Fellowship TU Delft

Deadline: June 1st, 2025

The IDEA league combines the strength of five of Europe’s leading technical universities to provide unique opportunities to connect, collaborate, contribute, and inspire technological innovation to tackle global challenges. As part of the common efforts to enhance long term synergies among the universities, the second fellowship call is now open to provide TU Delft assistant professors with the opportunity to spend 2 to 6 months (in total) in one or preferably more partner universities if possible. This call will be issued more times after this initial pilot. The budget available for the TU Delft for these fellowships will be €150.000 per year in multiple consecutive call rounds.

The IDEA League Fellowship Programme has the following objectives:

· To contribute to strengthening the collaboration between partner universities through starting or further developing research and collaboration efforts

· To contribute to knowledge exchange and capacity building within the partner universities through sharing research infrastructures

· To facilitate innovative inter-disciplinary cooperation and communication to tackle societal challenges

The fellowship may be used to start or further develop a project (proposal), research or manuscript, in collaboration with fellow scientists of the partner institutes. IDEA League fellows are encouraged to build synergies with(in) the institutes, their departments and the universities at large.

· This call is open to assistant professors employed by the TU Delft who have obtained their PhD degree after January 1st, 2018. The limiting date for obtaining the PhD degree can be adjusted by 12 months for each pregnancy (with a maximum of 2 pregnancies) for which maternity leave was used during the 7 years prior to this call. Academic Career Track staff members are encouraged to apply.

· The other IDEA league institutes are: RWTH Aachen (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

· Funding is provided for research conducted in academic year 2025-2026 which runs from 1 September 2025 till 31st of August 2026.

· Each fellow ideally visits one or more IDEA League universities. The overall duration must be between two and six months and can be divided into shorter periods, with a minimum duration of at least one month’s stay at a partner university.

· The TU Delft aims to be CO2 neutral by 2030. Therefore, we ask you to consider the most sustainable way to travel. See the TU Delft International Business Trip Policy on the intranet.

This call is made possible with funding earmarked for Encouraging European Research and as such priority will be given to collaboration for the pursuit of joint European research funding. The funding may be used to cover travel expenses, accommodation costs and fees for use of the host institutions’ research infrastructure, up to a maximum of €5,000 per month. If you wish to bring along a PhD student to facilitate his/her sustainable integration into the relevant research network associated with (a part of) your project, please ensure that this is reflected in your budget and accompanied by a clear justification for their inclusion. Funding cannot be used for conferences. Note that the research stay must be completed, and all expenses be paid by September 15th 2026. A report about the use of the fellowship must be submitted within 3 months after the project is finished. The total grant amount that TU Delft can allocate to these calls is €150.000 per year from 2025 – 2027.

· The duration of the stay should be at least one month at a given location.

· A complete proposal must be submitted (see requirements below) to apply for the fellowship. Incomplete proposals will not be considered.

The proposal (in pdf format) must be written in English and must contain:

· A motivation letter (max 1 A4).

· A short CV including 3 key highlights with a brief explanation (max 2 pages).

· Endorsement by head of department at TU Delft specifying the added value for collaboration with partner institute(s).

· A description of the research themes and objective and a (preliminary) list of activities planned for the stay abroad, especially use of research infrastructure (max 2 pages).

· A letter or email of acceptance/invitation from each host department.

· A budget plan with a justification for the requested funding. The grant fund can be used for a variety of expenses, including housing, travel costs, and a monthly allowance. The monthly allowance covers items such as local public transportation, internet, and other living expenses that you don’t normally have at home, as well as participation in networking activities necessary for the research. Personal expenses such as clothing, personal care, etc., are NOT covered.

The call will be closed by June 1st 2025.

Review is planned during the month of June as to allow grantees to plan their activities for the rest of the year.

Applicants should submit their application on the SiROP link at the top of this page, clicking on “apply here”.

All applications will be reviewed by a selection committee consisting of 3 people. The committee composition is as follows:

· Prof. Ir. Ena Voûte (chair)

· Prof. Dr. Ir. Bart van Arem

· Prof. Dr. Ir. Paul Breedveld

The committee will decide based on:

· Quality of the proposal and potential for enhancing collaboration with IDEA partners

· The relation of the proposal to strategic themes of TU Delft

Priority will be given to proposals that involve three or more partner universities.

In case of equal merit, the selection committee shall prefer the best gender distribution.