COFUND USAL4EXCELLENCE: 30-month fellowships for experienced researchers across all thematic areas in Salamanca University

• Experienced Researcher: Candidates must have a doctoral degree or at least four years’ full-time research experience by the time of the call deadline (16th December 2022). No age and nationality restrictions will be applied. We specify that: “Full-time equivalent research experience” is measured from the date when the researcher obtained the degree entitling him/her to embark on a doctorate even if a doctorate was never started or envisaged.

• Mobility rule: Researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the three years immediately before the call deadline (16th December 2022).

Fellows will be employed under the General Regime of the Spanish Social Security System; hence they will benefit from:

• Full social health care coverage.
• State pension and unemployment benefits.
• Maternity/paternity leave of 16 weeks for women and for men according to Spanish law. When applicable, paternity leave could be joined indistinctly by the mother or the father, after week 7 from date birth.

Fellows will receive a financial support for a period of 30 months:

• Salary: The total fellowship cost consists of a living allowance (3,880 EUR per month), a mobility allowance (475 EUR per month) and a family allowance (500 EUR per month). Please notice that these are contributions without deducting employer and employee social contributions. The remuneration after deducting employer social contribution will be approximately as follows: 3,700 EUR per month (if the candidate is eligible for family allowance); 3,300 EUR per month (if the candidate is not eligible for family allowance). This remuneration is the total compensation based on previous three components: living allowance, mobility allowance and family allowance. The net salary will result from deducting employee social contributions as well as direct taxes to these amounts. Additionally, the remunerations may vary annually depending on the Social Security rates. The rate indicated above is for researchers working full-time.
• Allowances to support research: Selected candidate will get 600 EUR per month as research costs for his/her research project. This amount will be managed by the host organization and personally appointed to the researcher.

• Mobility rule: Researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the three years immediately before the call deadline (16th December 2022).
• Experienced Researcher: Candidates must have a doctoral degree or at least four years’ full-time research experience by the time of the call deadline (16th December 2022). No age and nationality restrictions will be applied. We specify that: “Full-time equivalent research experience” is measured from the date when the researcher obtained the degree entitling him/her to embark on a doctorate even if a doctorate was never started or envisaged.
• English proficiency: All applicants must be proficient in English. Thus, they may upload a certificate of proficiency in English (minimum C1 level as measured by CEFR, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) or, alternatively, they will have to demonstrate (only the 40 highest ranked candidates) their command over the English language through an English language proficiency test run by University of Salamanca Language Centre.

December 16th, 2022: deadline for submitting applications

Candidates will have to provide documents and fill specific information online, mainly:

• Scientific project, which includes these sections: Project research proposal, applicants’ Curriculum Vitae and Ethics Self-Assessment
• Letter of commitment from the USAL supervisor. It will only be necessary to get one letter of commitment from the first USAL supervisor option. A list of potential supervisors will be provided in USAL4EXCELLENCE project portal (https://usal4excellence.usal.es/)
• Letter of commitment of the selected Partner organizations, which will host the candidate during a mandatory secondment in industry in industry/organizations of interest. The secondment will be scheduled during the last 6 months of the fellowship. List of the Partners Organizations will be published on USAL4EXCELLENCE project website (https://usal4excellence.usal.es/). Other Partner Organizations not listed on the website but proposed by the fellows themselves could be also selected.
• Letter(s) of reference (up to 3). At least one Letter of reference is mandatory.

End of May 2023: Final results. The top 20 candidates will be nominated as Selected Candidates and the following 10 will be on the Reserve List.

Between June 1st and September 1st, 2023: Fellowship start