Exchange & Short visits

There are a limited number of travel grants to support visits. The grants may be awarded either to participate in INFTY activities, or for collaborative work directly relevant to INFTY. Grants may also be awarded for participation in selected related events.

There are two types of visits:

Short visits of up to 15 days.
Exchange visits, from 15 days to three months, renewable.

Applications for Exchange & Short Visits may be submitted anytime. Next evaluation of the applications will be in: June 1st.

Applications for philosophy and computation related activities are encouraged.

Eligibility

Applicants may be both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral and they must:

Undertake work applicable to INFTY;
Apply to stay in a country other than the country of origin;
Return to the institution of origin upon termination, so that the applicant's institution may benefit from the broadened knowledge of the scientist.

Evaluation criteria

The following are the assessment criteria for visits:

Scientific merit.
Relevance to the programme.
Added value to the programme.

Overall, preference will be given to those applications involving new collaborations rather than repeat visits.

As a general rule, having assessed scientific merit and relevance, preference will be given to applications in the following order:

Between contributing countries;
Between a contributing country and a non-contributing ESF member country;
Between a contributing country and a non-ESF member country in Europe;
Between a contributing country and any country not covered by 1-3.

The applications will be assessed by a panel formed by all SC Members who are not directly involved in any the proposals.

Level of award

Short Visit Grants are reimbursed, on a per diem basis of 85€ plus actual travel expenses up to a maximum of 500€, after the visit on submission of a completed balance payment accompanied by the original travel tickets.
Exchange Visit Grants are reimbursed on the basis of an allowance of 1600€ per month/400€ per week/57€ per day plus actual travel expenses up to a maximum of 500€.

The grants do not cover health insurance, taxes, or retirement scheme contributions.

Applications

The call for applications for INFTY Short & Exchange Visit grants is permanently open.

The Steering Commitee will award the grants three times a year. Next deadline for applications is June 1st.

The beginning date of a short or exchange visit should be no earlier than one month after the deadline in which the grant was awarded.

Applicants are asked to submit online the ESF application form for a Short or Exchange Visit Grant. Please follow the links to find the required information and the corresponding form for each type of grant.
- Short Visit Grant applications.
- Exchange Visit Grant applications.
For non-european applicants only: In your project description, please add a paragraph explaining the european added value of your proposal.
The Steering Committee will inform applicants of the outcome of the evaluation procedure.
If the application is successful, the grantee will receive instructions on how to complete the acceptance form on reporting procedures.
For Short Visits -payment is made after the visit subject to submission of the scientific report, signed host statement form(s) and original travel ticket(s). If the length of the stay is shorter than the foreseen period, the payment will be adjusted accordingly.
For Exchange Visits - upon receipt of the acceptance form, the ESF makes and advance payment (normally 80% of the allocated grant). The final payment will be made upon receipt at the ESF, online, of the scientific report, signed host statement form(s), and original travel ticket(s). In the case of cancellation or unreasonable delay (six months or more), all advances must be returned to the ESF. If the length of the stay is shorter than the foreseen period, the grantee should reimburse to ESF the amount of unspent funds.

Evaluation of scientific reports

All reports should be submitted within one month of the end of the visit.

Scientific Reports for both Short and Exchange Visit Grants should contain the following information:

Purpose of the visit.
Description of the work carried out during the visit.
Description of the main results obtained.
Future collaboration with host institution (if applicable).
Projected publications/articles resulting or to result from the grant (ESF must be acknowledged in publications resulting from the grantee's work in relation with the grant).
Other comments (if any).

All reports will be evaluated within the Programme by the sub-group delegated to recommend the awards, and if necessary using external peer review. Unless other arrangements are agreed, the contents of the reports will be considered as being in the "public domain" and may be used, suitably acknowledged, in the compilation of reports submitted by the Programme to ESF.

ESF financial rules for the reimbursement of travel costs

Air tickets should be tourist class (or at a lower rate if cheaper tickets -eg. PEX/APEX- are available). When no price is indicated on the ticket, the invoice should also be provided to the organiser.

Train tickets and train supplements may be first class.

Taxis should only be taken when convenient public transport is not available.

Costs of health, life and luggage insurance are not reimbursed by the ESF.

Cancellation insurance fees will only be reimbursed for PEX/APEX tickets.

Use of private car (including road tolls and fuel) should be reimbursed, unless otherwise agreed in advance, on the basis of 1st class train fare or, for longer distances, on the basis of the APEX airfare where this is more economical. An estimate of the fare from a certified travel agent should be produced with the claim for reimbursement. For short journeys by car where no public transport is available and therefore no estimate of fare can be provided, the number of miles/kilometres covered should be indicated. When two or more participants travel together by car, travel costs will be reimbursed to one person only.