MECAM Individual Residential Fellowships 2026-2027

The Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) invited applications for eight individual residential fellowships for postdoctoral and advanced researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The call covered the 2026-2027 fellowship period and was built around the theme “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity.” Applications closed on 2 March 2026 at 12:30 CEST. MECAM has since announced that nine researchers were selected for its 2026-2027 short-term cohort. The call page described six postdoctoral and two advanced researcher places; the later cohort notice reports the number selected, rather than changing the original call terms.

This page is a historical reference, not an open application listing. MECAM’s official call history continues to list the 2026-2027 notice as its latest annual individual fellowship call; its other current notices include different kinds of programmes, such as longer-term fellowships. The centre has not announced a successor annual individual call on the official pages checked for this update. Keep the archived deadline in mind when reading the details below; the closed application platform is not accepting late applications.

MECAM fellowship 2026-2027 at a glance

What MECAM is

MECAM is an international centre for interdisciplinary research and academic exchange located at the Université de Tunis. Its work brings together researchers and institutions connected to the Maghreb, the Middle East, Europe, and other regions. The centre is coordinated by the Philipps-Universität Marburg and the Université de Tunis, with support from the Universität Leipzig, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, the Forum Transregionale Studien, and the University of Sfax.

The fellowship is designed for a scholar with a developed project, not for a short introductory visit. Fellows work on a self-chosen research project while taking part in the centre’s academic life. The official call describes regular work at MECAM offices, on-site seminars and colloquia, presentations to co-fellows, and cooperation with colleagues from Tunisian universities. The arrangement is residential: projects should be sufficiently advanced that they do not depend on extensive fieldwork outside Tunis during the stay. Fieldwork in Tunis, or in a neighbouring Maghreb state in exceptional circumstances, may form part of a project when it does not conflict with the residence obligation.

MECAM also expects fellows to contribute to the collective programme. The call specifies weekly in-person colloquia, a MECAM paper, and a substantial role in organizing two in-person workshops connected with the MECAM Spectrum event week. Fellows can develop an article, essay, policy paper, book, report, or another suitable research output. The point is not to prescribe a single publication format; it is to create a setting where individual work is tested through sustained exchange.

Research theme and Interdisciplinary Research Fields

Applicants had to connect their proposal to the guiding theme “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity” and at least one of five Interdisciplinary Research Fields (IRFs). The theme asks how people and institutions imagine possible futures while living with unequal access to resources, mobility, recognition, safety, political power, or social opportunity. A convincing project needed to make that relationship concrete rather than use disparity as a general label.

The five IRFs were:

• Aesthetics & Cultural Practice: how aesthetic forms and cultural practices express and renegotiate models of the future, and how political and social transformations affect cultural work.
• Inequality & Mobility: social and economic inequalities, insecurity, mobility, and the ways that policy decisions can restrict or enable movement while mobility can also deepen or reduce inequality.
• Memory & Justice: legal, political, and cultural interpretations of the past, including accountability, fact-finding, amnesty, judicial reform, human-rights claims, and competing sources of law.
• Resources & Sustainability: environmental problems, socio-economic disparity, extractive or rentier economic models, and the question of what a politically, socially, and ecologically sustainable future might require.
• Identities & Beliefs: competing religious, ethnic, national, local, ideological, and other belief systems, together with the unequal ways that different communities experience and describe possible futures.

The strongest fit would have made the Maghreb central to the research question. That connection could involve a primary research site, archives, cultural production, political institutions, migration networks, comparative work, or another clearly explained relation. A project did not need to be confined to one country, but it needed to show why the Maghreb mattered to the project’s argument and how the work would contribute to discussion with MECAM colleagues.

Eligibility

The 2026-2027 call was open to researchers from all countries, including Tunisia, and to researchers of all ages and genders. It welcomed independent scholars and researchers without a current institutional affiliation. Applicants did not need to be affiliated with a MECAM partner institution.

The intended career stages were postdoctoral and advanced researchers. The FAQ defined postdoctoral researchers, in general, as people who had completed the PhD no more than four years earlier, and advanced researchers as people who had completed it at least five years earlier. Current doctoral students and PhD candidates were not eligible. The call also stated that applicants were expected to have published academic articles or books before applying. These were the criteria for the closed 2026-2027 round; anyone considering a later MECAM call should use that call’s own eligibility rules, since they may change.

MECAM’s working languages are English, French, and Arabic. Applicants were expected to communicate in at least two of those languages, while the application itself had to be submitted in English or French. That language requirement is separate from the research proposal’s regional focus: a project could be written in English or French, but the applicant needed enough language range to participate in the centre’s exchanges.

Funding and practical support

MECAM did not publish one universal euro amount for this fellowship. Instead, it stated that the centre would conclude an individual agreement with each selected fellow before arrival. The financial arrangement follows a “no gain, no loss” principle: the grant is intended to let the invited researcher pursue the project and participate in MECAM activities without loss of income. The call promises a monthly stipend for the fellowship period, but the exact value depends on the individual agreement and circumstances. Since there is no published fixed amount, applicants could not calculate a standard award from the call page alone.

Additional support can include reimbursement of travel from the fellow’s place of residence to Tunis and the return journey, relocation expenses such as extra luggage and visa fees, and research-related expenses. The FAQ says that original receipts and boarding passes are required for relevant travel reimbursements. Allowances may contribute to rental and accommodation costs in Tunis. The coordination office provides the detailed eligible-expense and reimbursement procedures to successful applicants.

This is a fellowship agreement, not an employment relationship. The official FAQ says that MECAM does not make contributions to pension or unemployment insurance. It also states that the stipend is tax-free in Germany, while fellows must determine whether that treatment is recognized in their home country. Applicants should therefore read the individual agreement carefully and obtain their own tax and insurance advice where needed.

Application materials for the closed round

Applications had to be submitted through the secure online platform of the Forum Transregionale Studien, MECAM’s partner institution for processing application data. Email applications were not considered. The application had to be written in English or French and submitted by the archived deadline shown above.

The required uploads were:

1. Curriculum vitae including publications: two to three pages, focused enough to show the applicant’s research profile and relevant outputs.
2. Research proposal: a short project abstract of no more than 1000 words. The official FAQ says that a short bibliography was included in that project-outline page count.
3. One recent writing sample: a published or forthcoming journal article, book chapter, or thesis chapter.
4. Detailed alignment and engagement explanation: one to two pages explaining the connection to the Maghreb, the relationship to the main theme and at least one IRF, the applicant’s intended engagement with MECAM, the fellowship’s significance for career development, and the concrete goals to be accomplished during the stay.
5. Two referees: names and contact details for university faculty members or practitioners in a field relevant to the project. Letters of recommendation were not required at submission, although the FAQ says applicants had to provide two references from academics who knew their work.

A good application would have connected these pieces rather than treating them as separate paperwork. The abstract needed to identify a specific question, materials, method, and expected contribution. The alignment statement needed to explain why MECAM’s Maghreb-centred and interdisciplinary setting would change or strengthen the project. The writing sample needed to demonstrate the same level of clarity and evidence promised by the proposal. Referees needed enough information about the project to respond meaningfully if contacted.

How the residency was structured

The selected fellows were expected to live in Tunis for up to eight months and use MECAM’s shared office workspaces as their primary work base. The programme combined individual research with regular in-person activity: seminars, colloquia, presentations, discussion with co-fellows, and contact with scholars from Tunisian universities and MECAM’s wider network. The official call also mentions a Study Day in early December and an Event Week, MECAM Spectrum, in mid-April. Fellows help shape those activities and invite external guests.

The centre offers publication facilities for open-access and peer-reviewed formats through MECAM and its partners. It also provides logistical support connected with travel, accommodation, and field research in Tunisia, as well as a secure digital workspace and other digital tools for exchange. Those benefits support a working research community; they do not turn the fellowship into an unrestricted travel grant or a promise of a fixed cash award.

Status and official source

The 2026-2027 application window has ended, and the cohort has been selected. The deadline in this record is the actual closing date printed in the call. historicalReference = true identifies the page as an archive entry instead of an expired live listing. MECAM’s 2026-2027 introduction-week announcement says nine researchers were selected for short-term fellowships of up to eight months. That public update records the outcome; the original call itself offered six postdoctoral and two advanced researcher places.

The official call and its linked PDF are the primary records for the archived application requirements and funding terms. MECAM’s call-history page still lists this as its latest annual individual fellowship call. MECAM has announced other opportunities, including long-term fellowships, but those are distinct calls and do not provide a new deadline for the annual short-term individual fellowship described here. No successor annual individual call or application date appears in the official notices checked for this update. Researchers interested in a future round should check MECAM’s call history and fellowship pages and use the eligibility rules and instructions published for that specific round.

Official sources: MECAM Individual Fellowships 2026-2027 call, official call history, and 2026-2027 cohort announcement