Tallinn University

Call for Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellows

Call for Applications: Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow Workshop at Tallinn University

Join our team as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow!

Tallinn University invites outstanding researchers to apply for a fully funded grant-writing workshop designed to help secure the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship. This exclusive opportunity, hosted by the School of Governance, Law and Society (SOGOLAS), is tailored for scholars in International Relations (IR) and related fields. Join us in the vibrant and intellectually stimulating environment of Tallinn University, where innovation and academic excellence converge in the heart of Estonia.

Workshop Details:
  • Dates: June 8-12, 2026
  • Location: Tallinn University, Estonia (address: Tallinn, Narva mnt 25, 10125)
  • Funding: Fully funded, including accommodation, food during workshops, and tuition fees. We strive to cover your transportation costs in full. Due to funding limits, this depends on the origin destination, which means we might not be able to fund 100% of the cost. We are, however, committed to finding a way to help cover the full cost and are open to discussing this during the interview stage.
Why Join Tallinn University?

Tallinn University is a dynamic and forward-thinking institution known for its cutting-edge research and interdisciplinary approach. By participating in this workshop, you will:

  • Gain invaluable insights from experienced scholars and grant-writing experts.

  • Work in a supportive and collaborative research community.

  • Develop a competitive MSCA application with expert guidance.

  • Benefit from long-term mentoring and networking opportunities.

Eligibility and Requirements:
  1. Hold a PhD and have at most 8 years of full-time research experience by the time of the application. For information on how to calculate this, please see here. The full-time research experience includes the period of doctoral studies.
  2. Be committed to applying for the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship with Tallinn University's School of Governance, Law and Society (SOGOLAS) as the host institution. Please note that in case you committ to this but change your preference, we might act accordingly to protect our interests.
  3. Candidates should focus on the field of International Relations. Please note that candidate proposals should overlap with the research interests of either Prof Poopuu or Dr Klasche, the two mentors (for more information, see below).
Application Materials:

  • Motivation Letter (1 page): Describe your background, career plans, and why you wish to apply for the MSCA at Tallinn University.

  • Research Statement: Max. 3 pages (references excluded from page count, but should be provided) outlining your proposed project and its relevance to the supervisor’s expertise.

  • Detailed CV, including a list of publications.

Application Timeline:
  • Application Opens: January 9th, 2026
  • Application Closes: February 6th, 2026
  • Interview Date: second or third week of February 2026 (depending on agreement)
  • Notification to Candidates: February 27th, 2026
Workshop Highlights:
  • Intensive writing sessions and workshops led by senior academics with extensive grant-writing experience.
  • Review and analysis of past successful MSCA applications.
  • A collaborative environment to refine and perfect your application.
  • Post-workshop supervision and guidance.
  • Candidates will benefit from the newly launched CEEShub project´s wider network, including mentoring and workshop presentations by Prof Maria Mälksoo, and access to the academic communities of Copenhagen University, Tampere Peace Institute, and Tampere University, with whom we are partnered.
Selection Process: 

The selection process will be a collaborative effort between supervisors and research advisers at Tallinn University. Selected candidates will be notified for interviews as soon as possible after application submission, and will thereafter engage in joint preparation of their MSCA PF applications with their assigned supervisors, along with participating in the training workshop. After you were notified, we will arrange an interview with you. The notice of final acceptance will reach you by February 20th. After that, we will proceed with helping you arrange travel. 

We expect you to send us a first draft of your project before the workshop itself, during May. This can be a very loose draft based on the MSCA application form, which can be easily found here. For the draft, please focus on parts A and B (B1) of the application form and fill them to the best of your ability. It will help us comment, refine and develop your ideas during the workshop.

How to Apply: 

Candidates must submit their motivation letter, research statement, and CV by the application deadline - Friday, February 6th, 2026 (midnight Eastern European Standard Time) - to tonicerk@tlu.ee.

We look forward to receiving your applications and welcoming you to Tallinn University for an enriching and productive workshop.

Important Information:

In addition to being eligible for MSCA, applicants who submit their proposal with Tallinn University and pass the 70% threshold in the evaluation will qualify to have their projects funded through the incoming postdoctoral grants of the Estonian Research Council. This means that even if you do not win MSCA funding, you still have a high chance of getting a fully funded post-doc.

For any further questions, please contact Toni Čerkez: tonicerk@tlu.ee.

Supervisors

 

Birgit Poopuu (she/her) is Professor of International Relations and co-director of the Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEEShub) at Tallinn University’s School of Governance, Law, and Society. She is currently the Principal Investigator of European Horizon Twinning grant “A critical relational perspective on peace & security in CEE”. Her main research interests include politics of knowledge production in global politics, critical approaches to security and peace and conflict studies, and critical theoretical perspectives in International Relations. She is the author of The European Union’s Brand of Peacebuilding: Acting is Everything (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), and the co-editor of Knowledge and Expertise in International Relations: A Handbook (OUP, 2025). Her work is published in International Studies Quarterly, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS), and in the Companion to Peace and Conflict Fieldwork (Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2020).

Supervision topics: feminist and decolonial peace and conflict studies, Syrian revolution, critical (esp. feminist and de-colonial) security theory, relational theorizing in IR, politics of knowledge production in global politics. Full CV.

Benjamin Klasche is Associate Professor of International Relations, the Head of the International Relations Department, and Co-Director of the Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEEShub). Ben’s research focuses on critical-relational theorizing, human security and peace and climate governance and how all these things are deeply intertwined. I am also keenly interested in colonial history, post-colonial and post-socialist theories, and the politics of knowledge production, which lead me to questions about global solidarity between the Global South and the Global East.

Supervision topics: Governance of wicked problems, the Anthropocene, relational theory, critical security studies (esp. relational, feminist and de-colonial), relational methods in social sciences, postcolonial theory and the Global East. Full CV.