Fellowships for Postdoctoral Research in Brazil

The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq),Brasilia, Brazil, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World[formerly Third World Academy of Sciences] (TWAS), Trieste, Italy, haveagreed to offer up to ten fellowships per year to young scientists fromdeveloping countries (other than Brazil) who wish to pursuepostdoctoral research in natural sciences.

Programme Details

• The fellowships are tenable at research institutions in Brazil (see below) for a period of six to twelve months.
• Thefellowships will cover food, accommodation and the cost ofinternational travel (return economy class fare by shortest route).
• Thefellowships do not include provisions for accompanying family membersor an additional stipend for health insurance (health insurance can beobtained at candidate's own expense).
• Successful applicants must not take up other assignments during the period of their fellowships.
• Financialsupport for the fellowships will be provided by the Brazilian Ministryof Science and Technology, through the Brazilian Council for Scientificand Technological Development (CNPq), and TWAS.
• The academic year in Brazil usually begins on 1 March and the secondsemester in early August of each year. Candidates must thereforeobserve the 2006 academic calendar of the host institution and be readyto start their fellowship on the first day of classes/courses.

Eligibility

Applicants for these fellowships must meet the following criteria:

• be a maximum age of 40 years on 31 December of the application year.
• hold a Ph.D degree in one of the fields of natural sciences.
• have some proficiency in one of the following languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish and/or French.
• be nationals of a developing country (other than Brazil).
• beregularly employed at a research and/or teaching institution in theirhome country where they must hold a research assignment.
• provide evidence that they will return to their home country upon completion of the fellowship.
• provideofficial letter of acceptance as postdoc from supervisor or head ofdepartment at the Brazilian host institution (see below).

Institutions in Brazil

The research institutions in Brazil where the fellowships are tenable are those listed in these three lists:
CAPES-Conceito5.doc (167 K) | CAPES-Conceito6.doc (77 K) | CAPES-Conceito7.doc (54 K)

These lists are extracted from the (Portuguese-only!) website of theCoordenação de Aprefeiçãomento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, www.capes.gov.br) under the heading "Mestrados/Doutorados reconhecidos".

NB: Information about living conditions, such as possibilities ofaccommodation, transportation, and any other issues related to thecandidate's stay in Brazil must be obtained locally, directly from thehost institution. Neither TWAS nor CNPq can provide this information.

Applications

• The application form is available as a pdf file here: Brazil_Postdoc.pdf.
  Thisis a plain form, meant to be printed out and used as a standard paperapplication form. It can be filled in electronically only if the full(commercial) package of Adobe Acrobat is available because the (free)Adobe Acrobat Reader can only print this form. This document was notproduced with a word processor, and is not available as a MS Word document.
• Send the ORIGINAL application with all enclosures (on paper or electronically) to:

TWAS Fellowships Office
c/o The Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Strada Costiera 11
34014 Trieste, Italy
Phone: +39 040 2240314
Fax: +39 040 224559
E-mail: fellowships@twas.org

• Send ONE COPY with all enclosures (ONLY electronically: ONE message with ONE zipped attachment) to:

National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)
Assessoria de Cooperação Internacional - ASCIN
Phone: +55 61 2108-9440
Fax: +55 61 2108-9442
E-mail: twas.ascin@cnpq.br

• A sample format for the acceptance letter by the Brazilian hostinstitution — which needs to be submitted to TWAS and CNPq — has beenadded to the application form. In addition, we make it available hereas a separate document: Sample letter.
• Deadline for receipt of applications is 30 September of each year.
• Incomplete/unsignedapplications will NOT be accepted. This also applies to submissions byfax and electronic mail which must include all enclosures and be signed(either digitally or by including a scanned signature).
• Applications will ONLY be acknowledged when processed.

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