The College for Life Sciences is a junior program of the Wiko. It offers excellent early career researchers in the life/natural sciences, medicine, and psychology an opportunity to take a break from the lab and clinic. Fellows will gain time to think and develop their own projects and immerse themselves in the intellectually and culturally diverse environment of the Wissenschaftskolleg. Each year the Wissenschaftskolleg welcomes around 40 internationally recognized senior as well as promising junior scholars from all fields of knowledge, including the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts.
Our goal is to promote a kind of science that transcends disciplinary boundaries and goes beyond established issues and approaches. As we do not provide lab space, it is not “just another fellowship”, but the opportunity to step back from your lab routines and reflect on your institutional and intellectual “settings”. Through the College for Life Sciences we promote scientists at the beginning of their career, i.e., postdocs, junior group leaders, lecturers, and assistant, associate, and junior professors.

The fellowships are intended for residencies of 3 to 5 months during the academic year 2026/27, from September 2026 to July 2027.

Starting in the academic year 2026/2027, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Berlin Institute for Advanced Study) will offer several 10-month fellowships for outstanding early career scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Successful applicants will become members of a lively intellectual community of approximately forty fellows from all over the world, representing disciplines in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences as well as the arts. The Institute offers excellent support for fellows’ research, as well as help to both fellows and their families in settling in to Berlin life. Further information about the Institute and its facilities may be found here.

APPLICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

Applicants should possess a doctorate granted no more than five years before the fellowship begins. Selection will be based on the applicant’s academic qualifications, including publications commensurate with the applicant’s discipline and career stage, and a research project that the applicant intends to pursue during the fellowship. Applications from early career scholars from all nations and all disciplines in the social sciences and humanities are welcome. Although scholarly communication at the Institute takes place in English and all fellows are expected to be able to discuss their own work and that of others in that language, applications may also be submitted in German and French. The deadline for applications for the 2026-7 academic year is 1 September 2025; applicants will be notified by 1 December 2025. Further information on the application procedure may be found here.

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.