ESO Fellowship program for 2021/2022 open for applications

ESO has announced its Fellowship Programme for 2021/2022, with positions available in both Europe and Chile. The application closing date is 15 October 2021 for both locations. 

The Garching Fellowship positions (in Germany) are for three years. These positions give successful applicants an opportunity to develop independent research programs, with 25 percent of their time expected to be spent on ‘functional’ work within the ESO organisation.

The Chile Fellowships will go over four years and include enhanced responsibilities and duties. There will be a requirement for Fellows to work with science cases outside their own field of research and work independently. Also, successful applicants must devote more effort to operational tasks – with up to 50 percent of their time to be spent on service activities, working with ESO users at one of the observatory sites. In addition, Fellows are also expected to join an instrumentation team – providing a valuable opportunity to improve their technical, operational, project management and data skills. One of the best advantages of the Chile Fellowship is that successful applicants can choose to spend their 4th year in Santiago (or possibly within a Chilean research institution, making use of Chilean telescope allocations). They may also be able to spend this 4th year at ESO HQ in Garching, or at any astronomy/astrophysics institute in an ESO Member State (including Australia). 

More information on ESO’s Fellowship programme can be found via the ESO recruitment portal. 

In conjunction with the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, AAL promotes these and other ESO opportunities to the Australian astronomy community. As part of the 10-year Strategic Partnership between the Australian Government and ESO, Australian citizens are granted the same opportunities as citizens of an ESO member country to apply for job vacancies with ESO. Opportunities arise regularly on the ESO jobs website – please visit the ESO recruitment portal to stay up-to-date with current postings.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is currently an Australian Government ban on general overseas travel. Individuals may be able to apply for exceptions, however, for reasons relating to employment. Please see this link for more on the current Australian Government travel guidelines.

For more information on the Strategic Partnership between Australia and ESO, please contact AAL Program Manager, Dr Stuart Ryder. For more on Australia’s involvement with ESO and for information on using ESO facilities, please go to AAL’s Australian ESO Forum.