Foreign-based Greek scholars are invited to apply for the Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program (GDFP) run by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in collaboration with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Fulbright Foundation in Greece.
The GDFP is a scholar exchange program for Greek universities to host Greek scholars from the diaspora in the areas of collaborative research, curriculum co-development and/or graduate/undergraduate student mentoring and teaching.
In the pilot program, IIE supported 49 fellowships over two selection cycles, which created collaborative, mutually beneficial engagements between Greece and her academic diaspora.
In 2019, SNF renewed the GDFP for two application cycles to support the work of 75-80 fellows.
The initiative aims to make the most of the brain drain Greece has experienced in the wake of the economic crisis beginning in 2008.
SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos hopes that the program can make use of one of Greece’s greatest assets – the pool of talent, knowledge and experience in the Greeks of the diaspora.
“At a time when resources at Greek institutions are scarce, the GDFP formally and more fully activates unofficial lines of collaboration with Greece that have always existed. It encourages a flow of top scholars into Greece to teach and work with students, conduct research, and develop programming, resulting, rather than in brain drain, in global intellectual circulation,” Dracopoulos says.
Academics born in Greece or Cyprus who currently reside in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa or the United States and work at institutions of higher education can submit an application to the program. Those who hold Greek or Cypriot citizenship are also eligible for the fellowships.
The scholar can work with a specific host institution on a project request, or simply remain on the roster until a project which suits her or his expertise is submitted by a potential host in Greece.
Source: au.greekreporter.com