Frequently Asked Questions
Call for applications
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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 three programmes included in the current call for applications.
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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 minimum duration of the fellowship is 36 months, to carry out a doctoral thesis on a full-time basis.
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The doctoral INPhINIT Incoming programme requires choosing one specific predoctoral position through the predoctoral position search engine. However, it is highly recommended to have alternative possibilities to the first option, in case this one can not be effective or if you would like to change the option if you are awarded the fellowship. You can describe these additional options in the "comments" section of "studies to be pursued“ tab and in the statement of purpose. The position chosen in the application is therefore an expression of interest, and it is not binding: in the event of obtaining the fellowship, you could choose another available position if you wish to.
In the doctoral INPhINIT Retaining programme you do not have to choose a predoctoral position, although in the "studies to be pursued" section you must indicate the doctoral programme that you would like to study if you obtained the fellowship. The indicated programme is an expression of interest, and it is not binding: in the event of obtaining the fellowship, you could choose another doctoral programme if you wish to.
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No, the start of the fellowship must coincide with the dates stated in the programme rules.
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Yes, but only for the doctoral INPhINIT Incoming programme. In the “How to apply” section, you will see the list of PhD positions available in this call for applications.
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No, this call for fellowship applications is for young researchers who are between the first and fourth years of their research career not yet have been awarded a doctoral degree.
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Yes, but you will have to make sure that your studies give you access to the doctorate at the destination university.
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Yes, you can apply for a fellowship if you plan to finish your studies in June/July 2023.
The most important thing is that you can join as a doctoral student in your host institution between September and November 2023.
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The doctoral INPhINIT fellowships are incompatible with any other paid work, grant, or financial aid from any other organisation.
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No. In any case, the years of research experience will be taken into account. At the closing date for applications, candidates must be in the first four years of their research career and they should not have previously obtained any other doctoral degree.
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To be eligible to apply for a doctoral INPhINIT Incoming fellowship:
Candidates who wish to join a Spanish centre or university cannot have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the deadline for applications.
Candidates who wish to join a Portuguese centre or university cannot have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the deadline for applications.
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.
The fulfilment of the geographic mobility requirement will be checked during the eligibility screening phase. It will be checked again and definitively after the publication date of the final list of selected candidates.
Find below two examples:
Example 1:
A Spanish researcher has finished the last year of her bachelor’s degree in a Spanish university. She has taken a master's degree in the Netherlands from 26/09/2020 to 25/08/2022, when she leaves her residence in the Netherlands. Since 26/08/2022 she is on holidays and from 26/09/2022 she joins a Spanish company, where she plans to work for at least one year.
Is the candidate eligible to apply for the doctoral INPhINIT Incoming fellowship to pursue doctoral studies in an accredited research centre?
Start date - End date Country of residence Period Activity 26/01/2020
25/09/2020Spain
8 months
Studies
26/09/2020
25/08/2022The Netherlands
23 months
Studies
26/08/2022
25/09/2022Spain
1 month
Holidays
26/09/2022
25/01/2023Spain
4 months
Work
As she left her residence in the Netherlands on 25/08/2022, starting from 26/08/2022 her familiar residence is in Spain despite she is in holiday abroad. She is not eligible to apply for the fellowship as she will have spent more than 12 months in Spain in the 3 years immediately prior to the closing date for applications.
Example 2:
A French student has completed his master’s degree in France. On 26/09/2021 he starts an internship period in a Portuguese company for 5 months, and after finishing it, he moves to Finland for a research stay of 5 months in a research centre. He returns to Portugal by 26/07/2022 and starts working in the same company where he did his internship.
Is the candidate eligible to apply for a doctoral INPhINIT Incoming fellowship in a Portuguese research unit accredited as excellent by the Fundação per a Ciência e a Tecnologia de Portugal?
Start date - End date Country of residence Period Activity 26/01/2020
25/09/2021France
20 months
Studies
26/09/2021
25/02/2022Portugal
5 months
Work
26/02/2022
25/07/2022Finland
5 months
Work
26/07/2022
25/01/2023Portugal
6 months
Work
He is eligible to apply for the fellowship, as at the closing date for applications he will have spent 11 months in Portugal in the 3 years immediately prior to the closing date for applications.
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To be eligible to apply for a doctoral INPhINIT Retaining Fellowship candidates must fulfil two mobility requirements:
Requirement 1
Candidates who wish to join a Spanish centre or university must have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the deadline for applications.
Candidates who wish to join a Portuguese centre or university must have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the deadline for applications.
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.
The fulfilment of the geographic mobility requirement will be checked during the eligibility screening phase. It will be checked again and definitively after the publication date of the final list of selected candidates.
Find below two examples:
Example 1:
A Portuguese researcher has finished the last year of her bachelor’s degree at a university in Denmark. On 16/06/2021 she leaves her residence in Denmark and goes on holiday until 16/08/2021. From 17/08/2021 to 16/07/2022 she takes a master's degree in a Portuguese university. On 17/07/2022 she stays for 7 months in a Spanish company.
Is the candidate eligible to apply for a doctoral INPhINIT Retaining fellowship to complete her PhD at a Portuguese research center?
Start date - End date Country of residence Period Activity 17/02/2020
16/06/2021Denmark
16 months
Studies
17/06/2021
16/08/2021Portugal
2 months
Holidays
17/08/2021
16/07/2022Portugal
11 months
Studies
17/07/2022
16/02/2023Spain
7 months
Studies
As she left her residence in Denmark on 16/06/2021, during the period 17/06/2021 – 16/08/2021 her familiar residence is in Portugal, despite she is on holiday abroad. She is eligible to apply for a fellowship because she will have spent more than 12 months living in Portugal in the 3 years immediately prior to the closing date for applications.
Example 2:
A French student has taken a master's degree at a university in France during the period 17/02/2020 - 16/02/2021. She has done her master’s thesis in a research group of a Spanish university for 6 months. She stays in Spain collaborating with the research group until 16/01/2022. After this period, she moves to Poland to work at a research center.
Is the candidate eligible to apply for a doctoral INPhINIT Retaining fellowship at a Spanish university?
Start date - End date Country of residence Period Activity 17/02/2020
16/02/2021France
12 months
Studies
17/02/2021
16/08/2021Spain
6 months
Studies
17/08/2021
16/01/2022Spain
5 months
Work
17/01/2022
16/02/2023Poland
13 months
Work
She is not eligible to apply for the fellowship, since she will have resided less than 12 months in Spain in the 3 years immediately prior to the closing date for applications.
Requirement 2
Candidates who obtain a doctoral INPhINIT Retaining fellowship must enroll in a PhD programme of a university other than the one where they studied the bachelor’s degree.
Application
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No.
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Yes, provided that you fulfil the geographic mobility requirements.
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Yes, provided that you fulfil the geographic mobility requirement.
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Yes, provided that you fulfil the geographic mobility requirement.
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Yes, provided that you have not been awarded yet a doctoral degree, or are in a position to apply for it by the closing date for applications.
You are not eligible to be awarded a fellowship if you have already been enrolled in the same doctoral studies you wish to apply thanks to the fellowship prior to the 2023-2024 academic year.
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The CV tab allows you to describe your academic training and your work experience as well. It is especially important that you report everything you have done (type of activity, country and period) at least during the four years prior to the closing date of the call, so that we can check the compliance of both the geographical mobility and research experience requirements.
All the information that you state has to be verifiable through official documents.
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No.
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Yes, you can submit your application without proving your language level, as long as you are in any of the exemption situations described in section 4.3 of the programme rules.
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No. The language proficiency level should be necessarily accredited by any of the certificates specified in the rules of each programme.
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No. The language proficiency level should be necessarily accredited by any of the certificates specified in the rules of each programme, and these certificates should have the minimum level required.
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No.
Documentation
and accreditations
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No. The documentation can only be attached to the application using the online application platform.
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No. Request and receipt of reference letters can only be done using the online application system for a ”la Caixa” Foundation fellowship.
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Reference letters 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 online 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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The Diploma Supplement (DS) is a document issued by the university where you pursued your studies, which grants EU-wide recognition to your academic curriculum. It consists of an annex to the academic qualification, detailing the subjects covered, languages used, credits obtained, competencies acquired, academic results, and professional qualifications of the graduate from the bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree programme, with their name(s) and surname(s), among other reliable accreditations all over Europe.
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Yes, provided that, as stated in the programme rules, all subjects and grades, year by year, as well as the total credits of the qualification and the credits awarded, are specified. In addition, your name, the name of the university, and the name of the qualification should clearly appear.
Should you get the fellowship, you must submit the original transcript of academic record issued by your university, or a certified photocopy of it.
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Attach the transcript of academic record up until the present.
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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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Not necessarily. We will accept your language accreditation despite the fact that it has already expired.
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You can attach a “screenshot” showing your qualifications, provided that your name can be clearly seen. Should you get the fellowship, you must submit the original document to us.
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No. An additional deadline has already been considered for all programmes, beyond the deadline for applications, to submit this accreditation.
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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.
Selection
process
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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.
The face-to-face interview seeks to:
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Delve into the information provided in the application, particularly with regard to the applicant’s academic and personal project.
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Ask about matters that were not included in the application and which the committee considers particularly relevant to evaluate the suitability of the applicant in pursuing the studies proposed.
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Evaluate the applicant’s academic and professional potential.
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Evaluate their all-round training, interests, concerns, and curiosity for the social, scientific, economic, cultural, or artistic context, although this is not directly related to their studies.
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Evaluate their personal and academic maturity, their motivation to complete the proposed studies and project, and their capacity to clearly express their ideas and firmly defend them.
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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The strength of your academic record is just another aspect, among others to be evaluated to determine whether an application passes the preselection or final selection process or not.
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No, the selection and preselection processes are exclusively governed by the criteria of academic excellence, and no quotas that take any other factors into account are in place.
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Approximately twenty minutes.
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No. In the case of the doctoral INPhINIT Retaining programme, the on-line form through which the application was made already provides for the possibility of attaching audiovisual files and links to online content; therefore, documentation of this type should only be submitted using the online form.
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No, under no circumstances.
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 scanned copy of your National Identity Card to fellowships@fundacionlacaixa.org so that we can verify your information and make the necessary corrections.
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The online 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 online 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 online 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 its submission is still pending. The referee has to submit it, so that the system can include it in your application.
Host
institutions
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Yes.
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The Research Centre will draw up a contract in accordance with the regulations in force for research personnel in training.
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The fellowship, and therefore, the contract, should start between September and November 2023. On an exceptional basis, it is possible to start later, until January 2024, provided that it is duly justified.
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No.
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It is advisable to start getting in touch with researchers of the predoctoral fellowship positions you are interested in when your application has been selected for the face-to-face interview stage.
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Yes, independently of the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s selection process, host institutions may conduct interviews or use any other means to get to know the applicants who aspire to become research fellows.
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Yes, provided that you fulfil the geographic mobility requirement. Similarly, the contract that you have with the Centre will not be valid, which means that you should sign a new contract.
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No. Research fellows may only opt for predoctoral fellowship positions that appear in the doctoral INPhINIT Incoming programme call for applications using the positions search engine.
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No. Research fellows may only opt for predoctoral fellowship positions that appear in the call for applications using the positions search engine and at accredited centres.
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No. Research fellows may only opt for predoctoral fellowship positions that appear in the call for applications using the positions search engine and at accredited centres.
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Yes. However, you must enrol in a PhD programme of a university other than the one where you did your bachelor’s degree.
