TIAS Call 2026-2027: Instructions for applicants

Founded in 2008 in order to promote research excellence and internationality, the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) promotes cutting-edge university research within the faculties of Economics, Education, Humanities, Law and Social Sciences. TIAS aims to establish a community of interdisciplinary researchers dedicated to research excellence. TIAS adopts a “bottom-up” approach in which researchers design their own projects and are supported in developing their research careers via the Institute’s guidance which includes the provision of department-based supervisor and an external mentor acting in conjunction with the Institute’s Director. TIAS has a record of success in research output and career development extending over 18 years. As of 2026, 27 % of its 129 alumni are full professors, 10 % are associate professors or equivalent, and 50 % are employed in other academic roles.

The University of Turku (UTU), is a multidisciplinary, international, research-intensive, entrepreneurial university, ranked around 300 worldwide. It maintains comprehensive Open Science, equality, ethics and IPR policies. UTU has received the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research award for implementation of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (Charter & Code).

The purpose of TIAS Postdoctoral Fellowship is to advance professional competence of researchers who have recently gained their doctorate and have participated in international activities and collaboration. Postdoctoral is defined as being within five (5) years of applicants having passed their PhD. Applicants are also expected to have attained other academic achievements. 

The purpose of TIAS Collegium Fellowship is to offer researchers an opportunity to gain competence for the most demanding research posts or other expert positions after the postdoctoral research stage. Successful publishing and other scientific work as well as significant activity and engagement in international academic networks after gaining the doctorate are requirements for appointment to a Collegium Fellow post. Applicants are expected to have ambitious research plans that aim at new scientific breakthroughs. They must have been awarded their PhD no more than twelve (12) years before the end of the application period

The main task of TIAS Fellows is to carry out an internationally excellent research project over a three-year period, during which the results of the project should be disseminated in a number of ways, such as books, book chapters, peer reviewed articles, newspaper articles, conference papers, public dissemination events etc. 

Applicants should be aware that they are applying to an interdisciplinary research Institute and should therefore be committed to interdisciplinary working. In addition to undertaking their own research project, TIAS Fellows are also required to contribute to TIAS’ intellectual life. Such working includes an obligation to attend regular TIAS meetings and events and to make contributions to the academic and social life of the Institute. In addition to TIAS meetings, Fellows are expected to attend the campus regularly. TIAS positions are full time and require 1612 working hours per annum. 

All TIAS Fellows have the opportunity to contribute to teaching activities at the University of Turku. Such contributions will make up a maximum of 5% of a Fellow’s annual work load of 1612 hours. In addition, they may devote another 5% of their total work time to other academic and administration duties. 

The positions are located at one of the campuses of the University of Turku and successful candidates are required to live in Finland. 

The positions are located at one of the campuses of the University of Turku and successful candidates are required to live in Finland. A TIAS Fellow may apply for a permission to spend up to three months a year – with a maximum of nine months during the TIAS Fellowship – undertaking research activities in another country. 

Each TIAS Fellow will be located to a department within TIAS’ five constituent faculties (Economics, Education, Humanities, Law and Social Sciences). In their motivation letter applicants should state how their work supplements existing work at the University, identifying both the department within which they wish to be located and relevant areas of the department’s research interests which align with their own. Please note that it is not necessary for applicants to contact departments or staff members. Applicants must outline why they particularly wish to be part of the TIAS community.

Applicants must also outline how their work relates to one or more of the multidisciplinary themes and areas of strength of the University of Turku: 1) New technologies and digitalisation, 2) Health, diagnostics and drug development, 3) Children, young people and learning, 4) Cultural memory and social change and 5) Biodiversity and sustainability (see multidisciplinary themes and areas of strength on the UTU website).

The salaries of TIAS Fellows are determined within the university salary system for teaching and research personnel. The salary for Postdoctoral Fellow (official title Postdoctoral Researcher) positions corresponds to a requirement level 5 and the pre-estimated personnel percentage of 17 % (current euro-denominated gross salary 3 938 € per month). Progress in the researcher’s personal performance can be taken into account when determining the salary level during employment.

The salary for Collegium Fellow (official title Collegium Researcher) positions corresponds to a requirement level 7 and the pre-estimated personnel percentage of 17 % (current euro-denominated gross salary 5 295 € per month). Progress in the researcher’s personal performance can be taken into account when determining the salary level during employment.

TIAS Fellows will also be eligible to receive research allowance up to 3 800 per year. In addition, Fellows may apply for additional funds to cover training and continuing professional development needs. Costs will be reimbursed according to University of Turku financial and travel regulations and guidelines.

The Finnish academic sector is highly unionised, with separate unions representing students, teachers, researchers and professors. Working conditions, including holiday pay, occupational private health insurance, limited working hours and unemployment, sickness and pension benefits are negotiated at national level and are generally of a high standard.

Parental leave conditions are among the most generous in Europe, with equal quotas of around half a year available to each parent. Finland offers a range of generously subsidised childcare options and child home care allowances to support parents caring for children at home. In Finland, free education is offered to all school-age children. Children relocating from abroad will receive the same high-quality, free education as Finnish citizens, including free school lunches and healthcare.

• The proposal is based in a discipline within TIAS' five constituent faculties (Economics, Education, Humanities, Law and Social Sciences).
• Applicants must have completed their doctoral degree by the end of the application period.
  • In cases where the PhD has been successfully completed (including the public defence/viva) but the degree certificate has not yet been issued, applicants should provide confirmation from the University where the PhD was undertaken that the PhD has been successfully completed and that no additional work is required. Please note that by the time the employment contract is signed, the doctoral certificate must be delivered to the University.
• Applicants for Postdoctoral Fellow positions: Applicants must have gained their doctoral degree a maximum of 5 years before the end of the application period, 13 November 2026.
  • Only for special reasons, such as maternity, paternity or parental leave, military service or non-military service, or a long illness may more than 5 years have passed since the successful completion of the degree. Applicants who wish to plead special reasons should justify this in their curriculum vitae.
• Applicants for Collegium Fellow positions: Applicants must have gained their doctoral degree a maximum of 12 years before the end of the application period, 13 November 2026.
  • Only for special reasons, such as maternity, paternity or parental leave, military service or non-military service, or a long illness may more than 12 years have passed since the successful completion of the degree. Applicants who wish to plead special reasons should justify this in their curriculum vitae.
• Tenured Professors (i.e. those with the title of Professor) are not eligible to apply.
• All relevant application documents following the detailed instructions for application documents (see below) must be submitted on time and in the correct format.

Any application which fails to meet these criteria without justification will be deemed to be ineligible.

• Call open 18 September – 13 November 2026. Applicants receive confirmation of the application submission.
• Eligibility check and shortlisting: All applicants will be informed about the result of shortlisting via email by 15 February 2027.
• External evaluation and selection: February–April 2027   
• Results: Applicants will be notified of decisions in May 2027. Final results will be published on the programme website no later than June 2027.
• Start of the fellowship: 1 September 2027
• End of the fellowship: 31 August 2030

Applications must be submitted via University of Turku’s electronic application form. In addition to the form the application must contain six (6) required documents.

>> Postdoctoral Fellow applications

>> Collegium Fellow applications

The application deadline is 13 November 2026 at 16:00 (Finnish time, GMT/UTC +2). Late applications cannot be submitted and applications cannot be completed after the application deadline. 

You will receive a confirmation email from the application system once you have successfully submitted an application.

Please note that once the application has been submitted the applicant can continue to make further adjustments to the application up until the end of application period. We strongly recommended that the application is completed as early as possible. 

In the application form applicants are asked to choose the department/unit within which they wish their research to be located. Please choose from the "List of departments and units" below.

Only one proposal per individual researcher can be submitted. In case of several proposals involving the same individual researcher, only the last submitted one will be considered eligible.

The application must contain all the following six documents. Application documents must follow the detailed instructions and templates given. Any application which does not follow these instructions may be deemed to be ineligible.

All attachments must be in PDF format. The maximum file size for the attachments is 10 MB.

All the documents must be written in English with Times New Roman, font size 12. This font size must be used throughout including in the Bibliography. Footnotes and tables must be at least font size 10. Any words within maps, pictures etc. must be at least font size 9. Any words within maps, pictures, tables, footnotes etc. must be included in the character count.

Name all the attachment documents using your last name and the document title (e.g. Smith_Doctoral certificate). Upload research plan abstract and motivation letter as ‘Other attachments’ in the application form.

Incomplete applications will not be processed and we reserve the right to automatically exclude applications which do not follow the limits and the structure given. Applicants who have any questions about this should contact us as soon as possible via tias@utu.fi and at least one week prior to submitting their applications.

1 Copy of doctoral certificate 

Applicants must upload a copy of their doctoral certificate. If the original degree certificate is not written in English, Finnish or Swedish an official translation in English must also be submitted. Lack of a translation will result in exclusion. 

In cases where the PhD has been successfully completed but the degree certificate has not yet been issued, applicants must provide confirmation from the University where the PhD was undertaken that the PhD has been successfully completed (including public defence/viva) and that no additional work is required.

Please note that by the time the employment contract is signed, the original doctoral certificate or electronically verifiable certificate must be delivered to the University. 

Applicants must have completed their doctoral degree by the end of the application period.

2 Curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages) 

The curriculum vitae must be no more than two pages in length and must follow the TIAS CV template.

Applicants wishing to claim exemption to rules regarding the length of time which has elapsed since passing their PhD should note this in their CV.

3 List of publications (maximum 2 pages) 

Applicants are required to clearly indicate the 5 most important publications in relation to the research plan. Any non-English titles must be translated into English.

4 Research plan (maximum 25 000 characters, without spaces). Please note that this limit will be strictly enforced.

The research plan must follow the TIAS research plan template (Word) including the given headings and contents of the sections. 

Any words within maps, pictures, tables, footnotes, bibliography etc. must be included in the character count.

Research ethics

The University of Turku is committed to complying with the guidelines on responsible conduct of research and procedures for handling allegations of misconduct, issued by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity. Consequently, TIAS requires that applicants commit to complying with responsible conduct of research and adhere to the Advisory Board’s guidelines. Please see The Finnish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and Procedures for Handling Alleged Violations of Research Integrity in Finland 2023 (PDF). 

In addition to committing to the Code, applicants should briefly identify in their research plan the elements of the plan which may raise ethical issues and how they intend to deal with these. 

5 Research plan abstract (1 page; max 2 500 characters, without spaces) 

The one-page abstract must contain, in order, the following: 

• Applicant’s name and academic degree 
• Title of the research 
• Proposed department in which the applicant wishes to be located. Please note that it is not necessary for applicants to contact departments.
• Summary of the research plan (aims, research material and methods) 
• Key words (maximum 5)

6 Motivation letter (maximum 2 pages)

The motivation letter must be no more than two pages in length and must follow the TIAS motivation letter template. 

TIAS policy on the use of AI in research proposals is aligned with the guidelines of the ERC Scientific Council on the use of AI as well as TENK’s recommendation on the use of AI in research (PDF). These guidelines recognise that researchers may seek input from AI technologies or human third parties during proposal preparation – for example, to brainstorm or generate ideas, search the literature, or revise, translate, or summarise text. However, it is emphasised that the use of external assistance in preparing a proposal does not relieve the author of full and sole responsibility for authorship, including proper acknowledgements, avoidance of plagiarism, and adherence to good scientific and professional conduct.

For this reason, applicants are required to declare any use of AI on the application form. In doing so, the applicants confirm that the proposal represents their own work and that they have verified the accuracy, validity, and appropriateness of the content, including any citations generated by language models, and have corrected any errors, biases, or inconsistencies.

Failure to meet these requirements will result in rejection of the application on the grounds of plagiarism.

After submission of applications applicant eligibility will be checked by TIAS Director and TIAS Coordinator. Applications meeting all the formal requirements are preliminarily assessed and shortlisted by departments and faculties in consultation with the Director and Board of the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies. When assessing the applications, the departments and faculties are advised to make judgements based on the same review criteria used by the external reviewers (listed below). Applications which are deemed not to be competitive based on these criteria are excluded at this point.

The Board then decides the shortlist of the applications to be evaluated by external evaluators. In order to ensure international excellence, the majority of reviewers are based outside of Finland. Each shortlisted application is evaluated by three external reviewers whom the relevant faculty has nominated based on their experience and expertise.

Reviewers are asked to rank, from 1–6, the following: 

1. Applicants’ previous academic achievements relative to their career stage
2. Quality of the research plan and feasibility of the research given the three years’ time limit
3. Theoretical and methodological framework of the research
4. Evaluation of the proposed publications and outputs, including the potential to enhance the applicants’ career development
5. Overall assessment, which must not be simply the mathematical average of the sub-ratings. 

Reviewers are also asked to comment on any ethical issues around the proposed research although this section does not receive a grade.

Based on the external evaluations, the TIAS Board of Management will make final decisions on the successful applicants. TIAS Ethical Advisor will check the ethical issues of the top applications. 

All candidates will be informed directly about the results of the call. All eligible applicants will be sent copies of their external reviews. However, due to the expected volume of applications, we are unable to provide feedback to applicants who are not shortlisted.

Selected applicants are requested to confirm acceptance of the position within two weeks of TIAS notifying them. If the offer is rejected or there is no response to the offer within two weeks, the applicant will lose the position and the position will be offered to the highest ranked applicant on the reserve list.  

The names of the selected TIAS Fellows will be published on the TIAS website once the selection process is complete.

In the application form applicants are asked to choose the department/unit within which they wish their research to be located (see the Faculties and units on the website). Please choose one of the units marked with a star.

Faculty of Education
* Department of Education
* Department of Teacher Education
Faculty of Humanities
School of History, Culture and Arts Studies:
* Archaeology
* Art History
* Comparative Literature
­* Cultural and Experience Tourism
* Cultural Heritage Studies
* Cultural History
* Cultural Management
* Digital Culture
* European and World History
* European Ethnology
* Finnish History
* Finnish Literature
* Folkloristics
* Gender Studies
* Landscape Studies
* Media Studies
* Museology
* Musicology
* Study of Religion
School of Languages and Translation Studies:
* Applied Language Studies
* Chinese
* Classics
* Digital Language Studies
* English
* Estonian Language and Culture
* Finnish and Finno-Ugric Languages
* French
* German
* Hungarian Language and Culture
* Italian
* North American Studies
* Scandinavian Languages
* Spanish
* Translation Studies
Faculty of Law
* Faculty of Law
Faculty of Social Sciences
* INVEST Flagship
Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology:
* Speech-Language Pathology (Logopedics)
* Psychology
Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science:
* Philosophy
* Contemporary History
* Political Science
* John Morton Center for North American Studies
* Centre for East Asian Studies
Department of Social Research:
* Social Policy
* Social Work
* Sociology
* Economic Sociology
Turku School of Economics
Department of Management and Entrepreneurship:
* Management and Organisation
* Information Systems Science
* Entrepreneurship
Department of Accounting and Finance:
* Accounting and Finance
* Quantitative Methods in Management
* Business Law
Department of Marketing and International Business:
* Marketing
* International Business
* Operations and Supply Chain Management
* Economic Geography
* Pan-European Institute
* Department of Economics
* Finland Futures Research Centre

An information session for applicants was held online on Monday 28 September 2026.

The TIAS Director introduced the Calls (both TIAS Call for Postdoctoral and Collegium Fellow positions and TIES2 MSCA COFUND Fellow Call), explained the applications and reviews process and answered questions. 

>> Slides of the information session

The recording will be added soon.

For more information on TIAS please see the TIAS website.

Further questions about the Call may be addressed to tias@utu.fi.

>> Instructions for applicants as a PDF document