University of Groningen - Dirk Smilde Fellowship

What the Dirk Smilde Fellowship offers

You spend 3 to 6 months as a visiting researcher at the Qumran Institute of the University of Groningen, the only centre in the Netherlands that specialises in the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Judaism. During your stay you work on your own research topic in early Judaism, the Hebrew Bible or the Dead Sea Scrolls, and you exchange ideas with the institute's staff and doctoral students. In return you run a monthly research seminar open to students and outside researchers, and you give the public Dirk Smilde Lecture. The fellowship is funded by the Smilde family through the university's Ubbo Emmius Fund and is awarded once every two years, usually in the spring term. The public sources do not state a fee or stipend for the fellow.

Who can apply

• Career stage: You are an established, internationally leading scholar, typically a professor. Students, PhD candidates and early-career researchers cannot take part.
• Field: Your work is in early Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls or a related area of ancient studies.
• Nationality: Scholars from anywhere in the world can be chosen.
• How you are chosen: The Qumran Institute invites the fellow directly. There is no open application call.

How realistic are your chances?

You cannot apply for this fellowship yourself. The Qumran Institute selects and invites one prominent scholar every two years, and past fellows have come from Oxford, Helsinki, Manchester and Aberdeen. It is an honour extended to leading names in the field, not a competition you enter. If you are a PhD student, postdoc or early-career researcher in the same subjects, look instead at the separate Dirk Smilde Scholarship (1,000 EUR per month for up to three months), which does take open applications.