Western Balkans Mobility Scheme Closed with Good Response from Early-career Researchers

As a POLICY ANSWERS Pilot Programme the Western Balkans Mobility Scheme addresses early-career researchers from all six Western Balkan economies and supports them in their career development by funding a stay in another Western Balkans economy in order to do research at a research infrastructure abroad. With a total budget of EUR 100,000, the scheme provides each winning project with a grant of up to EUR 5,000 for two weeks until a maximum of six months.

On 26 June 2024 the Western Balkans Mobility Scheme closed. Finally, a total of 31 applications have been submitted. Within these applications all six Western Balkan economies are covered as home institution of the early-career researchers as well as host institutions for their stay. Since the scheme is thematically open, the applications address a vast amount of different R&D fields, important for the region. The applying early-career researchers are quite evenly distributed among PhD students and postdocs as well as males and females. In addition, especially early-career researchers with no or only limited experience in international research mobility are involved in the applications.

The projects are expected to start in autumn 2024.