GrACe

Call for applications and guidelines:

NVR Campaign 2025

Deadline 7th January 2026 (17:00 – CET Paris time)

“After all, science is essentially international, and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it.” Marie Skłodowska-Curie, Double Nobel Prize winning Polish-French scientist famed for her work on radioactivity.

PREAMBLE

About LE STUDIUM

Created in 1996, inspired by the history and cultures of the Loire Valley, the objective of LE STUDIUM Loire Valley Institute for Advanced Studies is to create a dynamic outwards-looking international scientific community in the Centre-Val de Loire (France) region, covering all research disciplines and involving public and private research institutions.

One of its principal missions is to attract and welcome experienced international researchers to the laboratories and companies of Centre-Val de Loire. To date, LE STUDIUM has attracted more than 340 experienced researchers to the region coming from 49 countries.

LE STUDIUM leads the scientific exchange, network activities and animation of LE STUDIUM international faculty of fellows, in order to favour cross-disciplinary exchanges with regional and international scientific communities to build human capacity for research, development and innovation.

About the University of Tours and the NEOLAiA alliance

In December 2021, the University of Tours officially joined NEOLAiA, with its motto ‘Transforming Regions for an Inclusive Europe', an Alliance of nine European Universities cofunded by the European Commission in its 2023 call for the period 2024-2027 (projet number: 101124794).

Some background on the European university concept ...
In 2017, the European Union affirmed its desire to encourage the emergence of networks of universities located in several European countries, enabling students to study in several countries and in several languages. These networks are also places conducive to educational innovation and research into excellence. 

In practical terms, each alliance of European universities will have a common strategy for education, research and innovation, and will form a genuine European campus where mobility for all (students, teachers, staff) is facilitated.

This initiative has two major objectives:

• to promote shared values and thus strengthen the European identity;

• to boost the attractiveness and competitiveness of universities in Europe.

Today 65 alliances bring together more than 560 higher education establishments of all types in 35 countries.

NEOLAiA
NEOLAiA was created in May 2019 as a strategic collaboration between universities in Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden. Since then, the consortium has grown, incorporating new universities from Italy, France, Lithuania, Romania and Cyprus.

The NEOLAiA alliance now brings together 9 European universities:

• Bielefeld Universität, Germany

• Universidad de Jaén, Spain

• Örebro Universitet, Sweden

• Ostravska Universita, Czech Republic

• Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy

• Universitatea Stefan cel Mare Suceava, Romania

• University of Nicosia, Cyprus

• Siauliai Valstybiné Kolegija, Lithania

• Université de Tours, France

What all these universities have in common is that they are relatively young, medium-sized institutions that are strongly integrated into their social and economic environment.

3 key pillars are at the heart of the NEOLAIA project:

> diversity and inclusion;

> mobility to strengthen European citizenship;

> digital transformation.

1 disciplinary focus: the challenges of Global Health

As the winner of the 2023 call for proposals of the ERASMUS+ programme, the NEOLAiA alliance received €14.4 million in funding from the European Commission, including €1.6 million for the University of Tours, for a period of 4 years. The University of Tours has also obtained additional national funding of €1.15 million from the « Plan France 2030 » operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR-23-GURE-0010).

The role of the University of Tours in the project
The University of Tours is involved in all the activities of the project, which will run from 2024 to 2027 and cover every facet of the university: teaching and research, of course, but also the establishment of common governance for the alliance, the construction of a shared policy of diversity and inclusion, the development of student and staff mobility, the development of plurilingualism, entrepreneurship, open science and digital transformation. The University of Tours has a more central role in coordinating activities in the fields of teaching (development of joint degrees, organisation of summer schools, dissemination of innovative teaching practices such as NeoTeAch), research (creation of a network of research support staff, dissemination of Living Labs), plurilingualism (organisation of a conference on language policy, drafting of a joint charter) and entrepreneurship (organisation of a summer school).

Involvement in the NEOLAiA Alliance

The University of Tours is a partner of the NEOLAiA Alliance while LE STUDIUM is an associated partner. Funding allocated by the French National Agency for Research (ANR) makes it possible for the University of Tours to set up a visiting researcher programme in order to enhance the involvement of its research units in NEOLAiA activities. Thus, in cooperation with the University of Tours, LE STUDIUM opens a dedicated Visiting Researchers Programme in order to welcome experienced researchers from NEOLAiA partner universities in a host laboratory at the University of Tours. The NEOLAiA Visiting Researchers will be integrated in the international scientific community catalyzed by LE STUDIUM in Centre-Val de Loire region across its various programmes.

CONTACT

Dr Aurélien Montagu - Scientific Manager

aurelien.montagu@lestudium-ias

fr +33 238 211 486

Further information: https://www.lestudium-ias.com/recruitment/neolaia-visiting-researchers-programme-2nd-call