Call for Applications 2025–2026
Objective
The Józef Tischner Fellowships are open to all academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences; a thematic relation to one of the Institute’s research fields is, however, strongly encouraged. The Józef Tischner Junior Fellows will be invited to spend a four-month term between September 2025 and June 2026 at the IWM to pursue their research projects.
Conditions
Postdoctoral candidates––i.e., those who have defended their PhD by the date of the fellowship application deadline––will receive a stipend of EUR 3,300 per month; candidates currently pursuing their doctoral degree will receive a stipend of EUR 2,750 per month to cover accommodation, living expenses, travel, health insurance and any incidental costs related to their stay in Vienna.
In addition, the IWM provides visiting fellows with office space, including internet access, in-house research and administrative facilities, as well as other services free of charge. The visiting fellows will join the scholarly community and participate in the activities of the Institute. Generally, fellowships start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.
Eligibility
Candidates for the Józef Tischner Junior Visiting Fellowships
- Must be Polish citizens, Polish-American scholars or permanently reside in Poland
- Must be enrolled in a doctoral program in the humanities or social sciences or have obtained a PhD in the same fields not longer than four years ago at the time of application
Józef Tischner Senior Visiting Fellowships are granted by invitation only.
Application
Applications must be submitted through the IWM's online application form; we will be unable to consider applications sent via email.
Application materials consist of the following:
- A brief letter of motivation that addresses how the project would benefit from time at the IWM, the connection to the IWM’s mission and research, and concrete research/writing goals during the fellowship
- A project description (max. 550 characters)
- A project proposal (max. 7,500 characters incl. spaces) containing a) a description of the project’s objectives, b) a discussion of the current state of the art, c) methods, and d) a work plan
- A curriculum vitae including a list of publications
- Two letters of recommendation from scholars familiar with the applicant’s academic work (Please note that the letters of recommendation need to be submitted directly by your referees within the application period. Your referees will receive an automatic email with a link to a webform after you have submitted your application.)
All application materials should be in English.
Important! Attached documents must be combined into a single PDF, as the online submission form only allows for one attachment. File names of attachments must use Latin characters.
The deadline for applications is 16 February 2025.
Selection
The finalists will be selected by a jury of experts. Applicants will be notified of the jury’s decision in the spring semester of 2025. The jury is not required to publicly justify its decisions, nor to provide applicants individual feedback on their applications.
Kasper Nowak
Fellowship Program Coordinator
fellowships@iwm.at
Józef Tischner (1931–2000), one of the most influential Polish philosophers of the 20th century and the first chaplain of Solidarność, was founding president of the IWM. In his memory, fellowships have been awarded to junior researchers from Poland and young Polish-American scholars since 2003.
