Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS - Antonella Karlson Award

Antonella Karlson Award

You receive a one-off prize of 5,000 EUR that you can spend as you wish. It rewards one outstanding doctoral thesis in physics and/or mathematics and cannot be split between several people. The FRS-FNRS, Belgium's main funder of scientific research, gives the prize every two years in memory of a physicist of Bulgarian origin who lived in Belgium.

Who can apply

• Degree: You hold a doctorate and defended your PhD thesis in public within the award's two-year window. For the last call, this meant between January 2023 and December 2024.
• Field: Your thesis is in physics and/or mathematics.
• Where you studied: You defended your thesis at a university in the French-speaking part of Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels) or at Belgium's Royal Military Academy.
• Nationality: All nationalities can apply. You have an advantage if you did your bachelor's and/or master's in a Central or Eastern European country (such as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania or the Western Balkans), but this is a plus, not a requirement.
• Not yet rewarded: Your thesis has not already won another prize, apart from an honorary one.

How to apply

You send your application by email to the FNRS prize office by 3 March (midnight Brussels time). Write it in English. Your PhD supervisor must send a letter of recommendation to the same address. An independent expert jury then selects the winner. The jury can decide not to award the prize if no suitable candidate stands out.

You can find more scholarships in our guide Scholarships in Belgium.