Application Deadline: 31 JANUARY 2026
This Fellowship is for 3 months and has the following aims:
- Promoting sleep research and sleep medicine training in Europe and supporting the exchange of scientists/investigators as well as clinicians actively involved in research in sleep medicine in Europe.
- Contributing to the transfer and implementation of new sleep research techniques or methodologies in sleep medicine throughout Europe.
- Supporting career development and in particular supporting more junior candidates in the early stages of their career in sleep research and sleep medicine.
- The Fellowships are available to scientists, investigators, clinicians, allied health professionals, nurses who wish to carry out basic, translational or clinical sleep research projects in collaboration with a different institution.
- The Fellowships are not granted for purely clinical and educational training. Therefore, it is mandatory that projects include a significant research component and lead to research output (preferentially a full paper, even in preprint, or at least an abstract accepted for presentation at an international scientific meeting), possibly after the successful candidates return to their home institutions.
- Fellowships are not granted for undergraduate studies, workshops, courses, lectures, meetings, conferences, congresses, or visiting institutions without a clear research project to be completed.
A maximum amount of 2,800 EUR will be awarded.
A maximum of two grants per year will be financed.
Conditions:
- The research must be performed in a laboratory belonging to the ESRS Network of Sleep Research Laboratories.
- Candidates are responsible for identifying a research project at the host institution as well as a suitable supervisor.
- At time of application, candidates must already have an agreement with the host institution where their Fellowship will be carried out
- The receiving laboratory is expected to finance or co-finance the living expenses during the stay if they are not completely covered by the ESRS contribution.
- Candidates must have adequate fluency in a language that permits effective communication at the host institution.
- Candidates must return to their home institution to continue to develop their research upon completion of their visit.
- The duration of the Fellowship may not be reduced or split.
- The Fellowship must be carried out on a full-time basis.
- The Fellowship is not intended to be used as supplementary or ‘top-up’ funding for a research project already in place by either the host or home institutions.
- The visit must be started within 1 year from notification of a successful grant application.
- All candidates must be members of the ESRS at the time of the application.
- There is no upper age limit for eligibility; however, preference will be given to candidates who are in the early stages of their career.
- Funding is open to all nationalities and for European and non-European-based candidates.
- Applicants must not have been awarded the ESRS Short-Term Fellowship in the previous three years.
Requirements:
Cover letter (max. 2 pages) detailing: The purpose of the visit, including clear objectives that will be reached during the stay, and particularly the overview of the research project to be carried out at the host institution and continued at the home institution after the Fellowship. The description should indicate sample sizes and discuss mitigation strategies if appropriate; A description of how this will benefit the applicant’s career; · Concise description of why the chosen host institution and the supervisor at the hosting institution is ideal to reach the objectives of this stay.
- Home supervisor’s release form
Host supervisor’s training background and CV (max. one page) with a specific focus on the research objectives to be reached during the Fellowship, as specified in the application cover letter.
Breakdown of travel, accommodation and projected subsistence costs at host institution.
Candidate’s CV (max. 2 pages), also mentioning proficiency in the language(s) that will be spoken at the host institution.
Candidate’s list of publications.
Candidate’s passport or ID scan.
Within 6 months after completion of the Fellowship, grant recipients will be required to send a summary report of the Fellowship (max. 2 pages) to the ESRS Secretary (esrs@esrs.eu). The report shall document the achievement of the objectives originally specified in the cover letter and shall detail the research output (full paper, possibly in preprint, or at least an abstract accepted for presentation at an international meeting). Recipients with missing reports or reports evaluated as incomplete or unsatisfactory by the ESRS Scientific Committee or Executive Committee will be banned from applying for ESRS bursaries or grants for 3 years.
Application Guidelines
Application Deadline: 31 JANUARY 2026
All application files should be submitted via the online application form only. All application documents except for the passport or ID scan must be submitted in a single PDF document. Applications can be submitted for all funding opportunities simultaneously The ESRS Scientific Committee will rank the grant applications based on:
- Research plan and goals, as detailed in the cover letter,
- Scientific merit and feasibility of the proposed research project.
- Candidate CV and publications, taking account of seniority.
- Congruence of the host supervisor choice with respect to the research objectives to be reached during the stay.
In ranking applications, the ESRS Scientific Committee will strive to foster diversity in terms of age, gender, geographical distribution, and research topics.
Please contact ESRS if you have any questions.
Short-Term Research Fellowship Recipients
- Sophia Schnelzer – Salzburg, Austria
Host Institution: Sleep and Motor Memory Lab– Leuven, Belgium
- Jingru Zhou – Leiden, The Netherlands
Host Institution: Lyon Center for Research in Neuroscience – Lyon, France
- Damiana Bergamo – Lucca, Italy
Host Laboratory: University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Switzerland
- Anais Hamel – Caen, France
Host Laboratory: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Joana Braga Vaz de Castro
Lisboa, Portugal
Host Laboratory: Reykjavik University Sleep Institute, Iceland
