Simons Visiting Professors

The Simons Visiting Professors (SVP) program is funded by the Simons Foundation. Each year, the program supports up to 32 Simons Visiting Professors. These are distinguished scientists from outside Europe, who wish to combine an invitation to an Oberwolfach Workshop, Mini-Workshop or Arbeitsgemeinschaft with research visits to European universities or research institutes. Both early-career researchers and experienced researchers can apply.

Key features

Simons Visiting Professors can be supported for visits of up to three European universities or research institutes (i.e. host institutes), taking place within 1-3 weeks before or after the related Oberwolfach activity. The program provides each SVP with support from Oberwolfach amounting to 150 Euro per day of the visit of the host institute(s). The participating host institutes are required to provide accommodation for the duration of the visit at the university/institute, as well as travel expenses within Europe between Oberwolfach and the host institute, as a matching of this support.

Benefits for the parties involved

This partnership between the MFO and host institutes providing matching funds is designed to benefit the scientists, the MFO and participating institutions equally by making efficient use of travel funds and travel time in carefully planned combined visits. In this way attendance in an Oberwolfach activity can be combined with individual collaborations and lectures at European universities and other research institutions. The program also helps to quickly disseminate new research results from Oberwolfach activities directly to a wide audience of researchers and students at participating institutions.

How to become a Simons Visiting Professor

The SVP awards are decided by the director upon proposals by the candidates and nomination by the organizers of the related Oberwolfach activity. The number of SVP awards per activity is limited. Organizers can act as a host for a SVP, but not as SVP themselves. The program addresses both experienced and early-career researchers.

Prerequisites

  • Candidates are invited participants to one of the following eligible Oberwolfach activities: Workshops, Mini-Workshops, Arbeitsgemeinschaften (study groups).
  • Candidates are scientists from outside Europe and hosts are scientists at a European university/institute.
  • Candidates and hosts have agreed on the conditions of support (cf. details in the proposal form) and the schedule.

Formal procedure

In advance:

  1. Interested participants of an eligible Oberwolfach activity fill out the proposal form and submit it to the organizers of the activity, with the request to nominate them.
  2. If the organizers decide to nominate a proposal, they sign the corresponding section of the proposal form and forward the nominated proposal to the MFO administration.
  3. In case of an approval by the director of the MFO, the candidate will be requested
    1. to confirm his participation in the SVP program and provide the necessary details for the payment of the grant using the guest confirmation form.
    2. to collect the confirmation(s) of the participating host institute(s) using the host confirmation form and submit them to the MFO administration.

After the visits in Oberwolfach and the host institute(s):

  1. The SVP sends a short activity report of 1-2 pages (cf. requirements) to Oberwolfach not later than 2 weeks after ending his visits at Oberwolfach and at the host institute(s).
  2. The participating host institute(s) send their financial statements to the MFO, confirming the stay of the SVP and the final amounts of support.
  3. The MFO transfers the support of 150 EUR per day of the visit at the host institution(s) to the SVPs bank account (note that the received amount depends on exchange rate and bank fees).

Acknowledgement of support

Simons Visiting Professor awards will be acknowledged by the MFO in the Oberwolfach Report of the Workshop/Mini-Workshop/Arbeitsgemeinschaft.

We also kindly ask Simons Visiting Professors to acknowledge the support received through the SVP program in subsequent publications that result from or are substantially based on their participation in the Oberwolfach activity and their subsequent SVP research visit(s). Information on these publications is also greatly appreciated.

Previous Simons Visiting Professors