Junior postdoctoral fellowship — Fellowship

The junior postdoctoral fellowship is the entry-level postdoctoral scheme of FWO, the public research funder of Flanders, based in Brussels. It gives a researcher who has recently finished a PhD three years of paid time to build an independent line of research rather than continue as somebody else’s project staff.

The fellow is employed on a three-year contract at an approved Flemish host institution — one of the universities of the Flemish Community or a small set of recognised specialist institutions — and works there with a supervisor who backs the application. The three years cannot be extended.

Applications are written and defended in English, go to an FWO expert panel, and are open to researchers of any nationality. The scheme covers every discipline, from nautical sciences and tropical medicine to management and the arts.

Benefits & funding

Gross monthly salary of €5,616.81 at four years of seniority, on the Doctor-Assistant salary scale, indexed to the health index and paid monthly.
A three-year employment contract at the host institution; no extension is possible.
A bench fee of €4,000 to €10,000 per fellowship year, requested in the application itself; a higher figure must be justified by the research purpose.
The bench fee covers equipment, consumables, travel, conference participation, publication costs and transferable-skills training, and postdoctoral fellows may spend it without the supervisor’s sign-off.
Full reimbursement of public-transport commuting costs and a per-kilometre bicycle allowance.
Up to twelve months of the fellowship may be spent researching at an external organisation under a written collaboration agreement.

Eligibility

A PhD by thesis, or a degree recognised as equivalent under EU directives or a bilateral agreement.
The PhD must have been awarded no more than three years before 1 October of the year the fellowship starts, or be obtained by 15 September of that year at the latest.
That window can be extended by up to one year for maternity, parental or sickness leave, or military service, where continuous periods of at least three months occurred.
The fellow must be affiliated to an approved principal host institution: a university of the Flemish Community, the Evangelical Protestant Faculty in Leuven, the Faculty for Protestant Theology in Brussels, the Maritime Academy (nautical sciences), Vlerick Business School or Antwerp Management School (management sciences), the Institute of Tropical Medicine, or a Flemish school of arts working with a university.
A supervisor at that institution must submit a letter of recommendation, which is a mandatory part of the application; one supervisor may support at most five applications per call, junior and senior combined.
Open to applicants of all nationalities; the regulations set no nationality or residency bar.
The application must be submitted and defended in English, for the international peer review.
The applicant must not already have held this fellowship, may submit at most two applications for it, and may only submit a second one if the first ranked in the top 50% at preselection.
The fellowship cannot be combined with other paid work apart from study and travel grants; secondary activity of up to 20% of working time needs FWO permission.
Applicants must agree to the Research Integrity Clause.

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Application process

1
Line up a supervisor at an eligible Flemish host institution and confirm they still have one of their five application slots for the call.
2
Register in FWO’s online application portal at fwoweb.fwo.be and address the application to the relevant FWO expert panel.
3
Write the project proposal and CV in English and state the bench fee you are requesting.
4
Have the supervisor upload the mandatory letter of recommendation before the cutoff.
5
Submit before the deadline — 16 November 2026 at 5pm for the fellowship starting in 2027.
6
Preselection: two external reviewers and two panel members assess the file, a rapporteur synthesises the reviews, and the full panel sets the score.
7
Shortlisted candidates are invited to an interview with the expert panel.
8
The FWO Board of Trustees takes the final decision on the panels’ proposals.

Program timeline

call opens; information sessions at VUB, UGent and UHasselt.
17 September 2026
information session at KU Leuven.
25 September 2026
information session at UAntwerpen.
30 September 2026
application deadline.
16 November 2026, 5pm
preselection panel meetings.
18–25 March 2027
interview invitations sent.
26 March 2027
interviews.
14 April – 5 May 2027
results announced.
13 May 2027
fellowship starts.
1 October or 1 November 2027