EMBO continually monitors its programmes to ensure that they cater for scientists with young children or researchers returning to the bench after a career break for child-care. The aim is to encourage their re-entry into science and ensure family-friendly working conditions.

• EMBO Fellowship Programme
• EMBO Young Investigator Programme
• EMBO Restart Fellowships

EMBO Fellowship Programme
EMBO Long-Term Fellowships support post-doctoral research visits of 12-24 months to laboratories throughout Europe and the world. In recent years, a number of changes have been implemented to make the fellowships more family-friendly. Some of these changes have been integrated from the fellowships offered under the former EMBO Restart Programme.

• Fellows receive a dependent’s allowance for each dependent family member (i.e. their spouse, if he/she is not working, and children). The allowance amounts to approximately 10% of the fellowship sum per dependent.

• Fellows are entitled to 3 months maternity leave during their fellowship. Fellows who take maternity leave during the fellowship are entitled to an extension of their fellowship for a period of up to 3 months.

• Fellows with child-care responsibilities can also apply to work part-time (or a combination of part-time and full-time) during the fellowship with the maximum time (full-time plus part-time) not exceeding 36 months.

• Candidates who have had a career break for at least one year for child-care reasons will be given special consideration when applying to stay within the same country.

• Female fellows (awarded a fellowship in 2006 or later) with children under the age of six years are entitled to additional funds in support of child-care costs.

Click here for more details of the EMBO Fellowship Programme.

EMBO Young Investigator Programme

The EMBO Young Investigator Programme supports some of Europe’s best young group leaders in the early years of their independent careers. The programme offers a number of benefits that help the scientists establish an excellent reputation in the scientific community.

EMBO is acutely aware of the low representation of women in senior positions in the life science in spite of equal representation at the graduate level. In an effort to help address this imbalance:

• Female young investigator candidates with children are entitled to an extension of the eligibility period by one year per child. For example, instead of the standard four-year limit, a female applicant with one child would be eligible to apply for the Young Investigator Programme five years after establishing her first independent laboratory.  

Click here for more details of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme.

EMBO Restart Fellowships

In 2002-2003, EMBO offered two-year restart fellowships to encourage scientists who had taken a career break to re-enter science. The scheme was aimed at female and male scientists who had taken a break of more than one year in their research careers for child-care. A total of eight scientists were awarded fellowships under this scheme.

In July 2004, the positive impact of this initiative led to the integration of the Restart eligibility criteria into the EMBO Long-Term Fellowship scheme.

Click here for more details of the scientists awarded EMBO Restart Fellowships.

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