New Europe College (NEC), an Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest (Romania), launches the annual competition for the 2026-2027 Fellowships. Romanian and international postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences (all areas, including law and economics) are invited to apply. Around 25 fellowships are available across eight programmes.

What we offer

•  a monthly allowance of €1,000 (tax free) & accommodation in Bucharest (living quarters and working space)
• reimbursement of travel costs from the home/residence country to Bucharest and back
• free access to NEC’s library and electronic resources
• a lump sum for a research trip to, or conference attendance at, an institution of the Fellow’s choice

What we expect

• Fellows will work on their projects and take part in the scholarly events organised by NEC
• Fellows will attend the weekly seminars discussing progress in their work (compulsory)
• Fellows will hand in a final research paper on the project carried out during their Fellowship

Eligibility

NEC Fellowships are open to postdoctoral-level scholars, both Romanian and international, in all areas of the humanities and social sciences.

Duration

• for Romanian citizens: a full academic year (10 months, starting in October 2026)
• for foreign citizens: a full academic year or one term (5 months, starting in October 2026 or March 2027)

How to apply:

Applications (in English, French or German) will be submitted online only, using the form available at applications.nec.ro. Please refer to the guidelines below to make sure you have all the documents needed to fill in the form. Also, be advised that English is the preferred working language during most NEC events.

If you have any questions, please send an email to: applicationsnec [dot] ro (applications[at]nec[dot]ro)

GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS

Applications must be submitted online by filling in the Application Form.

Candidates need to upload the following documents onto the application platform:

• a recent photo
• a scan of their PhD diploma

Candidates need to answer all the questions in the application form without exceeding the space allotted. The project description must not exceed 12,000 characters (with spaces), including bibliographical references, and it should mention the current stage of the research project that the candidate is submitting in her/his particular area of interest, as well as its objectives.

Optionally, candidates can also upload their CV and/or one or two letters of reference, neither of which is mandatory. If the candidates do decide to include references, the following requirements have to be fulfilled:

•  letters of reference (in English, French or German) have to be written expressly to support the application for the NEC Fellowship. Once the candidate has submitted the application, the referees receive an automatic message with the link and the deadline for uploading their reference. We strongly recommend that candidates announce the referees in advance that the letters of reference are to be submitted by 25 JANUARY 2026.

 Selection Criteria

•  high quality of the candidate’s academic track record, publications and participation in international research
• innovative research proposal with significant contribution to scholarship
• interdisciplinary and/or comparative approaches are an advantage

NEC Fellowships (since 1994)
This is NEC’s core Fellowship Programme addressing scholars who work on projects in all areas of the humanities and social sciences. The programme originally targeted only Romanian scholars, and it was in place as such for a number of years, along with other fellowship programmes which enabled NEC to include scholars from neighbouring countries. Following several Board decisions, NEC subsequently went beyond that local and regional framework, and addressed the world at large, without diminishing its support for young Romanian scholars. Thus, starting from 2008 NEC’s core programme has been split into two distinct, though closely interrelated, ones: NEC International Fellowships, supported financially by NEC’s institutional sponsors and open to young scholars irrespective of their country of origin, and the Ştefan Odobleja Fellowships, targeting specifically Romanian researchers, with financial support from UEFISCDI (The Romanian Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation).

NEC Award Fellowships (since 2016)
These fellowships are meant to complement and enlarge NEC’s core fellowship programme. They are supported by UEFISCDI and are correlative to NEC hosting ERC Grants conducive to the UEFISCDI Prize for Excellence in Research.

Ameropa Fellowships (since 2020)
Organised with financial support from Ameropa and its subsidiaries in Romania, and with academic support from the Centre for Governance and Culture at the University of St. Gallen, this programme aims to investigate the conditions and prerequisites for democratic stability and economic prosperity in Romania and the neighbouring region. The Ameropa Fellowship Programme is open to early-career Romanian researchers in political science, economics, anthropology or sociology. Their projects should focus on aspects related to the challenges posed to democratic consolidation, economic development and the strengthening of civil society in Romania and the region.

Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship Fellowships (since 2023)
The Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship (SUS) Fellowship Programme, proposed jointly by NEC Bucharest and the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) Sofia, aims to support scholars from the regions affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The programme targets qualified postdoctoral-level researchers in the humanities and social sciences, including law and economics, who intend to pursue a project of their own choice. The selected applicants will have the opportunity to spend an extended period (one or two semesters) as resident fellows in either Bucharest or Sofia, where they will enjoy all the benefits associated with a fellowship. By agreement, financial support can also be granted to researchers who are not in residence for the full period and who want or need to continue their work in their country of residence. Seed funding to support the fellows’ scholarly activities is also available, e.g. for the organisation of small events, for projects in collaboration with partners in the host country or at home, or for the provision, development or reconstruction of research infrastructure, especially in the digital arena. Overall, NEC and CAS hope to contribute through this programme to the sustainability and reinvigoration of scholarly life and work in Ukraine and beyond. Through this fellowship programme, NEC contributes to the initiative promoted by the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and supported by the VolkswagenStiftung, aiming to set up an Institute for Advanced Study (VUIAS), for the time being virtual, in Kyiv.

Mattei Dogan Fellowships (since 2023)
These Fellowships, organised with academic and financial support from Fondation «Mattei Dogan» (Paris), target early-career scholars who received their PhD degree no earlier than five years ago and are natives of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) or in Black Sea countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Belarus, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). The scholars should be attached to an academic institution in those countries at the time of the application, and they should propose original approaches to comparative social science research. The programme is open to all academic disciplines in the social sciences. The selected postdoctoral researchers will have the opportunity to work on projects of their choice for one or two semesters, as resident Fellows in Bucharest.

Gerda Henkel Fellowships (since 2017)
Developed with support from the “Gerda Henkel” Stiftung (Germany), this programme is open to postdoctoral researchers and academics from ex-Soviet countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan), as well as from Afghanistan and China (only Tibet and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region), who work in the humanities and social sciences (in particular history, art history, history of law, history of science, historical Islamic studies, archaeology, prehistory and early history).  The fellowships include one- or two-term residencies at NEC, allowing fellows to work on projects of their choice.

Trust Fellowships (since 2025)
The Trust Fellowship Programme, developed with financial support from the Porticus Foundation, aims to examine the factors that contribute to the erosion of trust in science in the digital age. Open to both Romanian and international scholars in the humanities and social sciences, the programme invites research into the cultural, historical, ethical and symbolic dimensions of digital misinformation. Selected fellows will investigate, within their respective fields, the ways in which science is distorted, manipulated or instrumentalised in digital environments. They will analyse the mechanisms of misinformation, identify the key actors that endorse it, and situate these practices within broader ideological, political and economic agendas. The criteria for selection and participation in this Programme are aligned with those of the other NEC fellowship programmes.

CAT will provide teams of early-career researchers (three to five persons) time and space for thought and discussion in the best research environments Europe has to offer. The groups may include one representative of a stakeholder organization related to the theme of the project. During a period of up to three years, teams will benefit from a series of short stays (i.e. between one and two weeks, two to three times a year, for a maximum of six stays) in institutes participating in the program (see list below). Online meetings and digital research stays at the institutes are possible alternatives to onsite stays and can complete the work and time plan of CAT groups.

CAT will cover travel and accommodation expenses for the team meetings/short work stays in the participating institutes. CAT will not fund salaries or research-related expenses.

The participating institutes will support the teams by connecting them with the most knowledgeable and experienced researchers onsite as well as digitally, and by helping them valorise the obtained results through their legitimating channels. During their stay, CAT teams will benefit from the institutes’ amenities and conviviality for work and exchanges. Discussions at the institutes will provide a unique sounding board for innovative ideas and will give valuable feedback.

The project must address emergent societal issues.

• The Principal Investigator (team leader) must have a stable research position in a European (EU as well as UK and associated countries) higher education and/or research institution for the entire duration of the project.
• S/he must have obtained a PhD between January 2016 and September 2025.         
• No team member should have obtained his/her PhD before January 2016. Doctoral researchers may also participate.
• The eligibility can be extended beyond 10 years after the PhD for any member of the group for certain properly documented circumstances such as maternity and paternity leaves, clinical training, long-term illness, national service, natural disaster or seeking asylum.
• There is no specific diploma or age requirement for representatives of stakeholder organizations.
• Each team should include participants from at least two different countries (current workplace, including non-European countries; any nationality).
• The team of 3 to 5 persons (stakeholders included) must be fully constituted, with CVs of all members named in the proposal.