Our mission
The EURAXESS Science4Refugees initiative supports refugee and at-risk researchers by helping them access internships, part-time and full-time research positions, and connect with the European research community. Through the EURAXESS portal, researchers can find tailored job opportunities, training resources and comprehensive support services to ease their transition to working and living in Europe.
Ukrainian researchers at risk are eligible to benefit from the Science4Refugees initiative without needing the refugee status. Moreover, an overview of all existing support initiatives at the European and national levels can be found on our ERA4Ukraine page.
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Looking to continue your research career in Europe under challenging circumstances?
With My EURAXESS, you can access thousands of research job openings—including positions marked as refugee-friendly—as well as funding, training and collaboration opportunities tailored to your background and expertise.
Registration is free and easy. Create your profile, highlight your skills, and connect with institutions across Europe that actively support displaced and at-risk researchers.
As a refugee or at-risk researcher, developing new skills is an important step in rebuilding and advancing your career. Through EURAXESS, you can access free online training courses designed to help you adapt to the European research environment, strengthen your expertise, and stay competitive in a changing global job market.
EURAXESS provides services for researchers, advice on career development planning and opportunities. Find information on the first EURAXESS Career Development Centre at Vitae.
The Science4Refugees initiative on the EURAXESS portal features a dedicated "refugee-friendly" job category, designed to help refugee researchers quickly find research jobs in Europe and integrate into the European job market.
EURAXESS highlights dedicated funding schemes that support refugee and at-risk researchers in continuing their careers in Europe. Explore the opportunities below to find support for your research journey.
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The Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs develops and manages EU-wide policies and funding programmes in areas such as migration, asylum, and internal security. However, the legal status and related procedures are handled individually by each EU Member State.
That’s where EURAXESS can help by guiding you through country-specific legal processes and providing tailored support along the way.
Navigating legal challenges is essential for refugee and at-risk researchers aiming to integrate into the European research landscape. The Science4Refugees initiative, supported by EURAXESS, offers resources and guidance on key topics such as:
- Refugee or subsidiary protection status: Learn how to access rights related to education, employment, and social support under EU law.
- Diploma recognition and documentation assistance
- Local legal procedures based on your host country
For in-depth information on asylum procedures and country-specific legal frameworks, visit www.asylumineurope.org.
If you are a researcher with refugee status or seeking asylum, EURAXESS can guide you through the legal steps needed to regularise your stay in Europe. We provide orientation on how to obtain legal residence status, access asylum procedures and understand your rights.
For tailored legal advice and support in your host country, please contact the EURAXESS Science4Refugees Hub.
In addition, we support the recognition of your academic qualifications through the National Academic Recognition Information Centres (NARIC). This helps ensure your diplomas and professional experience are officially acknowledged, allowing you to continue your research career in Europe.
For more information, visit the ENIC-NARIC website.
Mentoring support for refugee and at-risk researchers
The EURAXESS Mentoring Programme for Refugee and Displaced Researchers offers a structured path to professional development and integration into the European research community. The programme connects early-stage researchers with experienced mentors from across the European Research Area (ERA) and beyond.
Through this unique opportunity, participants can benefit from personalised guidance, gain practical insights, and expand their international research networks — ultimately enhancing their career opportunities within Europe and the global research landscape.
Tools & Resources for researchers at risk
A wide range of additional resources is available to support refugee and at-risk researchers across Europe. These include information on national labour markets, training opportunities, fellowships, and essential guidance for integration into the academic and research landscape.
The available support spans language courses, services for academic recognition, research and higher education funding programmes, as well as academic mentoring and skills development initiatives — all tailored to help refugee researchers rebuild their careers and connect with the European research community.
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The Science4Refugees (S4R) toolkit is a comprehensive resource that empowers refugee researchers and aids their integration into the European research community.
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Scholars at Risk is an international network of institutions and individuals whose mission is to protect scholars and promote academic freedom. By arranging temporary academic positions at member universities and colleges, Scholars at Risk offers safety to scholars facing grave threats, so scholars’ ideas are not lost, and they can keep working until conditions improve and they are able to return to their home countries. Scholars at Risk also provides advisory services for scholars and hosts, campaigns for scholars who are imprisoned or silenced in their home countries, monitoring of attacks on higher education communities worldwide, and leadership in deploying new tools and strategies for promoting academic freedom and improving respect for university values everywhere.
InSPIREurope is a Europe-wide initiative to support researchers who are at risk due to discrimination, persecution, suffering or violence. Funded under the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the initiative is hosted at Maynooth University in Ireland and coordinated by Scholars at Risk Europe. InSPIREurope also published a report Researchers at Risk: Mapping Europe's Response. This report is based on a mapping conducted to identify the support structures and measures available to researchers at risk in Europe. To this purpose, the experiences of researchers themselves, of their hosts – usually higher education and research institutions – and of support organisations have been taken into consideration, including the challenges they face, as well as the approaches taken by national and Europen level support measures.
The CARe project (Career Advancement for Refugee Researchers in Europe), that ran from January 2019 to December 2020, aimed to support the integration of researchers with a refugee background into the European research labour market. It provided needs-based guidance and country-specific information on employment requirements and opportunities for the target group, through Focus groups engaging refugee researchers; country guides/information sheets; and thematic webinars involving experts and employers.
GREET was a project that ran from April 2018 to September 2019 and that aimed to contribute to the integration of highly skilled refugees in European higher education through mutual learning and exchange of good practices among national support structures and higher education institutions (HEIs) in 9 European countries (Austria, Belgium/Flanders Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden and the UK).
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Caritas Sofia Centre for Integration of Refugees and Migrants “St. Anna” provides social counselling, psychological support, Bulgarian language courses, address registration, personal physician registration, home and employment assistance, art activities, mentoring programmes and other activities supporting the integration process in the Bulgarian society.
The job centre offers advanced Danish language education for foreigners who receive unemployment benefits, cash benefits or integration benefits.
The funding programme enables NRW universities to offer study guidance for refugees and German language courses in preparation for as well as during studies. Language Courses in Universities up to C1 (Admission threshold).
Language courses for refugees are 100% sponsored by the municipalities in Denmark.
The link provides information regarding the attendance of courses offered by the University of the Aegean on learning the Modern Greek language, for both absolute beginners and more advanced speakers.
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Equal Access (Lige Adgang) is an association that works to ensure access to education, employment and community life for everyone in Denmark. It runs a student job programme for highly qualified students with refugee status, matching Danish companies with talented candidates.
An academic and social integration programme, first offered to people in the asylum field (N, F, B-refugee or C refugee permit) who have had to interrupt a degree course, university studies in their country and/or who have already completed one or more courses.
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DFG – German Research Foundation (Germany)
The DFG is a self-governing organisation for science and research in Germany. It serves all branches of science and the humanities. DFG offers options for scientists and academics who have fled their home countries. So far this has allowed mainly young refugees in the doctoral phase to get support by being integrated into established projects.
Foundation for Refugee Students UAF provides grants and loans
UAF supports refugees with grants and loans, so that they can attend a course of higher education. These funds are intended only for tuition fees, language courses, books, a computer, travelling expenses and other costs related to their studies.
Institute of International Education IIE – Scholar Rescue Fund
Offers dedicated scholarship programmes for refugees.
Philipp Schwartz Initiative of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Philipp Schwartz Initiative provides universities and research institutions in Germany with the means to host threatened foreign researchers for a period of 24 months on a fully funded research fellowship. An extension is possible under a co-financing model.