Applicants are invited for AFR Individual PhD Grants to undertake their doctoral training in Luxembourg and abroad. AFR is one of the FNR’s longest-running funding schemes and now provides funding for the training of doctoral candidates only. AFR PhD grants are funded for a maximum of 4 years.

The objectives of the AFR programme is to attract and train the most talented doctoral candidates from any nationality in Luxembourg and support excellent Luxembourg stemming doctoral candidates to undertake their PhD training abroad.

The national fund of research, abbreviated FNR, is an established public in Luxembourg, which was founded by the law of 31 May 1999. The FNR created postage in 2009 in order to make it more popular in the field of science and the research into the media. De-Mister Science regularly performances on radio and RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg .

Scholarship Description:

Application Deadline: Wednesday, 20 March 2019, 14:00 CET.
Course Level: Grants are available to pursue doctoral training programme.
Study Subject: Grants are awarded in the field offered by the university.
Scholarship Award: The financial support awarded under the AFR grant scheme covers the following:

• The Salary of the AFR PhD fellow: The contribution to the annual salary costs of a PhD candidate amounts to 41.158 € /year2 (salary index as of 1st January 2017). A topping-up by the employer is possible up to a maximum gross salary of 58.002 €/yr. If the salary paid by the employer exceeds this amount, the project is no longer eligible for AFR funding. The salary contribution will be paid until the PhD degree has been awarded a maximum duration of 4 years.
  Alternatively: Beneficiaries of an AFR PhD fellowship without employment contract will receive a monthly stipend of 1,500 € (in exceptional cases as specified above). The topping-up of the stipend up to a maximum amount of 2.100 € per month is possible. The FNR does accept cumulating two grants for living costs of different origin up to the maximum limit indicated above. However, in case of approval of the two grants, the funder of the topping-up needs to certify their awareness of and agreement with the AFR grant.
• A one-off travel lump sum, to be paid to the PhD candidate at the start of her/his AFR grant, based on the airline distance between the Beneficiary’s residence at the application deadline or start of the grant, and her/his Host Institution.
• A fixed training and mobility allowance of 6.000 € per PhD candidate. The training allowance is available to cover costs related to the candidate’s training and mobility activities: i.e. scientific/transferable skills training, scientific conferences or summer/winter schools, field work or travel between scientific contacts involved in the project as well as international research stays.

Nationality: Luxembourgian and international applicants are eligible to apply for the grants
Number of Scholarships: Number of grants is not given.
Scholarship can be taken in Luxembourg and abroad

Eligibility for the Scholarship:

• Eligible Countries: Luxembourg and international applicants are eligible to apply for the grants
• English Language Requirements: Applicants must be fluent in English.
• Entrance Requirements: Applicants must hold a university degree of a recognised higher education institution, allowing them to enter into doctoral training.
• The AFR PhD grant scheme is divided into two sub-categories:
  • AFR PhD in Luxembourg (AFR Incoming): Candidates from any nationality may apply for a doctoral position in an eligible Luxembourg host institution. Candidates will have to spend >50% in Luxembourg under an employment contract with the host institution;
  • AFR PhD abroad (AFR Outgoing): Luxembourg nationals, or residents in Luxembourg for more than 5 consecutive years, may apply for a doctoral position in a public higher education institution abroad. The rule for this type of AFR grants is an employment contract with the institution abroad, but in exceptional cases, grants without a work contract can be awarded.

Doctoral Scholarship

Application Procedure:

Applications must be submitted jointly by the AFR candidate and the host institution (having signed the ‘joint declaration’ to be uploaded in the system before proposal submission).

How to Apply:

• The full proposal must be submitted electronically by the AFR candidate via the online submission system before the deadline.
• In section 6 of the online application, two “TEMPLATES” are provided as word files for download, i.e. the PhD Project Idea and the Joint Declaration. The PhD project itself does not need to be developed in detail before the application, this is why the FNR only requests a maximum of two pages’ project description. The PhD project shall be developed by the doctoral candidate with the support of the supervisor during the first 6-8 months following the start of the PhD.
• Overall, the AFR application consists of the following sections:
• A form to be completed online related to the sections hereafter:
• Section 1: Applicant’s details.
• Section 2: Host Institution’s Details and Collaborating Institution’s Details.
• Section 3: Research Project and Project Framework.
• Section 4: Legal and Ethical Requirements.
• Section 5: Type of Grant.
• Section 6: ‘Attachments’ – comprising the following documents to be converted to PDF and uploaded:
•  PhD project idea (TEMPLATE provided).
• Motivation letter by the candidate (max. 1 page; no template provided).
• Applicant’s CV (max. 2 pages; no template provided).
• Copy of Passport, and copies of degree certificates and statement of courses and marks (‘relevé de notes’) (no template provided, but documents need to be in English, French or German or provided as an official translation in one of these languages).
• PhD Registration (if already available. The PhD registration can be provided later, but it needs to be available before the start of the grant).
• Supervisor(s) CV(s): max 4 pages. The supervisor(s) CV(s) must contain the following:
• A list of most relevant publications (maximum 10).
• A list of most recent publications (maximum 10).
• A list of PhD theses (co-)supervised and currently being (co-)supervised (where possible, with time to degree, scientific impact (e.g. the number of publications resulting from the PhD, etc.), and information on the doctoral graduates’ further career development). Supervised PhD candidates having benefitted from AFR funding need to be highlighted.
  Support letter by the supervisor and description of the research and training environment (or joint support letter in case of (co-)supervision; max. 3 pages, no template provided).
• Additional documents (if applicable):
• Residence certificate (only for AFR Outgoing who are not Lux. nationals).
• The explanation for part-time PhD (if applicable).
• Joint Declaration by the applicant and the Host Institution (TEMPLATE provided).
• The template has to be downloaded, signed by the parties, converted to PDF and uploaded.
• NOTE: Incomplete applications will be turned down without further evaluation!

Online Application:

• All applications must be submitted via the FNR Online Grant Management System

Scholarship Link