"The Central European Initiative intends to strengthen its CEI Research Fellowship Programme both in terms of quantity and quality, i.e. increasing the number of fellowship-years while improving the fellows’ employment conditions. The CEI Research Fellowship Programme was established in 2005 under the aegis of the CEI Science & Technology Network, promoted by the CEI along with six Trieste-based centres of excellence with the purpose of enhancing scientific cooperation across its region. This proposal aims at reinforcing the CEI Research Fellowship Programme: it will cover a period of 44 months and envisage 30 incoming fellowships (12 months each) to be awarded to experienced researchers from CEI countries. Annual calls will be advertised through the CEI networks of experts and communication tools, disseminated on the occasion of CEI sponsored events and during both institutional and technical meetings. Researchers will be selected by an ad hoc Committee, whose composition will follow the “European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for their Recruitment”; fellows will be given the opportunity to carry out research in one of the 5 partner institutions (International Centre for Theoretical Physics - ICTP; International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology - ICGEB; Cluster in Biomedicine - CBM; International School for Advanced Studies – SISSA; Synchrotron – ELETTRA), which altogether cover a large spectrum of highly relevant scientific research such as physics, maths, genetics, biotechnology, neuroscience, nano-science, bioinformatics. This will allow a considerable freedom of choice as to research topics, in line with the bottom-up approach pursued by all “Marie Curie Actions”. By exploiting synergies between the Community action and the regional impact of its Research Fellowship Programme, the CEI will be able to strengthen trans-national mobility of researchers and to offer them excellent conditions for the development of their careers."