Global Investigator Network

Applicants must:

• Have been independent research group leaders for at least one year and for less than six years on 1 January of the year of application*.
• Conduct life sciences research in Chile, India, Singapore, or Taiwan (see the EMBO Subject Areas).
  • For the application round 2026 PIs or Co-PIs funded by the following programmes of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) at the time of the preapplication deadline till January 2027 or beyond are eligible to apply: ASPIRE, FOREST (創発的研究支援事業), ERATO, CREST,  PRESTO (さきがけ), ACT-X.
• Have an excellent track record.
• Have published at least one senior-author research article in an international peer-reviewed journal based on independent work carried out in their research group**.
• Have secured sufficient funding to run their laboratory.
• Not have been interviewed by the selection committee more than twice in previous application rounds.
• Be available to attend an online interview on 24 or 25 November 2026.

For detailed information on eligibility requirements, please consult the application guidelines.

* Extensions to the eligibility period may apply in cases of exceptional circumstances or for applicants with children. There is no age limit for applicants to the EMBO Global Investigator Network.

** At the application stage, EMBO will consider manuscripts that are under submission and/or published on preprint servers. However, by the date of the interview, applicants must have at least one senior-author research article with “accepted” status in an international peer-reviewed journal. Senior-author preprints accompanied by public, in-depth peer reviews may be accepted, provided that all of the following conditions are met:

• The preprint is posted on a recognised community preprint server (e.g. arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, Zenodo).
• The peer reviews are publicly available online.
• The peer reviews were obtained from an independent preprint peer-review service (e.g. Peer Community In, eLife, Review Commons).
• The peer reviews provide an in-depth expert assessment of the scientific rigour, validity of the research, and its contribution to the field.