The University of California, Berkeley and Ghent University signed an agreement to broaden and deepen the collaboration between staff and faculty at both institutes, more specifically, the agreement aims to support short research stays for exchange or visiting PhD-students. This call applies to the period between May 2024 until end of April 2025 for PhD exchanges.
Eligibility criteria: Applicants need to be officially enrolled as PhD students at Ghent University for the entire duration of their stay at the University of California, Berkeley. Applications must be supported by a Ghent University and a University of California, Berkeley supervisor who both hold a PhD and a professorial function. Applicants need to submit their application at least 6 months before the beginning of the planned stay abroad for visa application reasons. The research stay can take place between May 2024 to end of April 2025.
Fees: PhD students from UGent will cover all costs associated with their stay in Berkeley, including but not limited to health insurance and the following fees:
· DS-2019 visa application processing fee ($ 600)
· VSPA (Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs, https://vspa.berkeley.edu) University Services fee ($1000),
· the Institute of European Studies (IES) Visiting Scholar administrative fee of $2,000 will be partially waived. IES waives $1,500 of its overall $2,000 administrative fee for UGent-participants accepted to IES.
Funding: seed funding grants (max. 2800€ per application) are available to foster the collaboration between UGent and UC Berkeley. For additional funding opportunities applicants are referred to the faculty mobility fund for researchers.
Orientation and services: At Berkeley, the Institute of European Studies will coordinate the UGent-PhD student’s visa application process. Each UGent-PhD student will be provided with their own working space at the Doe Library Graduate Services and will have access to a printer, scanner, and wifi. Exchange students from UGent will not be able to enrol in Berkeley courses and receive course credit, but they are allowed to audit classes, depending on permission by the respective instructor. PhD students from UGent will receive exchange student status during their stay at UC Berkeley.
Successful applicants will be required to provide a short report of the funded activities, within 2 months after the conclusion of the research stay.
For detailed application instructions click here. (The application is closed and will re-open in the course of 2024)