How to Apply to the Institute?

The Collegium de Lyon employs a selection process designed to find the most high-level applications and the most innovative projects, while ensuring equality between the applicants, a transparent process and the respect of the data provided by applicants.

Applications may fall under a "white" program or within the framework of the themes of the Excellence Program carried by the Université de Lyon (LabEx, Institutes Convergence or University Research Schools-EUR), along with the chairs “Public policy transformation” at Science Po Lyon or "Education" at the Institut français de l'éducation in Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon.

The phases of the application process and the criteria for selection at each stage are described below and in the guidelines for applications. Advice for preparing an application is also included, as well as information about how we use the data you provide.

Specific information about applying, such as the link to the online application tool, are detailed in the calls for applications. 

 

The call for direct applications is open each year between June 30 and October 31. When an application is first created, it appears listed as "incomplete"; submitted applications are listed as "complete".

The staff of the Collegium de Lyon is available to assist applicants throughout the call for application, in particular applicants who are looking for a scientific partner on the academic site. We also check the submitted documents on a regular basis and let applicants know if any of their files are inadequate or corrupted. Any mistakes can be amended as long as the call for application is open. As a consequence, it is strongly advised not to wait until the very last minute to submit an application, because last-minute applications cannot be checked by the staff of the Collegium de Lyon for mistakes or missing documents in the application.

The call for applications closes on October 31 at midnight GMT+1/Paris time. After this date, applicants will no longer be able to edit their application, submit missing files or replace inadequate or corrupted files. Submitted applications will then be listed as "processing", and applications that have been created but not submitted are listed as "abandoned".

 

The Collegium de Lyon staff checks for the applications' admissibility. In addition to ensuring the presence of compulsory documents, the following four admissibility criteria are reviewed:

• Level of education: applicants must hold a PhD. Applicants who have not yet defended their dissertation may not apply.
• Professional status: only applications from researchers with a work employment contract (tenured or not) in a foreign higher education or research institution (French institutions abroad excluded), before, during and after their research stay at the Collegium de Lyon, are accepted. French applicants are admissible, if they match the above criteria.
• Mastery of the English language: Applicants are expected to master the English language sufficiently well to participate in the activities of the Institute.
• Scientific partnership with a laboratory of the Université de Lyon: the applicant must provide a letter of support from at least one research laboratory belonging to the Lyon-Saint-Etienne University justifying a partnership likely to lead to scientific cooperation during the stay.
• Adequacy of the project with the themes of the program of excellence in which it fits

The admissibility of the application is decided by the director of the Collegium de Lyon who will notably make sure of the support of the project by the directors of the program of excellence. An acknowledgment of admissibility or non-admissibility is automatically sent to the applicant. The application is then listed as "admissible" or as "rejected", accordingly.

 

The selection is made by the Collegium de Lyon’s Scientific Advisory Board during its yearly meeting. The advisory board selects applicants according to the following criteria:

• Quality of the profile of the applicant (experience, publications)
• Quality of the submitted project (in particular its innovative nature)
• Potential for integration in the Lyon/Saint-Etienne academic site and reasons for choosing Lyon
• Expected outcomes of the project

The Scientific Advisory Board also aims to gather a coherent, balanced cohort of researchers that covers a variety of fields of research, genders, ages and geographical origins of the applicants. A list of selected applicants, a ranked waiting list, and a list of non-selected applicants are prepared.

The selection of the Scientific Advisory Board is not communicated to applicants until it has been confirmed by the Executive Committee.

 

The list proposed by the Scientific Advisory board is reviewed by the Collegium de Lyon’s Executive Committee. The Committee checks that the selection is in keeping with the objectives provided by the Université de Lyon to the Collegium de Lyon and decides on the final selection.

Applicants are automatically notified of the results of the selection.

The reasons applicants were not selected will not be detailed formally. However, applicants who were not selected may contact the director of the Collegium de Lyon for advice on how they could improve their next application.

The selected applicants receive in the following week an official invitation letter detailing the conditions for a stay at the Collegium de Lyon, and specifying its duration and dates.

Associated Researchers

Outstanding foreign researchers who are staying temporarily in Lyon but did not apply to the Collegium de Lyon may be granted the status of Associated Researcher of the Collegium de Lyon, with no stipend, by the director of the Institute, after approval from the Executive Committee. This status enables them to participate in the academic life of the Institute, and to benefit from some of its services and resources. In particular, it is granted to the partners of the Collegium de Lyon fellows, if they are also scholars.

Coming to the Collegium implies an availability to work on an ongoing basis in Lyon, both within the Collegium to exchange with other fellows, and with your scientific partners in the laboratories of the Lyon-Saint-Étienne site.

A stay at the Collegium is thus incompatible with:

• the management of a department or research team and regular return trips to your home university; come discharged from your usual academic tasks to make the most of your stay at the Collegium!
• attending all the European conferences and congresses to which you usually do not have time to attend!
• distant field research, or regular work in a Parisian library; do it before or after your stay at the Collegium and use our rich local libraries!
• flying back to your country on a regular basis to return home; hence we strive to welcome you with your family in the best conditions in Lyon!