- Applicants must have been an independent group leader for at least one year and for less than four years at the pre-application deadline (i.e having started no earlier than 1 April 2019 and no later than 1 April 2022), for the application round 2023.
- They must have an excellent track record.
- They must carry out research in the life sciences in an EMBC Member State, an EMBC Associate Member State (currently India and Singapore) or in countries or territories covered by a co-operation agreement (currently Taiwan and Chile).
- They must have sufficient funding to run their laboratory.
- They must have published at least one senior author research paper* in an international peer-reviewed journal from independent work carried out in their own laboratory.
- For female candidates with children, the limit of four years since independence is automatically extended by one year per child.
- For male applicants with children, the limit can be extended by the actual time taken off as paternity leave or – if their partner is working at least 80% FTE (full-time equivalent) – three months per child, whichever is longer.
- Illness and other care responsibilities are considered as exceptional circumstances on a case-by-case basis. Special provisions may also be made for clinical scientists. If you feel your circumstances warrant an extension of the eligibility period, please contact the EMBO Young Investigator Programme Office () for advice before applying.
- Applicants must be able to attend an online interview, on 21 or 22 November 2023.
* – EMBO will consider papers published on preprint servers (arXiv, bioRxiv, PeerJ, etc), but a senior author publication in an international peer-reviewed journal is still a requirement. Your senior author paper should have “accepted” status by the time of the interview (21 of 22 November 2023).