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Essex International Visiting Fellowships

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Essex International Visiting Fellowships are prestigious, competitive awards for high performing, established researchers. This flagship programme provides support for outstanding researchers to undertake a period of research at Essex that is of major importance in its field and of significant benefit to Essex's research.

The programme provides a platform to:

  • Collaborate with Essex academics on a research project that will result in a co-authored publication and/or grant application
  • Champion Essex as a centre of scholarly excellence at an international level
  • Raise the profile of the multi-disciplinary research community at Essex
  • Enrich the research and training environment for early career postgraduate and post-doctoral scholars at Essex

Essex International Visiting Fellowship (EIVF) Scheme 2023-24

We are very sorry to confirm the second round of our Essex International Fellowships Scheme is suspended. We apologise for the inconvenience and will keep you up-to-date on any changes in the future.

Please also continue to check this web page for the latest advice and information. If you have any questions please email internationalvisits@essex.ac.uk.

Programme components and current availability

Essex International Visiting Fellow 

1st call for 2023/24 (Now closed)

For visiting fellowships between 9 October 2023 and 9 February 2024

  • Open from 31 May 2023 and close by midnight 11 August 2023 (UK Time) 

Eligibility

Essex International Visiting Fellowships are for researchers based outside the United Kingdom with an excellent track record commensurate with career stage to undertake research at the University of Essex.

The Essex International Visiting Fellowship scheme is open to candidates wishing to develop collaborations with Essex researchers active within the same discipline, or wishing to collaborate in a cross- or inter-disciplinary way with Essex researchers in other areas or disciplines.

Students (e.g. undergraduate students, Master’s students, PhD students, and post-doctoral students) are not eligible for the scheme.

International Visiting Fellows applications must be supported by a senior Essex academic and during their visit, it is expected that a Visiting Fellow will contribute to the wider activity at the University, engaging with a wide cross-section of our research community. 

Successful applicants who were International Visiting Fellows in the past at Essex are not eligible to apply for another Essex International Visiting Fellowship.

Note: Fellowships which were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic are welcome to reapply.

Please keep in mind that the International Visiting Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis.

Benefits

An Essex International Visiting Fellowship includes:

  • Status of a University International Visiting Fellow
  • Economy airfare from the Visiting Fellow’s nominated home airport to a London-based airport and return
  • Accommodation in one of the University owned properties off campus in Colchester
  • Weekly stipend of £100 per week

Fellows will also meet, to discuss their research and plans for future activities with Essex, with university research leadership - Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research); Dean for Partnerships (Research); Faculty Dean Research.

We also encourage our visiting fellows to connect with some of our early career researchers through the Take a Fellow to lunch programme. This programme enable a group of 4 to 5 PhD students to take a fellow to lunch at the Wivenhoe House Hotel Brasserie to discuss research and careers in research and academia.

How to apply

During your stay, it is anticipated that you will contribute to a number of activities. Fellows are required to:

  • Be hosted by a either research group or centre or; a department or School or; one of the University’s Institutes.
  • Have a work plan in place prior to arrival – agreed by host researchers
  • Hold at least one research seminar or workshop for PGR students in the host department /centre – per month of stay
  • Be available for the “Take a Fellow to lunch” programme

When you apply, you should therefore identify events and activities to which you will contribute to during your stay. The programme of events should aim to incorporate some of the following:

  • Presentation of your core research to a targeted audience
  • Research and/or training event targeted at PhD students and early career scholars
  • Exploration of further collaborative opportunities with groups/individuals
  • Interdisciplinary activity aimed at an audience beyond your immediate field of specialism, eg lecture, performance, exhibition, seminar, workshop

Application process

Step 1: Identify an Essex staff member

The Essex International Visiting Fellowships require applicants to have an Essex academic host before applying.

Once you’ve agreed and confirmed with an Essex academic host, you are required to fill out the confirmation and invitation letter (.doc) which you will submit together with your application.

Step 2: Complete the application form

The form has several sections marked with an asterisk (*) and these are compulsory. Your application will not progress without completing these sections.

You will be required to provide a Summary of proposed research project/activity in the application form, please ensure it’s detailed enough for pre-selection, i.e. a day-to-day schedule.

Some sections of the form will ask you to upload documents to support your application. You must include in your application the following:

  • Your abbreviated curriculum vitae (one to two A4 pages maximum)
  • Proposal of your research activity (one to two A4 pages maximum) 
  • Letter of invite/support from a hosting department or centre at Essex – must be on official letter headed paper and signed by Head of Department or Centre / Institute Director
  • Passport

Please ensure the documents are in PDF or JPEG format.

Step 3: Submit   

To submit your application, you must send an email to internationalvisits@essex.ac.uk with the following subject:

[Surname] , [First Name] _Application for Essex IVF 2023-24

When you submit your application you will receive an email notifying you of your application being received and will be notified for any concerns.

 

Amendments

Once your application has been submitted, no more changes can be made to it. If you submit your application and it contains errors or would like to change the content of any of the sections in your application, please email internationalvisits@essex.ac.uk with your request and we will be in contact as soon as possible to allow you access to your application. Please bear in mind that you can only change sections that have been completed with the wrong information.

Contact us

If you experience any issues with the form, please contact us at internationalvisits@essex.ac.uk and we help you with any issues you might have.

Selection and timelines

Selection of Fellows

Applications to the Essex International Visiting Fellowship programme will be assessed on:

  • Quality of your contribution to your field commensurate with career stage, as evidenced by your curriculum vitae and the letter of support from a hosting department
  • Ability of the proposed programme of work to advance collaborative research activities resulting in, for example, joint publications, applications for external funding and/or enhanced global reputation
  • Ability of the programme of work to enrich the research environment within an individual department or across multiple departments

We welcome applications from any field of research, however, priority research themes for this programme include:

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Climate and Sustainability
  • Coastal Communities
  • Health, Wellbeing and Ageing
  • Security and Resilience

Selection decisions are made by a panel, chaired by the PVC Research, and include the Dean of Partnerships (Research) and one nominee from each faculty.

Timeline

  • Midnight 11 August 2023 (UK Time) for 1st call - visits between 9 October 2023 and 9 February 2024

Decisions for applicants for fellowships are made within three to four weeks of the deadline.

Fellows will be required to complete a report at the end of their visit. Additionally, longer-stay International Visiting Fellows (7-10 weeks) will be asked for a publication such as a journal article, conference paper, or other relevant form of research publication that has been produced during or as a result of the stay at the University of Essex and will contribute to the research community at Essex.

Other fellowships
UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships

Fellows' profiles

The profiles of some of the past Essex International Visiting Fellows and their research topics:

Professor Abel Escriba-Folch

  • Area of research - Impact of security forces on civil wars

During his two weeks at the University of Essex, Professor Abel Escriba-Folch worked with a number of academics from the Department of Government to carry out research for a joint project on the impact of security forces structure on the duration and outcome of civil wars. He also met with PhD students, contributed to a workshop with the Michael Nicholson Centre for Conflict and Cooperation and gave a presentation about his research on security force structure and civil wars.

Talking about his successful visit, Professor Escribà said: "My short stay at the University of Essex has allowed us to lay the groundwork for a collaborative paper. Combining our respective knowledge and expertise in different topics, we've been able to identify a relevant research question and develop some initial hypotheses. We have also merged data and run some initial tests. Tasks are now divided and we'll keep working."

Professor Greg Wright

  • Area of research - Health impact of trade embargo

Hailing from Radboud University, Greg Wright focused on two different research projects during his trip to the University of Essex. His primary focus was to work with Matthias Parey to research the long-term health impact of a trade embargo, which he now feels is ready to be published in a journal.

He also worked with Tianxi Wang to explore the impact of new technologies on the income distributions within occupations, and left our University having also made significant progress in this field of research.

Professor Jieling Xu

  • Area of research - History of Anti-Schistosomiasis campaign in the Jiangxi Province

 The first International Visiting Fellow to be hosted by the Department of History, Professor Jieling Xu joined Professor Xun Zhou to curate an upcoming public exhibition on the history of Anti-Schistosomiasis Campaign in the Jiangxi Province. Professor Xu’s expertise came in useful when creating a narrative for the exhibition, and when identifying certain exhibit objects. At her home institution, East China Jiaotong University, Professor Xu teaches the Modern History of China, and the Principles of Political Economy.

Associate Professor Julian Togelius

  • Area of research - Video game artificial intelligence

Visiting from the New York University, Professor Julian Togelius worked with Professor Simon Lucas to develop research plans to exploit recent advances in video game artificial intelligence. Professor Togelius also presented a seminar to all first-year IGGI-PhD students and most second/third-year IGGI-PhD students to discuss developments in AI, and how games can be used as a benchmark to improve AI.

Professor Togelius and Professor Lucas share long-term plans of establishing general video game AI as the foundational basis for game-designers to tune and play-test their games.

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