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Frequently Asked Questions
Call for applicants
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The start of the call for applications may vary from one year to another. If you wish to receive a notification when a new call for applications opens, you can do so by subscribing to the notification service.
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No. You can only apply for a fellowship for one of the two postdoctoral programmes included in the current call for applications.
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Unlike other ”la Caixa” Foundation programmes, if you have previously obtained a ”la Caixa” Foundation fellowship, you can apply for the Junior Leader programme to carry out your postdoctoral project in one of the eligible Research Centers.
However, fellows who have already availed a Postdoctoral Junior Leader fellowship cannot apply for the same programme. -
No.
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No. The fact that you have already submitted applications in previous calls is not a factor that is taken into account when evaluating applications.
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No. The duration of the fellowship is 36 months, to carry out a research project on a full-time basis.
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Yes. In fact, it is highly advisable to have alternatives to your first choice, in case it turns out to be not feasible or you wish to choose another option when the fellowship is awarded. You can mention these additional options in your statement of purpose.
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No, the start of the fellowship must coincide with the dates stated in the programme entry requirements.
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No. In any case, the years of since you have got your PhD degree will be taken into account. The applicant must have obtained the doctoral degree within the two to seven years before the call deadline.
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In the Euraxess Spain portal you will find information on administrative procedures that affect researchers and their families when moving to a foreign country.
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In the Euraxess Portugal portal you will find information on administrative procedures that affect researchers and their families when moving to a foreign country.
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A medical doctor is not equivalent to a PhD degree by itself but it requires the proven proof that its equivalence.
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To be eligible to apply for a Junior Leader INCOMING fellowships, candidates who wish to carry out their research in Spain may not have resided or have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the call deadline. Short stays, such as vacations, will not be taken into account when calculating the mobility requirement.Short stays, such as holidays, done in a country other than their country of usual residence (where they carried out their main activity), will be considered as time spent in their country of usual residence.
A candidate with an uninterrupted period of at least 2 years of inactivity in research (e.g. unemployment, periods of employment outside research, parental or long-term sick leave) must not have resided or carried out the main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 36 months in the 5 years immediately before the call deadline.
A candidate with an uninterrupted period of at least 2 years of inactivity in research (e.g. unemployment, periods of employment outside research, parental or long-term sick leave) must not have resided or carried out the main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than 36 months in the 5 years immediately before the call deadline.
On the other hand, those candidates who wish to carry out the research in Portugal should not have resided or have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than twelve months in the three previous years.
Compliance with the geographical mobility requirement will be reviewed at the beginning of the eligibility examination phase. It will be reviewed again, and definitively, after the date of publication of the final list of selected candidates.
See the following example:
A Spanish researcher completed her final year of degree in a Spanish university. She then moved to the Netherlands to hold a postdoctorate at the University of The Hague from January 1, 2017 to October 31, 2018, when she left her residence in the Netherlands. Since 01/11/2018 he is on vacation and as of 01/01/2019 he begins working in a Spanish company, where he plans to work for at least 1 year.
Is the candidate eligible to apply for the fellowship to carry out her research in Spain?. No, the candidate will not be eligible as she has been in Spain more than 12 months in the last 3 years.
START DATE - END DATE RESIDENCE PERIOD ACTIVITY 30/09/2016 – 31/12/2017
Spain
3 months
Studies
01/01/2017 – 31/10/2018
The Netherlands
22 months
Work
01/11/2018 – 08/10/2019
Spain
11 months
Holidays and work
Application
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No.
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Maternity or paternity leaves, adoption or long-term illness will be taken into account. All these circumstances need to be properly documented.
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The date considered to calculate the eligibility period is the date of defence of the doctoral thesis.
For those candidates who hold more than one PhD degree, the date considered will be the date of the first PhD.
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Yes, provided that you fulfil the mobility requirements.
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Yes, provided that you fulfil the mobility requirement.
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Yes, provided that you fulfil the mobility requirement.
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You can apply to the Retaining subprogramme to perform the research in a Spanish institution or to the Incoming subprogramme to carry out the research in a Portuguese institution.
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No.
Documentation
and accreditations
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No. The documentation can only be attached to the application using the on-line application platform.
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No. The documentation can only be attached to the application using the on-line application platform.
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No. Request and receipt of letters of recommendation can only be done using the on-line application system for a ”la Caixa” Foundation fellowship.
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Letters of recommendation are requested by filling in the mandatory fields on the application form, particularly on the “Reference letters” tab. Once this section has been completed, ”la Caixa” Foundation will contact the individuals who you listed via e-mail. In the e-mail, we will provide them with a webpage address where they can fill in and send the letter using an on-line form.
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Contact is immediate. ”la Caixa” Foundation automatically sends them the e-mail as soon as you have provided the requested information.
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No, only letters in English will be valid, as evaluation will be done by evaluators from all over the world.
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No. You can only include what you can accredit with original documents in your application. Should you get the fellowship and be unable to accredit any of the achievements mentioned in your application, the fellowship will be withdrawn.
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No. Each and every one of the requirements and deadlines must be duly complied with. Any incomplete application on the deadline for applications will be disregarded.
Preselection
and selection
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Within seven calendar days from the date the rejection notification is sent, candidates may submit redress by sending an e-mail to [email protected], which must include an explanatory text together with the documents that the candidate deems appropriate.
Redress will be resolved by a redress committee. The resolution will be sent by e-mail within ten calendar days from the date of receipt of the redress.
The redress procedure will be strictly confidential.
The technical or scientific appraisal of the evaluators will not be called into question. The selection and evaluation processes themselves ensure the independence and the objectivity of the evaluation.
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No. According to standard practice in the selection processes using the peer review system, applicants are not informed of the identity of the individuals who will evaluate their application or of the composition of the selection boards who will interview the applicants. Nevertheless, once the selection processes have ended, a list of all the professors and researchers who took part in them will be made public.
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The applicants who pass the preselection process will be called in for a face-to-face screening interview.
During the interview, the members of the selection committee may ask for clarifications and pose the academic, personal, or professional questions that they deem appropriate with the aim of selecting—among all the individuals interviewed—those who, in their opinion, are deserving of the fellowship.
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Approximately thirty minutes divided in two steps: a presentation made from the applicant and around of interviews made from the experts to the applicant.
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No, under no circumstances.
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The Redress Committee is made up of personnel from the ”la Caixa” Foundation who receive and handle any complaints and/or suggestions from the applicants.
On-line application platform:
technical problems
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To activate the account as an applicant, it is necessary to click on the link that you receive in the registration e-mail. If your e-mail account disables the links (e.g. Hotmail accounts tend to do this), you should copy the link to your browser’s address bar. You access codes will not be activated until you have completed this step.
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Send a soft copy of your National Identity Card to [email protected] so that we can verify your information and make the necessary corrections.
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The on-line application platform only allows a limited number of sections. You should select the aspects of your curriculum which you consider to best support your application. In the on-line form, you have a text field at the end where you can add additional information that you consider worthy of mention.
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The documents have a size limit, beyond which the system rejects them and prevents them from being attached to the application. The on-line form specifies the limits for each case. Most of the time, file sizes can be significantly reduced by creating a pdf document and optimising compression settings:
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a resolution between 90 and 120 ppp.
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black and white or greyscale printing.
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Most likely, you don't see the updated file because of your computer’s cache. You can clear your browser’s cache or delete all temporary files to see the right document.
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It is possible that the letter has been finished but still pending of submission. It is necessary for the referee to submit it for the system to include it in your application.
Research
Centres
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No, but it will be necessary for you to contribute a "Letter of Intent" from the center you choose as the first option. Remember that this letter is not binding, so if you finally get the fellowship, you can change the centre if you decide so.
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Yes, independently of the ”la Caixa” Foundation selection process, the Research Centres may conduct interviews or use any other means to get to know the applicants who aspire to become research fellows.
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The Research Centre will draw up a contract in accordance with the regulations in force for research personnel.
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The Foundation ”la Caixa” postdoctoral fellowships include a total of 59.000 € per year for labor costs. The host institution will contract the fellow for a minimum gross salary of 44.300 € per year, and will be able to use the rest to cover the costs of hiring assumed by the institution.
The estimation of the net salary should be calculated for each particular case. More information can be found on the websites www.euraxess.es and www.euraxess.pt.
For more detailed information we recommend contacting directly with the Human Resources department at the host institution.
