Second call candidates awarded with the MERIT fellowship 

The evaluation and selection process of the postdoctoral fellowship programme MERIT and its second call has been successfully completed.

A total of 57 applicants applied to the second call of the programme, which was open from January to April 2024, with 51 of them passing the eligibility check. The scientific evaluation was conducted in two rounds, a written evaluation and oral interviews. A three-member committee composed of national and international expert evaluators began with written evaluation of the 51 eligible applications. After individual assessments, the evaluators were able to discuss among themselves in order to reach a consensus in each evaluation criteria (excellence, impact and implementation) and scores and created common Consensus reports. Furthermore, the Chairs of each scientific panel were included in the process, checking the quality of the resulting Consensus reports and ensuring clear and consistent feedback for each applicant. 34 candidates received a score above the minimum score of 75 % in written assessment and 30 of them were invited to oral interviews.  

The interviews were conducted online in the presence of international evaluators and other invited guests. During the interviews, the candidates had to explain briefly their project proposals and this was followed by questions asked by the Panel interview members. Scientific discussion, communication, and potential for leadership of the candidates were the main criteria evaluated during the oral assessment. Each interview was concluded with a creation of the Panel report based on the common debate of the evaluators.  

After consolidating the final results of both phases (written evaluation constituted 70 % of the total score, with the oral interview contributing the remaining 30 %) the ranked list of the 16 selected candidates was set up, who will be offered a 30-month MERIT fellowship. The recipients will have approximately one month to confirm the acceptance of the grant to the MERIT Management Board. Additionally, there is a reserve list of 8 candidates providing the opportunity for candidates with excellent results but not high enough to be part of the selected ones. These candidates might receive the grant in the event that any of the selected candidates withdraw.   

All projects selected for funding including those in the reserve list are going through an ethics screening carried out by ethics experts in all the programme’s research areas to address ethics concerns and the requirements to be monitored during the projects’ implementation.      

Congratulations to all successful candidates!

Rakned list of selected candidates

Reserve list of candidates