International Recherche

Launch of the 2nd call for C2W proposals | Come to Wallonia: 15 new international researchers will join UMONS and UNamur

Published on 31 May 2023
Written by AVRE
The call for proposals for the C2W Come to Wallonia | Connect with Wallonia project, supported by UMONS and UNamur, offers experienced researchers an exceptional opportunity to develop new skills and competences by implementing a research project of excellence with a strong interdisciplinary orientation. The project has been awarded €4.5m of European funding (Marie Skłodowska Curie COFUND Action). The second call opens on 31st May 2023.

Come to Wallonia | Connect with Wallonia is a European postdoctoral programme based on incoming mobility and is open to all research fields. The second call for proposals will allow UMONS and UNamur to recruit 15 new highly skilled postdocs for two years.

The programme also includes research training and career development opportunities. All candidates will be seconded to another sector or partner (university, company, research centre, etc.) in Belgium or abroad, with the aim being for them to broaden their career paths and enhance their research findings.

According to Prof. Rudy Wattiez, Vice-Rector for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UMONS, “Welcoming 15 new researchers of excellence allows UMONS and UNamur to be key contributors to cutting-edge research, all the while encouraging collaborations and reaching out to the rest of the world”.

“This initiative demonstrates our commitment to attracting the best talent and creating an environment conducive to research and innovation,” says Carine Michiels, Vice-Rector for Research and Libraries at UNamur.

For the two partner universities, the aim is clear: to boost research, to strengthen their attractiveness to highly mobile and talented researchers, to increase their visibility and to stimulate a knock-on effect with other funding sources.

In total, 30 international researchers with 5 years of experience at UMONS and UNamur

This is the second call of the Connect with Wallonia | Come to Wallonia. It is worth pointing out that UMONS and UNamur have already hosted 15 researchers in this context and that these researchers are still at the two universities today. A rigorous selection process, conducted by external panels of international experts, led to a wide range of research projects being launched in fields as varied as mathematical and theoretical physics, antibiotic resistance, microbiology, pedagogy, robotics, geology, colonialism, ancient and medieval history, ecology, and so on. The profiles of these 15 chosen researchers are available on the C2W website.

Key dates  

  • 31st May 2023: call opening (second call)
  • 5th September 2023: call deadline
  • September-December 2023: evaluation & selection process
  • End of December 2023: notification to candidates
  • March-April 2024: start of funded projects

More information on the call can be found here.

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