FENS/IBRO-PERC Exchange Fellowships Programme
Status: Closed
Funding body: FENS, IBRO-PERC
Application timeframe: 15 April - 15 October
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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