How to apply

Eligibility of applicants

• Applicants must be in possession of a doctoral degree as of the date of MERIT’s call deadline. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will also be considered to be eligible to apply.
• A mobility rule will be applied to all categories of researchers. Fellows must relocate to the Czech Republic. Researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the Czech Republic for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the call deadline.
• The same rules apply to the 4 types of fellowships:
  • Standard: Researchers moving within Europe or coming in from other parts of the world.
  • Researchers at risk: Researchers with the status of refugees or researchers at all stages of their careers who are experiencing threats to their life, liberty or research career, and those who are forced to flee or have been displaced because of such threats.
  • Career restart: Researchers who wish to restart their research after a career break (e.g. after parental leave, working outside research, etc.).
  • Reintegration: Czech nationals or long-term residents who wish to return and reintegrate in a longer-term research position in the Czech Republic.
• Permanent employees (employees having a contract for an indefinite period) of one of the hosting organisations are not eligible to apply for a MERIT fellowship to this hosting organisation.

Eligibility of applications

• The applications must be complete and must consist of  the following:
  • Research proposal (mandatory Technical proposal template to be downloaded in the Template section) written in English, complete and uploaded to the MERIT online application system. Proposals that do not fulfil the eligibility criteria form (use of the Technical proposal template, font size, margins, spacing) will be ineligible. Excess pages (a 10-page limit for the research proposal) will be disregarded. The research proposal must match  the chosen research group´s focus and must be feasible within the chosen research group (in case the applicant did not consult the feasibility of his/her proposal with the supervisor before applying, the Management Board will confirm the match as part of the eligibility check following a consultation with the prospective supervisor).
  • CV of the candidate written in English and uploaded to the MERIT online application system (5-page limit, extra pages will not be counted).
  • All the online forms filled in: Eligibility form, Ethics Issues Table and Ethics self-assessment, if applicable, and Secondment form.
• The applicants need to complete a compulsory online Ethics Issues Table in order to declare whether their proposed research activity deals with some ethics issues. If the research proposal raises one or more of the issues listed in the ethics issues table, an Ethics self-assessment must be completed.
• The applicants must complete an online Secondment form and the name(s) of the secondment organisation must be indicated. The secondment can be carried out in the non-academic or academic sectors (private or public) in the Czech Republic or abroad. A list of more than 30 secondment opportunities is available on the MERIT website. Applicants can also suggest their own secondment.

Make sure you avoid the most common mistakes that would make your application ineligible, therefore not accepted for evaluation. The applications will not be accepted for evaluation if:

• the applicant did not use the mandatory predefined template for the research proposal (see the Template section)
• the research proposal deviates from the template (all the predefined sections and subsections need to be kept and completed; the titles must not be modified)
• the applicant did not complete an Ethics self-assessment in the case of any ethics issue from the Ethics Issue Table was identified.

Applicants need to identify a suitable hosting organisation and research group for their research topic. Go through the research organisations and open research groups. The supervisors or group leaders corresponding to each research group are listed on the MERIT website. Applicants are welcome to contact the hosting organisation if they want to learn more about the research infrastructure, environment and supervisors. Following the choice of the research group, the applicants need to identify a suitable secondment.

Applicants need to prepare the research proposal as part of their applications, using the mandatory template. The proper template is to be downloaded in the Template section. Do not deviate from the template and its subsections.

Once you wish to apply, click on Apply in the top right corner of this page.

• Step 1. Register in the MERIT Application System. In this step the applicants will provide their personal details.
• Step 2. Apply for a MERIT fellowship. Through the application system, applicants will complete the application forms and upload the required attachments (CV and technical proposal).

Phase 1 – written evaluation

For the written evaluation phase, specific selection committees will be formed of international and national peer-reviewers who will be interconnected to ensure the principles of equal opportunities and transparency. Three independent evaluators will be assigned to each admitted research proposal.

Evaluation criteria for written evaluation:

Excellence

Quality and pertinence of the project’s research and innovation objectives (and the extent to which they are ambitious and go beyond the state-of-the-art).

1. Soundness of the proposed methodology (including interdisciplinary approaches, the gender dimension and other diversity aspects if relevant for the research project).
2. Quality of the two-way transfer of knowledge between the researcher and the host.
3. Quality and appropriateness of the researcher’s professional experience, competences and skills.

Impact

1. Credibility of the measures to enhance the career perspectives and employability of the researcher and contribution to his/her skill development.
2. Suitability and quality of the measures to maximise expected outcomes and impacts, as set out in the dissemination and exploitation plan, including communication activities.
3. Sustainability of the candidates’ research project in the Region. Opportunities to continue the research through regional/international collaboration with relevant industry or academic sectors.

Implementation

1. Quality and effectiveness of the work plan and assessment of risks.
2. Relevance, feasibility and benefit for the research project objectives of the planned secondment. Quality of the secondment choice in terms of at least one of the following principles: intersectorality, interdisciplinarity or international mobility.

Those candidates that reach at least 75% in the written stage, but a maximum of 30 candidates distributed among the fellowships, which means a maximum of two candidates per fellowship offered by each research group, will be invited for an interview.

Phase 2 – oral interviews

For the oral interview phase, an interview panel will be composed of international evaluators (including the evaluators of the proposal); an expert on gender/intersectional topics; the MERIT Programme Manager; an HR representative, or the Director of the corresponding host organisation. Oral interviews will be held online.