What is the purpose of this initiative?
The Mistra Fellows programme is intended to build collaboration and exchange of knowledge between Mistra’s research programmes on the one hand and organisations abroad on the other. These organisations can be research-based policy institutes and think tanks around the world or international organisations, both intergovernmental and non-governmental. The programme enables exchange of staff in both directions: while Mistra’s researchers get a chance to stay as guests of organisations in other countries, researchers and experts from foreign organisations can stay in Sweden and work in Mistra’s research programmes. The stays are intended to promote cooperation and knowledge exchange for the duration of the Fellowship and afterwards.
How do you become a Fellow?
A Mistra research programme can apply to send or receive one person as a Mistra Fellow. A maximum of SEK 1 million can be awarded for each Fellow, in addition to a budget approved previously for running the programme. A stay may last up to one year. Mistra assumes no employer responsibility, but bears such costs as salary, social-security contributions and the Fellow’s remuneration for raised living costs during the stay.
What contribution can the programme make?
The intention is for the exchange of researchers and experts to give Mistra’s research programmes an international outlook and a more profound understanding of European and international policy processes. During the stay, the Fellow or foreign expert must work in a project that is relevant to the Mistra programme and the other organisation alike. Another aim is for the stay to help establish contacts and, by extension, bring about intensified cooperation between the programme and the organisation concerned. Researchers and experts taking part in the Mistra Fellows Programme will be able to provide feedback and contribute experience from their exchange. The programme as a whole helps to establish a new generation of Swedish researchers with an interest in and capacity for working both nationally and internationally in the interface between research and policy. The foreign experts who come to Sweden are intended to strengthen the international ties of Mistra’s research programmes. When the experts return home, they can serve as international ambassadors for Mistra’s research.