Ph.D. Students Mobility Award

1. About the program

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York, USA), and the Institut de Neurociencias, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (INc-UAB) has been established to promote academic and research collaboration between the two institutions. One of the scopes of this initiative is to promote annual, short-term, reciprocal visits for Neuroscience Ph.D. graduate students.

2. Purpose of the program

The program goal is to promote reciprocal visits of Ph.D. graduate students between the INc-UAB and Department of Neuroscience at Einstein. These short-term visits will enrich the academic and research education of Ph.D. students from both institutions. Moreover, the interactions are likely to promote new research collaborations between laboratories in the Department of Neuroscience at Einstein and the INc-UAB.

3. Eligibility

Ph.D. graduate students, in their second year or higher, from the Department of Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the Neuroscience Ph.D. program from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona are eligible to apply for fellowships.

4. Number and duration of the visits

For 2021, two fellowships for each institution are offered. Intended visits should have a duration between 1 and 4 months and should start after September 1st, 2021 and finish before September 1st, 2022.

5. Covered Expenses

The fellowships will cover airfare, lodging, living expenses and medical insurance. A modest budget (to be determined) to partially cover consumable expenses will also be made available.

The Institution of origin will cover the travel and living expenses for the students, whereas the receiving institution will provide lodging, medical insurance and laboratory consumable expenses.

6. Application deadline

Call is open from April 21 to May 30, 2021

The completed application should be sent to doctorat.inc@uab.cat (for UAB students) and to neurosciencedept@einsteinmed.edu and MUST include the following items:

  1. Completed application form
  2. A letter of recommendation from the student’s Ph.D. supervisor detailing the qualifications of the applicant, and the benefits of the visit for the student and the laboratories involved
  3. A letter of willingness to host the visiting student, written by the Principal Investigator at the host institution. This letter should also comment on the quality of the research work proposed and the potential value of the collaboration for both laboratories
  4. Student’s Curriculum Vitae (3 pages maximum, in English)

7. Evaluation process

A Committee composed of two faculty at each institution will evaluate the applications. The grants will be awarded on:

  • Scientific merits of the proposed research
  • Curriculum vitae of the applicant and the letter of recommendation
  • Value of the exchange for the respective laboratories/institutions

A decision will be reached within three weeks after closing the Call and will be published in the web sites of the Albert Einstein Neuroscience Department and the INc-UAB.

8. Justification and Final Report

Recipients are required to submit to both institutions (doctorat.inc@uab.cat and to neurosciencedept@einsteinmed.edu) within 1 month of finishing the stay, a brief report of the work done (should not exceed 6 pages including figures) signed by the student and the Principal Investigator of the host laboratory.

9. Personal Data protection

Data provided by the candidates will be included in a file of the INc-UAB and Albert Einstein College of Medicine for the purposes of managing the selection process and resolution of the travel grants, as well as for the payments associated. In accordance with the provisions of Law 15/1999 of 13 December on the protection of personal data, the interested students from the UAB may exercise the rights of access, rectification and deletion of data to the coordinator of the PhD program in Neuroscience.