Postdoctoral Fellowships

• FELLOWSHIPS

The Scuola Superiore Meridionale (hereafter SSM) is seeking to award the following five two-year post­doctoral research contracts, full-time:

• n.1 post-doctoral research contract in in Cosmology, Space Science & Space Technology (SPACE)
• n.1 post-doctoral research contract in Law and Organizational Studies for the Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion (LOSPD)
• n.1 post-doctoral research contract in Testi, Tradizioni e Culture del Libro. Studi italiani e romanzi (TTCL)
• n.1 post-doctoral research contract in Clinical and Translational Oncology (CTO)
• n.1 post-doctoral research contract in Genomic and Experimental Medicine (GEM)

To be admitted to the selection process, the following requirements are necessary, under penalty of exclusion:

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

• Enjoyment of civil and political rights: those who are excluded from active political electorate are not allowed to apply;
• Not to have been convicted of any criminal offense incompatible with the status of public employee as entailing the application of forfeiture of employment per art. 127, first paragraph, letter d) of the Consolidated Law of the provisions concerning the status of civil employees of the State, issued with Presidential Decree no. 3 of January 10, 1957, or dismissal.
• Male candidates of Italian nationality born before 1985 are also required to be in compliance with the laws on military recruitment.

Candidates on non-Italian nationality are required to:

• Enjoy civil and political rights also in their country of origin or provenance;
• Meet the above requirements, if applicable, for by their country of origin.

No person who is related by kinship (up to and including the fourth degree) to a professor who belongs to the Steering Committee of the SSM or to the Director-General is eligible to participate to this selection procedure.

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS:

Candidates are required to

1) Possess, by the deadline of this call for applications, a PhD; those who will obtain their first Ph.D. degree no later than six months after the date in which the Call is published are also allowed to participate.

In this case, candidates are admitted to the selection with reservation, so that if they are selected but do not have obtained their degree by the above mentioned date, they will be declared ineligible;

2) if they hold a PhD degree issued by an Italian institution, to have completed, before the conclusion of the doctoral program, a stay abroad for training and research of at least 3 months. For applicants having carried out their PhD course at a site abroad (non-Italian), the requirement is considered automatically fulfilled. Applicants who declare that they were unable to participate in mobility abroad during their doctoral studies due to decisions made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency will be ad­mitted to the selection process with reservation, pending verification by the Administration of the effec­tive impossibility of mobility due to the containment measures adopted by the Italian government and the competent authorities and those deputated by them during the pandemic emergency.

3) fall under the category of “young researcher”: a researcher of any nationality who, for various reasons, has not yet gained consolidated experience in the management of research groups and is not in a con­tractual position that guarantees a stable career prospect in research. This definition includes all research­ers who, as of February 20, 2025, are 40 years of age or, for profiles aged over 40 and up to 45, have completed their PhD within the last 7 years and who find themselves in one or more of the following situations:

• Are able to declare that this is their first experience as a person responsible for funds and/or research activities;
• Are yet to acquire any experience in the leadership and management of a national and/or international research team;
• Do not have, or did not have before winning the European grant, a full time equivalent (FTE) contract of indefinite duration as a researcher and/or tenured professor.

Considering the nature of the research to be carried out, the following qualifications will be valid as preferential titles:

• A doctoral degree in one of the disciplinary fields referred to in the attached detailed sheets 01 to 05; excellent knowledge of the English language;
• Good knowledge of at least a second or third language in addition to the mother tongue.
• All candidates are admitted to the selection process referred to in this call for applications with reserva­tion.
• Applications are not accepted from whoever belongs to the following categories: full and associate university professors and researchers with permanent contracts – even if they are no longer in service due to retirement, voluntary resignation or dismissal;
• Permanent employees of universities, public research bodies and institutions whose scientific specializa­tion diploma has been recognized as equivalent to a PhD in accordance with art. 74, fourth paragraph of the decree of the President of the Republic July 11, 1980 n. 382; holders (or former holders) of fixed-term research contracts in tenure track, as per art. 24 of Law 240/2010, as amended by Law 79/2022 converting Decree Law 36/2022 (RTT) ;
• Those who have a degree of kinship or affinity, up to and including the fourth degree, with a professor who is a member of the Area Council that proposed the activation of the contract or with the Head of the School, the General Director or with a member of the Steering Committee.

Submission

Applications, as well as all the required attachments, are to be submitted – one for each profile to which the applicant is interested – EXCLUSIVELY through the online procedure accessed via the PICA application by June 27 2025, 14:00 Central European Time

Late applications as well as all those not submitted through the online procedure will not be accepted.

Start of the research contract

Successful applicants will be made aware of the procedures for stipulating the contracts. Fellowship have a two-year duration and are only renewable once.

Processing of personal data

In accordance with EU Regulation No. 679/2016, candidates are informed that the personal data they provide will be processed solely for the purposes of this procedure and the eventual establishment of the employment relationship and for purposes related to its management.

Referral to the unabridged official version

For any matter not mentioned in this call please refer to the Regulations for the awarding of grants for the conduct of research activities and the awarding of research contracts of the SSM and to the current provisions on the subject.

This document is an abstract of the original Italian language call by SSM “selezione pubblica, per titoli e colloquio, per l’assegnazione di n. 5 contratti di ricerca, a tempo pieno e della durata di 24 mesi, per l’assunzione di giovani ricercatori internazionali post-dottorato presso la Scuola Superiore Meridionale”. For details please refer to the unabridged official version in Italian, available at the following link: https://www.ssmeridionale.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Bando-contratti-di-ricerca-SSM.pdf The Italian-language version remains the only legally binding one.