Call

Eligibility Criteria

• Candidates cannot have resided in Belgium for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the call deadline (i.e., 8 January 2027).

  IMPORTANT: Time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention or EU temporary protection, compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account for calculating the 12 months.

• At the date of the call deadline, the candidates must be in possession of a doctoral degree. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will also be considered as postdoctoral researchers and will be eligible to apply.

  The successful defense must be unconditional (no further requirements/corrections that need to be addressed) and take place before the call deadline. Supporting documentation will be requested. In case your project is selected for funding, you need your awarded PhD degree before the start of your contract at VUB.

• The candidates cannot already have a permanent employment contract with VUB.

Required Documents

All application documents, with the exception of the PhD certificate, must be submitted in English.

Each application should include the following documents:

• the applicant’s CV (free format, max. 5 pages);
• a scanned copy of the applicant’s doctoral degree or document confirming successful defense of the thesis;
• the complete description of the 3-year research project (use template provided below - max. 10 pages);
• a letter of commitment from a VUB supervisor (use template provided below);
• a completed ethics checklist (use template provided below);
• (optional) a letter of commitment from a non-academic organization (use template provided below).