FRIAS Sustainable Governance Senior Fellowships for Researchers

The Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) is the University of Freiburg’s international research college. The Institute supports academic exchange across existing boundaries between disciplines, between different cultures and countries, between established and younger researchers.

FRIAS provides modern office spaces and an up-to-date infrastructure and makes every effort to provide tailor-made solutions with regard to suitable accommodation, child care and educational facilities.

What they offer?

• Fellowships are available to researchers from any nationality based in an African institution for 7 months between September 1st, 2025 and August 31st, 2026.
• Depending on their situation, selected applicants will receive a fellowship contract with the University of Freiburg or other compensation.
• Fellows receive a research cost contribution, a budget for individual training, a mobility allowance and travel costs of the inbound and the outbound journey.
• Fellowships will allow researchers to conduct their own research projects. Since one of the aims of FRIAS is to foster cross-disciplinary communication, full-time presence at FRIAS is mandatory.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants can be of any nationality, but must be based in an African country.
• Applicants must hold a doctoral degree.
• Applicants must have a minimum of eight years of post-doctoral research experience at the time of the application deadline.
• Applicants must have six months’ research experience at academic institution(s) in a country different from the country of their first academic degree.
• Applicants must have received a Master or PhD in an African country.
• Applications are welcome exclusively from disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences with a thematic focus on sustainable governance.
• Applicants must propose a research project that can be supported at the University of Freiburg. Thus, they must obtain a letter of cooperation from an academic partner at the University of Freiburg who will support the project during the applicants’ stay in Freiburg. The academic partner must be a professor at the University of Freiburg.
• The research project must not involve topics that are excluded from funding due to ethical issues.

Selection Criteria

• Applicants must have a completed PhD plus a minimum of eight years of post-doctoral experience.
• Applicants must be based in an African country.
• 5 peer-reviewed publications since 1 January 2015, including at least one with or as a co-author.
• Applicants must have six months’ research experience at academic institution(s) in a country different from the country of their first academic degree by the time of application AND have received a Master/PhD in an African country.
• Fellowships will be awarded to individuals with challenging and innovative research projects of top academic quality through a highly competitive, strictly merit-based selection process (expected success rate: ~15% of eligible applications).
• Applications are welcome exclusively from disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences with a thematic focus on sustainable governance.

For more information, visit FRIAS.