Why this programme?
A key moment in the career of postdoctoral researchers is the opportunity to present their work to, and network with, leading principal investigators (PIs) in their field. These presentations allow them to build their professional networks and their scientific reputation and advance their career. Therefore, the EU-LIFE Postdoc Initiative has started an exchange programme for postdoctoral researchers in the EU-LIFE network that supports them to showcase their research to prospective PIs and build lasting professional relationships.
Guidelines and conditions
Please have a look at the detailed programme guidelines and steps to apply. In short, you can participate in the programme if:
- You are a postdoctoral researcher under contract in one of the EU-LIFE institutes listed in the 'Availability' section.
- You want to present your work to a PI/research group in the EU-LIFE alliance.
- Your institute has not yet supported another postdoc in this exchange programme this calendar year (you can check this in the 'Availability' section below).
- You have sent a motivation letter and CV to the EU-LIFE office (contact@eu-life.eu), you have contacted the PI for whom you want to present your work, they have agreed to host a seminar where you present and you have notified the EU-LIFE office (contact@eu-life.eu) of this.
If you fulfil these criteria, your institute can sponsor your travel and a one-night stay.*
*Each institute can support one traveling postdoc in 2026. The exact costs covered are stipulated by the travel guidelines of the applicant's institute.
Availability
For 2026, these are the EU-LIFE institutes that still have availability to support one of their postdocs in the Postdoctoral Exchange Programme (all of them can receive postdocs from other institutes):
- CRG (Barcelona, Spain)
- CEITEC (Brno, Czech Republic)
- IEO (Milan, Italy)
- VIB (Ghent, Belgium)
- FMI (Basel, Switzerland)
- Institut Curie (Paris, France)
- FIMM (Helsinki, Finland)
- IMBB-FORTH (Heraklion, Greece)
- GIMM (Oeiras, Portugal)
- IIMCB (Warsaw, Poland)
- MDC (Berlin, Germany)
- CeMM (Vienna, Austria)
- RBI (Zagreb, Croatia)
- The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK)
- NKI (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
- BRIC (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Testimonials
“The EU-LIFE Postdoc seminar not only allowed me to present my work at the CRG, it also provided me with some nice feedback after the presentation. This ranged from general enthusiasm and interest around my CRISPR tools, to suggestions on refinements and even diving into the technical details I only touched on in the presentation. Our chats helped to galvanise a change in strategy to circumvent the limitations in nanopore sequencing read recovery rates for a given input library. Such post-presentation interactions underscore the added value of presenting on-site and being around for the rest of the day.”
James William Bryson, Postdoctoral researcher at BRIC
“My visit was extremely well organized by my host PI and turned out to be very productive, especially in view of my plan to open my own lab in the Île-de-France region. I met with PIs in my field both at Institut Curie and outside, all of whom were very supportive of my potential move. I established good connections that will undoubtedly help me integrate into the community of cytoskeleton biology more smoothly, while also building visibility, which I find important for thriving in scientific research. Hence, this visit had a significant impact on my future plans, and I came back very grateful for the opportunity.”
Cláudia Brito, Postdoctoral researcher at CRG