ESF Scientific Programme in the Humanities / Travel Grants

Representations of the Past:
The Writing of National Histories in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe

Im Sommer 2003 hat das europäische Forschungsprogramm NHIST: "Representations of the Past: The Writing of National Histories in Europe" der European Science Foundation (ESF) seine Arbeit offiziell aufgenommen. Es wird von Stefan Berger (Glamorgan), Guy Marchal (Basel) und Christoph Conrad (Genf) geleitet und vereint ca. 70 Wissenschaftler/innen aus 20 Ländern. In den nächsten fünf Jahren wird es von den Institutionen der Forschungsförderung in 18 Ländern Europas unterstützt.

Die Thematik umfaßt die vergleichende Geschichte von Nationalhistoriographien im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Angestrebt wird keine enge Disziplinengeschichte, sondern breite Untersuchungen von Institutionen, Netzwerken und Trägern, von der Konkurrenz von nationalen "master narratives" mit anderen sozialen Identitäten, von ihren Beziehungen zu konkurrierenden nationalen Projekten und von den Vermittlungen mit der regionalen, europäischen und Weltgeschichte.

Mit den hier ausgeschriebenen "travel grants" für Doktoranden und Postdocs wendet sich NHIST zum ersten Mal an eine breitere Öffentlichkeit. Weitere Informationen finden Sie auf den Websites des Programms (s.u.).
Anfragen können an den Koordinator, Dr. Linas Eriksonas, unter der E-mail: nhist@esf.org
gerichtet werden.

Call for Travel Grants

Deadline: 15 April, 2004

The European Science Foundation Scientific Programme Representations of the Past: The Writing of National Histories in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe (NHIST) invites applications for two types of travel grants:

(1) grants for short visits of up to 15 days, to attend workshops and cross-team conferences of the NHIST programme and/or to do research, and
(2) grants for longer research stays of up to 6 months to contribute to the NHIST programme or one of its teams (for the research topics please see the NHIST website at the address below).

Scholars at both doctoral and post-doctoral levels are eligible for the grants. The application has to demonstrate that an applicant can meaningfully contribute to the work of one of the four teams or to the Programme as a whole, by way of doing research and/or actively participating in a workshop or a conference. Accordingly, the grants may serve to fund research trips to academic institutions involved in the Programme or to attend NHIST workshops or conferences. In case of archival research beneficiaries will be monitored by a senior researcher involved in the programme.

In accordance with ESF Programmes Guidelines and Procedures (Annex 5), Short visit grants are reimbursed on a per diem basis of 85 EUR plus actual travel expenses up to a maximum of 500 EUR. Grants for longer research stays (called Exchange Grants) are reimbursed on the basis of an allowance of 1600 EUR per month/400 EUR per week/57 EUR per day plus actual costs for travel, up to a maximum of 500 EUR.

The grants do not cover health insurance, taxes, or retirement scheme contributions.

For Short Visits – payment is made after the visit subject to submission of the scientific report, signed host statement form(s) and original travel ticket(s). If the length of the stay is shorter than the foreseen period, the payment will be adjusted accordingly.

For Exchange Grants - upon receipt of the acceptance form the ESF makes an advance payment (normally 80% of the subsistence allowance, 2 months before the visit is due to begin). The final payment will be made upon receipt at the ESF, online, of the scientific report, signed host statement form(s) and original travel ticket(s). In the case of cancellation or unreasonable delay (six months or more), all advances must be returned to the ESF. If the length of the stay is shorter than the foreseen period, the grantee should reimburse to ESF the amount of unspent funds.

Applications should include

a curriculum vitae of two A4 pages with a publication list (if any)
a description of the proposed project work (about 250 words for short visit applications and about 1,000 words for longer term applications)
a letter of reference from an established university teacher familiar with the applicant's work
a letter of acceptance from the hosting institution

The possibility of supervision and office space should be discussed with the hosting institution prior to submitting an application. Applicants are encouraged to contact either the programme co-ordinator or the chairs/team leaders directly. For email addresses please see the programme website.

Priority will be given to applications where the institutions involved are based in the countries which financially support this programme, namely (listed alphabetically): Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Applicants are asked to fill in an electronic application form at the following addresses:

For short visit grants: http://212.234.224.239/asp/form/svgrants/sv_form.asp?id=73

For exchange grants: http://212.234.224.239/asp/form/exgrants/ex_form.asp?id=73

The Programme Co-ordinator will circulate the applications among Executive Group members for decision and will relay their decisions to the ESF office. If the application is successful, the applicant will receive a letter with further details and instructions. Results will be communicated after 15 May, 2004.

For information on the planned cross-team conference, please see
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/zhs/esf-nhist/index_files/page0010.htm

For more information on the programme, please visit our website at:
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/zhs/esf-nhist
and ESF website at http://www.esf.org/nhist