AIAS-AUFF Postdoctoral Fellowships at Aarhus Institute 2026/2027

The Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies runs an interdisciplinary research centre where fellows from unrelated disciplines work in the same building and are expected to talk to each other. The AIAS-AUFF fellowships are its main intake, and ten are available in this round.

Who can apply

The fellowships are open to applicants of all nationalities at postdoctoral level, in any field. The Institute deliberately takes physicists alongside historians and legal scholars, because the cross-disciplinary exchange is the point of the place rather than a side effect. What is assessed is the quality of the proposed project and the candidate's record, not the fit to a departmental priority.

What the fellowship provides

This is employment, not a stipend. Fellows receive a salary based on seniority, with employment conditions and wages regulated through the Danish collective union agreements. That distinction matters in practice: it brings pension contributions, holiday entitlement and the legal protections of a Danish employment contract rather than the looser status of a grant holder. Relocation travel costs are covered and relocation assistance is provided. The term runs for twenty-three months.

Deadline and timing

The deadline for applications is 3 November 2026 at 12.00 noon CET. Note that it closes at midday, not at end of day. The fellowship itself begins on 1 September 2027, so there is a long gap between decision and start, which is useful for arranging a move but also means the proposal has to still make sense the better part of a year later.

Before you apply

Write the proposal for an audience outside your discipline, because the panel will include people who do not share your vocabulary. A project that only reads as important to specialists tends to lose to one that explains why it matters to anyone. The long lead time also lets you be ambitious about what the two years can deliver.