Oberwolfach Research Fellows

In order to react to the current crisis which is connected with reduced scientific contacts at home universities and international travel restrictions, the MFO offers  the possibility to apply for an Oberwolfach Research Fellowship:

• Single researchers or groups up to four people can apply.
• The research stay should have a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of three months.
• Junior researchers and post-docs can apply for full scholarships and travel support.
• A description of the research project, a scientific cv and a publication list should be submitted by email to fellows@mfo.de (each document should have about 2 pages in pdf format).
• For junior researchers, inclusion of a recommendation letter by a senior researcher is suggested.

The MFO offers free lodging and board. In a limited number of cases also travel support and full scholarships similar as for Oberwolfach Leibniz Fellows are possible. There is no condition that the participants of a group have to come from different places (as in the Research in Pairs program) and also single senior researchers are eligible. With an accelerated evaluation process, decision on the proposals is planned within 3-4 weeks. Thus the fellowship offers more flexibility than the traditional MFO programs Oberwolfach Leibniz Fellows and Research in Pairs.

This fellowship is in particular interesting for researchers who still have the possibility to travel to the MFO, but had to cancel another research stay because of international travel restrictions. Collaborators of the fellows and research groups from abroad who cannot travel to the MFO can participate in a research project using our new online conference tools. As usual, the full MFO infrastructure (in particular the library) is available for our guest researchers.

Small collaborations

Due to worldwide travel restrictions in view of the corona pandemic the Mathematical Research Institute Oberwolfach (MFO) has limited additional capacity for small collaborations among groups in specific weeks before June 2021. To bridge unsurmountable travel restrictions the MFO invites applications from researchers who want to organize small scale, week-long interactive mini-workshops or seminars jointly between the MFO and their own institution. For example, a group of 4-10 researchers able to travel to Oberwolfach may team up with a group of similar size at an institution far away to run an activity combining intense personal interaction locally in each of the two places with a certain number of joint zoom lectures and discussions. Applications with a short description of the research activity proposed and a list of proposed participants at the MFO and the other institution should be sent to fellows@mfo.de.

The MFO has developed new hygiene measures for hand desinfection, accommodation, lecture halls and individual meal services to make a research stay as safe as possible. In particular, guest researchers can be seated in our working and lecture areas with a safety distance of 1.5 meters and all meals will be served individually. More information can be found on the MFO's website: https://www.mfo.de/for-guest-researchers/during-your-stay/hygiene-infection-prevention

Of course, we ask all our guests to make a responsible decision about their visit at the MFO and, if necessary (e.g. due to respiratory symptoms and/or recent contacts with an infected person or stays in risk areas) cancel their participation.

In accordance with the gradual opening of restrictions in Germany due to the corona crisis, the MFO does now fulfill all requirements for hosting small research groups. Please note that the MFO cannot forsee possible changes in future contact and travel restrictions by the government, thus we cannot give any guarantee that the research stay can be realized during the applied period. We recommend to make travel arrangements flexible/refundable as we cannot reimburse expenses in case of force majeure.