Eligibility Criteria
Prospective Fellows may be of any nationality and there are no age restrictions. Applicants must come directly from outside of the Republic of Ireland to meet mobility requirements, as required by H2020 rules. At the close of Call 2 (30th September 2020), the applicant must meet the requirements of an MSCA ‘experienced researcher’:
An experienced researcher is one who is in possession of a doctoral degree or with at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience at the time of the SMART 4.0 Call deadline.
There are three application categories – (1) Standard Incoming Mobility (general applications), (2) Career Restart; and (3) Reintegration.
A relaxed mobility requirement applies to applicants who fall under the career restart and reintegration categories. When calculating mobility timeframes, time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status (under the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 Protocol), compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays should not be taken into account. Short stays are characterised by the type of activity rather than by a specific number of days. A period can only be considered as a short stay if the researcher did not reside or did not have their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the Republic of Ireland during that period (such as holidays). Please refer to FAQ for further information.
In order to be considered within the Career Restart category, the applicant must have undertaken a career break in research – i.e. they must not have been active in research for at least 12 months immediately prior to the call deadline. To be considered within the Reintegration category, the applicant must be a national or long-term resident of EU Member States or Associated Countries who wishes to return and reintegrate in a longer-term research position in Europe; the applicant must move or have moved directly to RoI. Long-term residents are defined as researchers who spent a period of full-time research activity of at least five consecutive years (without breaks in research) in one or more Member States or Associated Countries.
