FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships Programme

Status: Closed

Funding body: FENS, IBRO-PERC

Application timeframe: 15 April - 15 October

IntroductionApplication formAwardees - April 2023 callAwardees - October 2023 callAwardees - April 2024 callAwardees - October 2024 callAwardees - April 2025 call

FENS and the IBRO Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO-PERC) are dedicated to supporting early career researchers and promoting intra-European mobility.*

The FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships Programme is designed to advance neuroscience research and training in Europe by enabling master or PhD students and early postdoctoral fellows to broaden their methodological expertise through targeted laboratory visits.

Grant Details

  • Maximum Grant Amount: EUR 4,000
  • Usage: Funds can cover travel (economy class, local public transport) and accommodation during the exchange.
  • Payment Structure: 60% of the grant will be awarded at least two weeks before the fellowship begins, with the remaining 40% provided upon completion of the exchange and submission of the grant report.

Application Deadlines

  • Twice a year: 15 April and 15 October (23:59, Brussels time). 

For queries, please contact: chet@fens.org

Next call: Applications open on 1 June 2025

Eligibility Criteria:

To apply, candidates must:

  • Be Master or PhD students in neuroscience or early postdoctoral fellows (within 5 years of starting their postdoc) currently based in Europe.
  • Be members of a FENS member society, individual FENS members, or members of an IBRO organisation in the Pan-Europe region that is not a FENS member (see list below1).
  • Have acceptance from the host laboratory.
  • Have recommendation from the home laboratory.

1 Eligible organisations include Armenian IBRO Association; Austrian Academy of Sciences; Israel Academy of Sciences & Humanities; Italian Association of NeuroImmunology; Russian Academy of Sciences; Slovak Academy of Sciences; Trisomy 21 Research Society (T21RS, Spain); Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Brain Research Society (BARD) in Turkey.

Fellowship Specifications:

  • Duration: 4 weeks (minimum) to 4 months (maximum). Stays exceeding 4 months must detail additional funding sources and outcomes for the FENS/IBRO-PERC-supported period.
  • Location: Both home and host laboratories must be based in Europe, and the exchange must involve a change of country.
  • Timeline: The fellowship must be completed within one year of being awarded.
  • Budget Restrictions: Eligible expenses include travel (economy class) and housing. Insurance, equipment, groceries, and personal items are not covered.
  • Report Submission: A final report is required within two months of completing the fellowship.
  • Application Limitation: Candidates may submit only one application for one fellowship at one host laboratory per application round.

Application Considerations

When preparing your application, please ensure it addresses the following:

  • The scientific quality of the proposed project.
  • The value of the exchange for your training and research.
  • The concrete scientific outcomes expected from the fellowship.
  • The suitability of the candidate for the proposed project.
  • The feasibility of achieving the fellowship objectives within the proposed timeframe.

*Applicants resident in the Africa, Asia or Latin America region should apply via the general IBRO Exchange Fellowships program.

FENS and the IBRO Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO-PERC) are delighted to announce the awardees of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships (April 2023 call). The programme aims to support the career development of early-career researchers in the field of neuroscience by providing them with opportunities for intra-European mobility and by nurturing their growth in a skill-enhancing context.

FENS and IBRO-PERC are pleased with the high-rate response of the neuroscience community to this new initiative: 75 eligible applications from 23 European countries were submitted during the first FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships call, which closed on 15 April 2023.

FENS and IBRO-PERC warming congratulates the eleven awardees and wish them success in their scientific endeavours.

The recipients of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships are:

Career Status  Name  Home Institution Host Institution
Master  The grant recipient requested name not to be disclosed Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Greece  Institut Pasteur Paris, France 
Master  Emma Nesbit  Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany  University of Oxford, UK 
Postdoc  Emma Delhaye  University of Liege, Belgium  University of Lisboa, Portugal 
Postdoc  Clara Alice Musi   University of Milan, Italy 

 

Aston University, UK 
Postdoc  Giulia Carini  University of Brescia, Italy 

 

University of Oxford, UK 
Postdoc  Anna Lech   Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development, Poland 

 

IGBMC, Department of Biology and Stem Cell Development, France 
Postdoc  Jovana Aranđelović  University of Belgrade, Serbia 

 

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal 
PhD   Agathe Moret  Paris Brain Institute, France 

 

University of Oxford, UK 

 

PhD  Bin Wan  Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany 

 

University of Cambridge, UK 

 

PhD  Oumayma Aousji  Universitaetsklinikum Ulm, Germany  Université Paris Cité, France  

 

PhD  Sara Badesso  Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA), University of Navarra, Spain University of Milan, Italy 

 

 

FENS and the IBRO Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO-PERC) are delighted to announce the awardees of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships (October 2023 call). The programme aims to support the career development of early-career researchers in the field of neuroscience by providing them with opportunities for intra-European mobility and by nurturing their growth in a skill-enhancing context.

FENS and IBRO-PERC are pleased with the high-rate response of the neuroscience community to this new initiative: 94 eligible applications from 22 European countries were submitted during the first FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships call, which closed on 15 October 2023.

FENS and IBRO-PERC warming congratulates the eleven awardees and wish them success in their scientific endeavours.

The recipients of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships are:

Career Status Name Project Title Home Institution Host Institution
Master student Kankana Dutta Development of a synaptic mechanogenetic technology to repair brain connectivity University of Trieste, Italy Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
PhD student Ekin Döngel Dayanç Development of a chronic seizure model with PTZ in juvenile zebrafish, and comparison of cognitive effects, neural activity changes, histological and morphological effects of PTZ in larval and juvenile zebrafish brains Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar University, Turkey Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Norway
PhD student Ilayda Birben Fahliogullari Ex vivo Calcium Imaging: Exploring Nutritional State-Dependency of Olfactory Bulb Activity in Adult Zebrafish University of Cologne, Institute of Zoology, Germany University of Copenhagen, Denmark
PhD student Laura Keto 3D reconstruction and analysis of calcium imaging data of astroglial cells from the somatosensory cortex and cerebellum for building and simulating morphologically detailed whole-cell astroglial models Tampere University, Finland Heidelberg University, Germany
PhD student María Alfonso Triguero Analyzing the contribution of human astrocytes to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Poland
PhD student Sofia Petsangouraki The role of Contactin2 in hippocampal interneuron myelination and synaptic plasticity University of Crete and IMBB-FoRTH, Greece INMED-Inserm, France
PhD student Xavier Corominas-Teruel Towards personalized multifocal close loop brain stimulation and its application in neurological diseases Paris Brain Institute, France Johannes-Gutenberg University Medical Center Mainz, Germany
PhD student Pablo González Téllez de Meneses Transcriptomic analysis of fused Purkinje cells in a mouse model for multiple sclerosis Institute for Neuroscience of Castilla y León, Spain Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, France
Postdoc Giulia D’Arrigo Microglia-mediated synaptic pruning via enhanced release of extracellular vesicles in C9orf72 deficiency National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Postdoc Brendan Williams Functional connectivity dynamics across the menstrual cycle University of Reading, United Kingdom Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Netherlands
Postdoc Pavlina Tsoka Neuronal and synaptic connectivity impairment along with vascular alterations in diabetic retinopathy University of Crete, Greece University of Alicante, Spain

FENS and the IBRO Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO-PERC) are delighted to announce the awardees of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships (April 2024 call). The programme aims to support the career development of early-career researchers in the field of neuroscience by providing them with opportunities for intra-European mobility and by nurturing their growth in a skill-enhancing context.

FENS and IBRO-PERC warming congratulates the eleven awardees and wish them success in their scientific endeavours.

The recipients of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships are:

Career Status Name Project Title Home Institution Host Institution
Master student Maria Renke Investigating the Heart-Brain Connection : An Intracranial Study of Heartbeat-Evoked Potentials Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland King’s College London, United Kingdom
PhD student Maria Repolles-de-Dalmau Succinate/SUCNR1 Axis: A Key Player in Neuroinammation Amid Metabolic Disruption Pere Virgili Health Research Institute, Spain University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
PhD student David Vijatovic Optimizing volumetric calcium imaging in Xenopus laevis to investigate spinal neural circuit recruitment underlying swimming and walking Institute of Science and Technology Austria University of Sussex, United Kingdom
PhD student Ying Zhai Examining the effect of caffeine treatment on hippocampal neuronal activity post- β-amyloid1-42 exposure University of Galway, Ireland University of Bern, Switzerland
PhD student Jasmin Baron Cryo-electron microscopy of the ion channel TRPC3 Medical University of Graz, Austria Biophysik II, Regensburg University, Germany
PhD student Katarzyna Rudzka Decoding neural signals for spatial navigation from mobile quantum optical sensors (OPM-MEG) University College London, United Kingdom Aalto University, Finland
PhD student Paula García Castro Effects of transcranial photobiomodulation therapy on memory and regional brain metabolism in middle- aged female rats University of Oviedo, Spain Universitätsklinikum Münster, Germany
PhD student Silvia Zini Assessing alpha-synuclein seeding activity by RT-QuIC in a novel transgenic zebrafish model of synucleinopathy University of Brescia, Italy University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
PhD student Patrycja Klimczak Manipulation of HB-GAM and TrkB Functional Interaction in Neural Plasticity University of Valencia, Spain University of Helsinki, Finland
PhD student Sopiko Kartsivadze Effect of Induced Pluripotent stem cell-derived
Intracortical Transplantation on Secondary Thalamic Degeneration Caused bt Ischemic Stroke
Tbilisi State Medical University, Georgia Lund University, Sweden
Postdoc Roberta Facchinetti Investigating the eects of TDP43-depletion in microglia on the proliferation and dierentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells Sapienza University of Rome, Italy University of Lausanne, Switzerland

FENS and the IBRO Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO-PERC) are delighted to announce the awardees of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships (October 2024 call). The programme aims to support the career development of early-career researchers in the field of neuroscience by providing them with opportunities for intra-European mobility and by nurturing their growth in a skill-enhancing context.

FENS and IBRO-PERC warming congratulates the eleven awardees and wish them success in their scientific endeavours.

The recipients of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships are:

Career Status Name Project Title Home Institution Host Institution
Master student Filippos Marinos Network mechanisms underlying social memory in the hippocampus Center for Basic Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Greece Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience (IINS, CNRS UMR5297), Bordeaux University, France
PhD student Siddhart Baindur Investigate social-helping behavior in mice using 1-photon miniscopes on freely-behaving mice Charles University, Czech Republic Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, Germany
PhD student Davide Orsenigo Unimodal-Transmodal Cortical Differentiation in Patients with Blindsight University of Turin, Italy University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
PhD student Elisabeta Mori Understanding the translational potential of CTX-CNF1 in counteracting Glioblastoma: from mouse models to human brain Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy University of Freiburg, Germany
PhD student Bella Mora Romero In vivo study of astrocyte metabolism and cross-talk with other cell types in health and Alzheimer’s disease Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS), Spain The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
PhD student Irene Manero Roig Secretome with extracellular vesicles from Dental Pulp Stem Cells to protect and modulate neural circuits University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain Interdisciplinary Institute for NeuroScience (IINS) – UMR 5297, CNRS, France
PhD student Ana María Bautista Martín Investigating the mechanisms of second language prediction using  electroencephalography (EEG) in two distinct bilingual populations BCBL – Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
PhD student Tereza Dočal Investigating immune cell trafficking across the arachnoid barrier Institute of Physiology, CAS, Czech Republic Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland
PhD student Katrine Gaasdal-Bech Reprogramming the Aged Brain: Molecular Insights into Astrocyte Rejuvenation Pathways The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom University of Seville, Spain
PhD student Bilgesu Genc Generation of Tau biosensor cell model and Tau aggregate induction assay Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Turkey German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Germany
Postdoc Violeta Maria Caragea Investigation of the functional expression of TRPM3 ion channel in the adult mouse cerebellum University of Bucharest, Romania KU Leuven, Belgium

FENS and the IBRO Pan-Europe Regional Committee (IBRO-PERC) are delighted to announce the awardees of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships (April 2025 call). The programme aims to support the career development of early-career researchers in the field of neuroscience by providing them with opportunities for intra-European mobility and by nurturing their growth in a skill-enhancing context.

For the April 2025 call, 93 eligible applications from 21 European countries were submitted.

FENS and IBRO-PERC warming congratulates the eleven awardees and wish them success in their scientific endeavours.

The recipients of the FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships/April 2025 call are:

Career Status Name Project Title Home Institution Host Institution
PhD student Raul Oliveira In Vivo Proximity Biotinylation to Decode Synaptic Proteome Dynamics in Chronic Stress University of Coimbra, Portugal VIB Center for Brain and Disease Research, Belgium
PhD student Lucy Doyle Mapping Dynamic Changes in PRC1 Subunit Composition During Neural Progenitor Cell Differentiation Using Proximity Labelling and Quantitative Proteomics University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Radboud University, Netherlands
PhD student Janna van Wetering Lysosomal and mitochondrial polygenic risk scores predicting Parkinson’s disease phenotype Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands Oslo University Hospital, Norway
PhD student Sofia Notopoulou CRISPaR: Gene editing to target Parkinson’s disease culprits in patient-derived iNSCs Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (MDC-BIMSB), Germany
PhD student Busra Zuleyha Dogan Feeding-State Dependent Hypothalamic Neural Activity Measurements Using In Vivo Electrohysiological and Optical Methods Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey NERF, VIB-KU Leuven, Belgium
PhD student Joana Brito Cellular reprogramming of brain tissue monitored by spatial transcriptomics Centre for Neurosciences and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Portugal Single Technologies, Sweden
Postdoc Itay Bleichman Neural circuits underlying desert locust collective behavior Tel-Aviv university, Israel Universität Würzburg Biozentrum, Germany
Postdoc Maydel Fernandez-Alonso Understanding individual differences in light-induced visual discomfort: development of a robust fMRI and psychophysical protocol Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany University College London, United Kingdom
Postdoc Valentina Castelli Decoding Developmental THC Exposure: The Critical Role of Mitochondrial CB1R in Shaping Learning and Memory University of Palermo, Italy Neurocentre Magendie, INSERM U 1215, France
Postdoc Rukiye Karatepe Time-Dependent Synaptic and Behavioral Alterations in NALCN Channel Mutants University of Health Sciences, Turkey Leipzig University, Germany
Postdoc Tristan Baumann Noradrenergic Dysregulation in Mouse Models of Alzheimer’s Dis- ease Through Multi-Regional Fiber Photometry Max Planck Intitute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neuroscience, CNRS, France

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