Excellence, i.e., at least 85 points in the evaluation.
Although ETAG still does not conduct a new scientific evaluation, applicants must find a new supervisor in Estonia, adapt the work plan if necessary, and describe how the project can be implemented with the infrastructure support of the selected Estonian research institution. The scientific content of the project must remain consistent with the original MSCA application. The project must also align with at least one of the TAIE smart specialization focus areas.
Applications will be submitted as usual via the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS). We aim to offer this opportunity to new postdocs already this year – the call will open in May and remain open until the end of August. ETAG will publish the detailed conditions on its website during April.
Further information:
Allan Padar
Head of Researcher Mobility
allan.padar@etag.ee
+372 5686 6722