Postdoctoral Excellence Fellowship in Political Science

The department of Political Science at Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, invites applications for the Radboud Excellence Fellowship.

The post-doctoral Fellowships are open to non-Dutch researchers based outside the Netherlands, who have no previous study or work experience in the Netherlands and who obtained their doctorate no longer than eight years before the time of application. They will be offered a two-year employment contract with excellent secondary conditions.

You will be integrated into the Department of Political Science, which is part of the Institute for Management Research (IMR). Our vibrant political science department consists of 24 faculty members as well as post-doctoral researchers and PhD candidates. Our department hosts scholars with wide-ranging expertise in comparative politics, conflict studies, gender studies, international relations, political economy, and political theory.

About the Radboud Excellence Fellowship

The Radboud Excellence Initiative is a university-wide programme that was started to foster academic partnerships and to strengthen international bonds between Radboud University and the wider international academic community. The Initiative enables outstanding researchers and professors to come to Radboud University or Radboudumc to work and contribute to their research groups. The Radboud Excellence Initiative welcomes applications from all fields.

Criteria for selection

A Fellowship candidate:

• obtained their PhD no longer than eight years before the nomination date*;
• has international experience and is based outside the Netherlands, but has no previous study or work experience in the Netherlands;
• will expect their fellowship to contribute to a future career move, such as a potential professorship.

*The submission date of the manuscript may count as the doctorate date. Should a candidate only have obtained their doctorate very recently, the quality of their CV, above-average performances and excellent recommendations should compensate for this.

The quality of the candidate and their research plan should be evident from the submitted documents, as listed in the procedure. Considerations for selection are:

• the excellence of the candidate - as shown in the nomination documents;
• the quality of the recommendations - as shown in the recommendation letters;
• the innovative character of the research proposal - as shown in the research plan.

Finances

• A fellow’s salary will be covered by REI and ranges from a 2.790 € to 5.127 € gross monthly income (salary scale 10 or scale 11). As a Radboud employee, you will receive a holiday allowance of 8% of your gross salary and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% of your gross salary. Read more about the salary here;
• Fellows might be eligible for a 30 % tax exemption. More information here.
• Travel costs to and from the Netherlands will be reimbursed by REI, for one return journey. The same goes for the travel costs of the candidate's partner and other family members.
• Legal fees concerning visa and work permit applications will be reimbursed by REI.
• REI works with an agency who will find housing for candidates. The agency's commission will be covered by REI. However, candidates will have to pay the monthly rent for their accommodation themselves.
• REI arranges and pays for the relocation/removal of fellows' properties to Nijmegen – under certain conditions. Also, most REI fellows are entitled to a https://www.ru.nl/excellence/details/relocation/https://www.ru.nl/excellence/details/relocation/, which will be paid by REI.
• Dutch language courses will be covered by REI.

Selection Procedure

Candidate selection follows a two-round process. In the first selection round, candidates are selected by the Department of Political Science following the March 1st, 2021 deadline. Promising applicants will be forwarded to the second selection round of the university-wide Radboud Excellence Initiative programme.

If the candidate is successful in the first round, she or he will be invited to prepare a full application for the second round of the Radboud Excellence Initiative for the May 1, 2021 deadline. The department of Political Science will support candidates in preparing the full application.

How to apply?

For the first round, applications must contain the following documents:

• Curriculum Vitae, incl. a complete list of publications
• A research idea of 500 words for the duration of the post-doctoral fellowship

Successful applicants in the first selection round will be invited to submit a 3-page research plan and reference letters for the second selection round.

All the above mentioned files are to be sent in PDF format via email before March 1st, 2021, 23:59h CET. Applications should be sent to to a.vaneck@fm.ru.nl with subject header “Application for Radboud Excellence Fellowship”.

Letters of reference can be included in the applications, or be sent directly by the referees, before the closing date, to the above submission email address.

More information

Information on the Radboud Excellence Initiative can be found at www.ru.nl/excellence.

For more information about this vacancy, please contact Dr. M. Meijers (Assistant Professor of Political Science) via email: m.meijers@fm.ru.nl.