Short-term fellowships

I. Purpose

The purpose of the ERA Short Term Fellowships (from 2 to 6 months, see details below) is to support clinical training in the field of Nephrology and, in particular, to favour the growth of young clinical investigators and to facilitate the cooperation among renal centres. 
The ERA Council is in charge of deciding the amount dedicated to this programme. 
Any exception to any of the rules of this programme must be evaluated by the Chair and Vice-Chair of the ERA Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). 

II. Deadline(s)
The deadline(s) decided by the Council will appear in the appropriate section of the ERA website.

III. How to apply
Applications have to be submitted by means of a specific application form available in the appropriate section of the ERA website. 

IV. Institutions where to do the ERA Short Term Clinical Fellowships
All applications must involve a receiving institution located in the ERA geographical area (European, countries bordering Europe and the Mediterranean Sea) and should preferably involve movement between two countries. In case there is no movement between two countries, there must at least be movement between two cities.
Before applying for the Short-Term Clinical Fellowship, the applicant must contact the preferred centre to verify the feasibility of the said centre of the project he/she wants to carry out. ERA is not responsible for this process. Useful information on how to identify the most suitable centre for the fellows’ training needs can be found on Expertscape.

V. Eligibility
Only ERA members who are 40 or younger at the time of application submission can apply.
An extension of the age limit can be considered if the applicant’s career has been interrupted due to childcare or severe illness; in any case this extension cannot exceed 2 years. Applicants who already received an ERA Fellowship under this programme in the past cannot apply again for a new Short-Term Fellowship.

VI. Duration
The duration of the Clinical Short-Term Fellowships is from a minimum of 2 months (60 days) to a maximum of 6 months (180 days).

VII. Selection of the applications
The ERA HQ does an administrative pre-screening and all applications with administrative fails are discarded.
The valid applications are submitted to the SAB for screening, scoring and ranking.
Said ranking is submitted to the Council for the final selection.

VIII. Factors normally considered in the selection of applicants
1. Age of the applicant (in the case of ex-aequo, the older candidate should be preferred); 
2. Educational and clinical knowledge status of the applicant;
3. Need of this knowledge in the home institute;
4. Feasibility of the proposed fellowship in the chosen centre;
5. Knowledge transfer and the possibility of implementation of the project from host to home institute;
6. ERA membership status of supervisors and referees (valid only for nephrologists).

IMPORTANT. On completion of the fellowship, the applicants should return back to their home institution or to an “equivalent institution”. A signed letter stating this, to be submitted when formally applying, has a significant weight in the evaluation as the experience achieved by the fellow has an added value if applied in the home environment.

IX. Start of fellowship
The fellowship should start, without any further significant delay, within 6 months after reception of approval by ERA. 

X. Payments and amounts
For short-term fellowships up to three months (90 days), the payment of the fellowship will be the following: 75% of the total amount due to be paid 10 days prior to the arrival of the fellow in the host institute (travel ticket must be used to verify this date) provided that a letter from the chief of the host
institute confirming that all is “on track” is received; the remaining 25% will be given to the fellow only after the “End of Fellowship” form will be submitted and approved.
For short-term fellowships lasting more than three months (91 days – 180 days), the payment of the fellowship will be the following: 45% of the total amount due to be paid 10 days prior to the arrival of the fellow in the host institute (travel ticket must be used to verify this date) provided that a letter from the chief of the host institute confirming that all is “on track” is received, 45% of the amount due to be paid after three months (subject to the submission of the “Letter of Attendance” signed by the supervisor of the receiving institute); the remaining 10% will be given to the fellow only after the official “End of Fellowship” form will be submitted and approved.

The fellowship grant amounts are based on the EMBO -European Molecular Biology Organisation- daily subsistence rates: these daily flat fee figures will be applied for the duration of the fellowship and are meant to cover living expenses and any work-related taxes and insurances. A travel grant amount will also be added to the fellowship grant and it is meant to cover the expenses related to one round trip from the country of residence to the host country (Travel Grant Chart for fellowships and CME). IMPORTANT any taxes and insurances are the responsibility of the fellow, for no reason will ERA be held liable for these matters. 

In the event of early termination of the fellowship, the final balance to be paid will be reduced accordingly and any extra amounts already paid will have to be repaid back to ERA. 

ERA will not give any other financial support apart from what is clearly mentioned above. 

IMPORTANT any taxes and insurances are the responsibility of the fellow, for no reason will ERA be held liable for these matters.
In the event of early termination of the fellowship, the extra amounts already paid will have to be repaid back to ERA.
ERA will not give any other financial support apart from what is clearly mentioned above.

XI. Publications and visibility
Every publication (preferably in ERA journals) of work executed while in receipt of an ERA Fellowship, as well as after the end of the fellowship, provided that it is the results of work done during the fellowship, must acknowledge the support given by the ERA and a reprint (electronic format) must be sent to the ERA for verification purposes. Failure to give proper acknowledgement to ERA in publications may result in not being able to benefit from ERA support by the fellow in the future and/or allowing the receiving institute to host future ERA fellows.

XII. End of fellowship report
At the end of the fellowship, the fellows are asked to provide the ERA HQ with a report of the activity done at the receiving institute, using a specific template, within one month after the completion of the fellowship. The report must be signed by the supervisor.
Furthermore, this report must also include a statement from the chief of the home institute (or equivalent) confirming that the fellow has indeed returned to his/her home country after completing his/her fellowship.
Upon approval of the end report, the fellow will receive the last part of the fellowship payment as well as a certificate by way of acknowledgement: this document will include the dates and duration of the fellowship, the place and title of the project and it will be signed by the SAB Chair and Vice-Chair.

XIII. Various
If a granted fellow “refuses” the fellowship, without a valid reason, he/she will not be able to participate in the ERA Fellowship Programme in the future; furthermore, the amount allocated for this fellowship will be lost.

Last update: January 2024