Incoming postdoctoral grant

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No call for applications in 2023!

What do we support?

We support researchers who have earned their doctoral degrees abroad in coming to Estonia for postdoctoral research.

What is the objective of the grant?

The grant is provided with the aim of balancing and encouraging brain circulation whilst supporting opportunities for completing postdoctoral research, an important stage in research careers. The Estonian state attaches importance both to international researchers coming to Estonia to work and to the return of Estonian researchers who have gone abroad to work in order to facilitate the application of knowledge and experience acquired abroad in Estonia and to expand career options for researchers at the beginning of their career paths. In addition to balancing emigration, we contribute to ensuring the future growth of researchers and engineers.

As a result of the activity, more researchers with international experience, including foreign researchers, will be working in Estonia. Postdoctoral research and international research experience will become a natural part of research careers in Estonia.

What is the grant amount?

The grant amounts for the 2022 call are:

60 480 €/per year for experimental projects (direct costs 48 384 euros, indirect costs 12 096 euros);

57 120 €/per year for non-experimental projects (direct costs 45 696 euros, indirect costs 11 424 euros);

2340 €/per year for mobility allowance.

The salary fund and mobility allowance include any taxes laid down in Estonian legislation.

How long is the grant period?

The minimum grant period is 12 months, and the maximum period is 24 months.

Implementation of the postdoctoral project should commence within 2022. The grant period will commence on the date specified in the grant agreement.

What are the requirements for the applicant?

The final recipients of the grant include R&D institutions, companies and higher education institutions hiring postdoctoral researchers who have come from abroad.
Postdoctoral researcher grant is aimed at researchers who have defended their doctoral degrees at universities abroad. It is important that the applicant has been awarded a doctoral degree or an equivalent qualification no more than five years prior to 1 January of the year of the call.
The applicant cannot have resided, worked or studied in Estonia for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately prior to the call deadline.
A postdoctoral research project must have a supervisor, who is a member of staff at the host institution. The supervisor should hold an Estonian doctoral degree or a corresponding qualification from abroad.
The postdoctoral fellow must work full-time for the host institution during the project and with the place of work in Estonia.

Specific requirements for enterprise

Private enterprises can apply for the grants just like public research organisations, but private enterprises must comply with the state aid rules and provide additional information on this matter. Support given for private enterprises is preferably de minimis state aid, but if the applicant has already received support above the de minimis state aid limit, the support will be given according to the General Block Exemption rules. You can find more information here: http://www.fin.ee/riigiabi. Private enterprises must upload the following form to the applications on the tab „additional information“: State aid form (in Estonian)

When may a grant be applied for?

The next call for applications will be opened in the beginning of 2022. We will publish the application instructions and form on the day of the announcement of the call at the latest.

Applications can be submitted via the Estonian Research Portal ETIS. To fill in the application in ETIS one needs to create a personal account. This can be done by contacting the host institution. Application is successfully submitted only after the host institution has confirmed it.

What are applications evaluated on?

An application meeting the requirements is evaluated by the evaluation committee at ETAG involving independent experts. The principles for the evaluation of applications are set out in the evaluation guidelines.

The evaluation results will be available by the end of June.

The decision on granting or not granting an application will be sent to the postdoctoral fellow and the host institution via ETIS.

In the case an application has received an affirmative funding decision, we will conclude a tripartite grant agreement between ETAG, the host institution and the postdoctoral researcher.

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