Applicant Eligibility

The applicant:

• May be of any nationality,
• Fluent in written and oral English,
• Must hold a PhD degree (subject to a proof, certificate of PhD completion),
• Must not have lived or resided in Turkiye for more than 12 months during the last 3 years
• Should have a maximum of 8 years of full-time equivalent experience in research, measured from the date of award of the doctoral degree (excluding career breaks and, for nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries who intend to reintegrate, excluding years of research experience gained in countries outside the EU and Horizon Europe Associated Countries.).
  • Career breaks for reasons such as medical issues, maternity/paternity leave, elderly care, or due to training or professional experience in other fields should be indicated and are considered in the experience criteria.

Application Eligibility

• Applications should be made online through ECO-SPHERE portal
• All required documents should be uploaded in full using corresponding templates (Check guide for applicants). This includes:
  • A motivation letter (max. 2 pages) outlining research background, relevant skills, and career development impact.
  • A research proposal
  • A copy of the Doctoral diploma and transcript of records (with certified English translations if original documents are not in English).
  • A CV in Europass format (max. 5 pages), indicating any periods of inactivity for reasons such as medical issues or maternity/paternity leaves.
  • Two Letters of Reference.
  • A list of Academic publications and patents (if any).
  • Softcopy (pdf format) of 1 or 2 selected publications within the context of the call.
• Research Proposal should lie within the context of an ECO-SPHERE theme (check the themes) and must be accompanied with a letter of support from an ECO-SPHERE supervisor (check the supervisors). The proposal (max. 10 pages) should include:
  • Project objectives, Methodology, Expected outcomes, and Exploitation plans.
  • An ethics assessment table, aligning with Horizon Europe EU Grants ethics self-assessment guidelines (not included in the overall page count).
• Research Proposals must be written in English and follow the provided template. 
• Applicants may include a secondment phase within their research plan, specifying this either in the initial application or discussing it with their supervisors during the fellowship.
• Only one application per applicant may be submitted per Call.