Our mission
The EURAXESS Science4Refugees initiative aims to facilitate refugee researchers in finding internships, part-time and full-time jobs, and access to the European Research Community. Through the EURAXESS portal, Science4Refugees initiative provides a complete range of essential information and support services for a successful transition in working and living in Europe.
Ukrainian researchers at risk are eligible to benefit from the Science4Refugees initiative without the need of holding 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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You can rely on a supportive refugee-welcoming network of universities, research organisations and businesses across Europe to help put your skills and experience to use, as soon as possible.
To make integration into the European job market as easy as possible, the Science4Refugee initiative implemented a “refugee-friendly” job category on the EURAXESS portal that allows finding suitable jobs at the click of a button.
Researchers always need new skills to meet the demands of a shifting global job market. Make sure you check out our online courses for researchers.
EURAXESS provides services for researchers, advice on career development planning and opportunities. Find information on the first EURAXESS Career Development Centre at Vitae.
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On a legal level, two institutions are providing help to refugees. On the one hand, the NARIC agency network deals with matters related to the recognition of international qualifications, whereas on the other hand, the Directorate-General (DG) Migrations and Home Affairs prepares EU-level rules in these policy areas and on the other funds-related projects in EU States.
NARIC
NARIC is a designated network for the recognition and comparison of international qualifications and skills. In every European Union Member State, you’ll find a NARIC agency to help get official documents stating how your international qualifications compare to the national law, or proving your language abilities.
Find your Research Buddy
To help you find a partner to exchange research-related best practices and experience, Science4Refugees Research Buddies matches your research field, scientific studies and professional interests to those of other European researchers.
Tools & Resources for Researchers at Risk
There are many other resources you can consult that aim at supporting refugee researchers and researchers at risk by providing information about national labour markets, training courses, fellowships, and more.
This overview ranges from information on language courses, support and information services for academic recognition to research and higher education funding programmes as well as to academic mentoring and training programmes available for refugee researchers.
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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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BRiDGEII Projects videos on academic mentoring provide tips and guidance for mentoring refugee researchers.
Here you will find the BRiDGE II Video handbooks.
See also the online tools for supporting mentors of refugee researchers
- for academic coaches
Online Basic Tool | Online Advanced Tool - for industrial coaches
Online Basic Tool | Online Advanced Tool
- for academic coaches
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Caritas Sofia Centrefor 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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The Nydansk Association (Foreningen Nydansker), an educational and vocational membership organisation in Denmark with over 100 private and public companies supports the integration of immigrants in the labour market and regularly collaborates with companies on mentoring programs for highly educated refugees. A hands-on guide on mentoring highly skilled refugees can be downloaded here.
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.
The REST project focuses on the employment and integration of refugees in the labour market and provides workshops and matchmaking events with employers in order to create and apply a comprehensive training and support system for enterprises and organisations that want to employ and integrate refugees at their workplaces.
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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.
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“Refugee-friendly” Research organisations
Whether you are looking for full-time employees or an intern, EURAXESS and Science4Refugees will help you find a match. The only thing you need to do when posting a vacancy on EURAXESS is to indicate that the position offered is to refugee researchers' applications.
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If you work closely with refugee researchers, this section offers information and resources to help you support them more efficiently.
This section is primarily aimed at staff working with refugee researchers. The guide is offering information for staff on how to support comprehensive career planning for refugee researchers in an early stage. It should assist in enabling refugee researchers to create their own individual paths and work towards a sustainable career in the host country be it inside or outside of research, while minimising the threat of dequalification.
- Access to education and employment as well as the access and extent of support services varies among countries
- Different perspectives for career development in host countries
- Advanced language and other skill requirements for qualified employment
- Limited freedom of movement
- Lack of documentation and no support from bureaucratic structures in the country they fled from
- The European research labour market is highly competitive
- Danger of devaluation of human capital
- Personal networks in their home countries, might be unable to provide material support and, in turn, might even be dependent on the refugees themselves
- Legal barriers
- Unfamiliarity with the local customs of job search
- Discrimination
- Trauma, which can arise before, during and after the process of fleeing to a host country
For staff working with refugee researchers, it is important to have basic information, strategies and techniques for the handling of immediate counselling situations. However, it is strongly recommended to use professional psychological support services.
Counselling should focus on:
- basic aspects of involuntary migration
- the stress associated with the loss of networks, status, relationships, and native communication
- the insecurity tied to unsettled legal status
- the shapes trauma can take
- how the effects of trauma can hide until the life circumstances of the person begin to stabilise again
Keep in mind:
- Trauma requires treatment, but there should be no stigma attached to it
- Focus the practical input on the creation of secure counselling situations by focusing on the “researcher”, not on the “refugee”
- Keeping reliable and regular timetables
- Providing simple, useful input (“In this office / At this university / In this country these things work like this: …”); Use simple language
- Do not ask for the reasons for escape unless the refugee researchers address them themselves
It is essential to inform refugee researchers aboutthe mandatory legal procedures and access to the education sector, funding and employment for refugee researchers. Staff should make the refugee researcher familiar with the current situation in the respective country, available resources and perspectives.
- experienced trainers can be recruited from a variety of sources, including public organisations or NGOs that provide legal counsel to refugees, ministries, international offices of research organisations and federal funding agencies
- national employment agencies on the topics of access to labour markets, self-employment, and employee rights, as well as financial support
- scholarship agencies (depending on the national situation)
- The national asylum procedures, the average duration of processes, statistics etc. and impact on refugee researchers
- The legal impact on the chances of refugee researchers getting access to training measures, study programmes, and qualified employment
- Information on recognition of academic degrees: prerequisites contacts, added costs and financial support
- Create an overview of the legal situation regarding the access to higher education for refugee researchers, covering all stages and types of protection including:
- impact of various types of protection on the RR
- the ability of RRs to travel abroad for conference attendance or research stays
- the impact of an application for protection on a possible later attempt to gain residence through employment and vice versa
the legal process, related costs and, if available, funding and support schemes related to access to study programmes and the recognition of qualification
For a comprehensive overview of asylum policies and practices in Europe visit www.asylumineurope.org
For input about the recognition of academic degrees: All national ENIC NARIC contacts can be found on the official ENIC NARIC page.
Here you can find the EU list of regulated professions that require the possession of a specific professional qualification.
Who should you involve?
- Trainers from existing career centres at research and higher education institutions
- Trainers from public employment services
- Trainers from national and local funding agencies for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship etc.
Keep in mind: The goal is to foster the personal agency of refugee researchers by enabling them to make informed decisions about their options regarding their professional future in the host country.
For early career development counselling focus on:
- the benefits of already existing early-stage career orientation and related information available to refugee researchers
- career development outside of research, with alternative paths in the private sector, in the public or NGO sector, international organisations or entrepreneurship.
What input should you provide?
- input on all fields of employment that are open to international researchers, be it inside research, in public and private organisations and companies, in international organisations, and through self-employment.
- information on the national research landscape, R&D organisations, possible employers, relevant funding schemes and research policies; the European research area
- insights into national labour markets, public training services and support, with a focus on information and statistics about qualified employment inside and outside of research.
- tools for Self-employment as a career alternative
- support structures and funding schemes for entrepreneurs, open to refugee researchers.
- input on existing career counselling services that are provided by national research and higher education institutions.
- input on existing EURAXESS career counselling tools and services.
What information should you provide?
- Information on available courses
- Information on training and internship programmes
- Information on all other types of active skill development
- and training support for refugee researchers
- Information on respective funding sources for research and higher education institutions interested
- in expanding their programmes
- Information on the specific academic and other relevant skill
- development training programmes available for refugee researchers, as well as (external) funding sources open to refugee researchers
- Information on general skill development and training courses provided by non-academic support services
- Information on funding schemes for research and higher education institutions willing to train refugee researchers
- Information on mentoring programmes for refugee researchers, including peer-mentoring
NOTE: Internship programmes should receive special attention. They are extremely valuable tools to gain work experience, insight into the respective field and create a network, but also to enhance the professionals’ self-confidence. Academic internships will also provide insight into the national scientific landscape and create valuable networking opportunities.