Call for Expression of Interest for Horizon 2020 MSCA Individual Fellowship at the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space

Location: Erkner, near Berlin (Germany)

Disciplines: economic and social geography, urban and regional sociology, political science, urban and regional planning, and contemporary history

Introduction & Research themes:

The Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space is conducting problem-oriented basic research on development capacity, versatility and adaptability of space and thus the spatial dimension of social action in local, national and international relations. Research at IRS is conducted in five research departments:
- Dynamics of Economic Spaces
- Institutional Change and Regional Public Goods  
- Dynamics of Communication, Knowledge and Spatial Development  
- Regeneration of Cities and Towns  
- Department for Historical Research / Scientific Collections for the History of Building and Planning in the GDR  

Proposed research projects are expected to contribute to the institute’s research on society and space. Please see current research programme.

The Marie Curie fellow will be hosted by the research department best fitted to the research topic of the application. Cooperation between research departments is possible.

The IRS welcomes Expression of Interests of excellent postdoctoral researchers with an outstanding academic track record and a background in one of the following disciplines as mentioned above: economic and social geography, urban and regional sociology, political science, urban and regional planning, and contemporary history. The successful candidate will apply jointly with a supervisor from IRS to the European Commission Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship Scheme.

The selected candidate will receive dedicated support from a senior researcher, as well as IRS Research Management and Communication office to develop their proposal and application for submission to the European Commission by 9th of September 2020.

The successful candidate will benefit from travel funding provided by IRS to visit the host researcher for 1-2 days in July/August 2020 (if circumstances given COVID-19 allow) to discuss and plan the full proposal for submission to the European Commission.    

The Fellowship:

The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) are prestigious fellowships funded by the European Commission. They offer a generous allowance for 12-24 months including mobility, family and research allowance. Applicants can be from any country, must hold a PhD (or equivalent), and must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Germany for more than 12 months in the past 3 years immediately prior to the MSCA-IF deadline on 09 September 2020. MSCA-IF’s follow a bottom-up approach, which means that the research fields and topics are chosen freely by the applicants in collaboration with their prospective hosts. More information on the Fellowship scheme and the application process can be found below.

Contract type: Fixed term for 1-2 years, starting approximately May 2021

Hours: Full-time

Salary: The present salary rate for a MSCA grant in Germany is 4.733,60€/month.
In addition, the MSCA grant provides for mobility (600€/month) and possibly a family allowance* (500€/month), if the researcher is eligible at the time the proposal is submitted.

Closing date for Expressions of Interest with IRS: 15 June 2020

Closing date for submission of final applications: 9 September 2020

How to express your interest

An Expression of Interest should include:
1. Your CV including a full list of your publications, research grants and projects.
2. A max 2-3 page Research Proposal Summary aligned with one or more of the themes of the IRS research programme.

Please send your Expression of Interest directly to your preferred supervisor at the IRS. IRS staff profiles can be found here. Applications must reach the IRS supervisor the latest by 15 June 2020.

Expressions of interests will be selected based on the quality of the research idea and the candidate’s track record. Successful candidates will be informed by July 2020 when they will be invited to make a formal application to the European Commission with their IRS host.

To allow sufficient time for institutional approvals, a draft of the full proposal is expected to be ready for internal review by the IRS-host by August 10th, 2020.

For further information please send an email to sarah.brechmann@leibniz-irs.de.

Closing date: 15 June 2020.

[*] The researcher is eligible for family allowance in case they have family obligations. Family is defined as persons linked to the researcher either: (i) by marriage; (ii) by a relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the legislation of the country or region where this relationship was formalised; or (iii) as dependent children who are actually being cared for by the researcher.