Call for Mobilitas Pluss mobility grants opens

The Mobilitas Pluss programme offers mobility grants for R&D institutions, companies and higher education institutions to bring talented researchers from abroad to Estonia. The Estonian Research Council (ETAG) offers grants for postdoctoral researchers and researchers who have been abroad for several years and wish to come back to Estonia.

“The 2018 call for applications is the third overall Mobilitas Pluss call and the experience from previous calls shows us that there is much interest for such grants. This year we hope to get more applications from enterprises as well,” said Oskar Otsus, head of the research programmes department.

ETAG is planning to give out approximately 20 postdoctoral and 10 returning researcher grants.

Mobilitas Pluss programme offers the following funding opportunities:

Mobilitas Pluss postdoctoral grant– support for researchers coming to Estonia to carry out their postdoctoral research projects. The support is aimed at researchers who have defended their doctoral degree abroad.

Returning researcher grant– support for researchers who have carried out their postdoctoral research (or research at least at the same level) abroad and return to Estonia to continue their research career. We support researchers who have been working abroad for at least two years.

The grant amount is:

• 40 000 €/per year (non-experimental projects)
• 42 500 €/per year (experimental projects)

Postdoctoral researchers and returning researchers can apply for additional 4000 euros (for project lasting less than 2 years) or 5500 euros (for projects lasting 2 years) for relocation allowance in the first year of the project in case they have not lived, studied or worked in Estonia within 180 days preceding the opening of the call for applications.

The grant period is 12-24 months.

The final recipients of the grants include R&D institutions, companies and higher education institutions. The grant is subject to an own contribution requirement of 5% by the host institution.

The call for applications will close on 31 January 2018 at 5 p.m EET. 

The applications can be submitted through the Estonian Research Information System (www.etis.ee ). The results of the call will be announced in June 2018 and the projects can start up to one year after the funding decision is made.

The Mobilitas Pluss Programme is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Estonian government. Total budget of the programme is 35 373 763 euros.

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