New HAIreconnect grants
The HAIreconnect programme invites research alumni to apply for a grant that allows them to return to Heidelberg for a brief research stay; the application deadline is 15 September 2018. This time, the grants are available exclusively to participants of the Kyoto Network Conference of this past April and to junior researchers whose names were submitted by the alumni. A HAI-funded research stay of up to ten days offers the chance to meet other researchers and initiate new projects, renew or intensify existing cooperation programmes or work on a research project in Heidelberg. The visiting researchers can also present their work and their research institution during an event in Heidelberg. Additional suggestions are always welcome. The planned HAIreconnect stays in Heidelberg may be scheduled until the end of 2019.
The HAIreconnect programme is generally intended for international research alumni who obtained their doctorate in Heidelberg or worked there as junior or senior academics and are currently continuing their research in their home country or another country. Over the course of earlier application rounds, a total of 56 research alumni from 27 countries were granted a travel and accommodation allowance for a brief stay in Heidelberg. This latest call for applications is aimed specifically at the participants of the Research Alumni Network Conference, who can either apply themselves or suggest junior researchers for the grant. Applicants should also be willing to take an active part in the Research Alumni Network and serve as ambassadors of Heidelberg University among their colleagues and students. Applications can be submitted via a form in the HAI internet portal. The grant covers a maximum of 100 euros per day for up to ten days. Facts and information on the HAIreconnect programme and the latest application round are available here and in a special information leaflet (PDF) . If you have questions on the programme, please send an e-mail to research@alumni.uni-heidelberg.de.
Dr Tommaso Beggio from Italy is a good example of a successful career path after a HAIreconnect stay. The jurist, who is in the process of earning his teaching credentials in Italy and currently works at the University of Helsinki, is the only successful jurist among 24 people selected from approximately 150 applicants for the ‘Programma per giovani ricercatori Rita Levi Montalcini’, which is comparable to German programmes intended to persuade researchers working abroad to return to Germany. This means that Tommaso Beggio has an excellent chance of obtaining a professorship at an Italian university in the near future. In October 2014, the expert in Roman law was a guest of Prof. Dr Christian Baldus at the Institute for History of Law. During his research stay, he teamed up with Dr Filippo Bonin—another HAIreconnect fellow—to offer a workshop in which students could present their current research focus and work together on handouts with documentary material. Tommaso Beggio used his stay at Heidelberg University to further his research on ‘Paul Koschaker and Roman law’. ‘My research stays in Heidelberg enabled me to do a large part of my work on a European research project that eventually led to the publication of a monograph on Paul Koschaker and Roman law in Germany in the first half of the 20th century’, he says. They also provided the groundwork for his new research project on Roman criminal law, which he submitted in his application for the repatriation programme. ‘That is why I want to intensify my research contacts with Heidelberg University in the coming years.’ Tommaso Beggio has been a long-time supporter of the reception of German-language science in Italy and has contributed in numerous ways to German-Italian initiatives.
