The Go8 European Fellowship scheme recognises the importance of international contacts for early career researchers. It is envisaged that Fellows will continue to collaborate with Australian research partners when they return to their home institutions.

> You are eligible to apply to be a Fellow if you:

a) have completed a PhD less than five years prior to application for the Fellowship;

b) are under 40 years of age at the time of application;

c) are a citizen of one of the designated countries listed above;

d) reside in one of the designated countries listed above (it need not be the same country as your citizenship);

e) have been employed (minimum half-time appointment) for at least six months prior to application by a university or research organisation (public or private) in one of the designated countries;

f) have sufficient competency in English to be able to adequately communicate with researchers in their host university;

g) are eligible to obtain an Australian Visiting Academic Visa (subclass 419) or equivalent Australian visa.

> Application process

Applications for 2010 Fellowships are now closed.

Applications for 2011 Fellowships will open in August 2010.

For information on how to apply for a visiting academic visa please click here.

Information about Go8 European Fellowship alumni 2007-2010 is available here.

> For further information:

Dr Malgorzata Kotula-Balak (Gosia) says accepting a Group of Eight European Fellowship was a big decision because Australia is so far from her home in Krakow, Poland. But she is delighted to have the opportunity of working with an international team of experts based at the University of Adelaide and with the very latest technology and equipment for research in her discipline of reproductive physiology and endocrinology.

Her research centres on the male reproductive system and specifically the role of a peptide called relaxin in fertility and the ageing process. She believes that a better understanding of relaxin has great potential benefits in human medicine.

The University of Adelaide was her first choice of all Group of Eight institutions because of its reputation for research in male reproductive physiology. She is working closely with Professor Richard Ivell and Dr Ravinder Anand with modern techniques, methodology and equipment she would not have access to at Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

Dr Kotula-Balak says the Go8 Fellowship is a great opportunity for her which will result in joint publications with her Australian and Polish academic supervisors by the end of the year and that her time in Adelaide will certainly lead to a life-long professional and personal connection with Australia.

Though admitting she misses the historic atmosphere in Krakow, she is delighted with Adelaide. "I feel very good here," she said. "The staff are very friendly and helpful so I have never felt alone. I love to walk to work every morning along the River Torrens. It's a very green city with fresh air."

Asked if she will make use of the Fellowship to see other parts of Australia she replies that her work is very intense and she won’t have much time to travel. She is hoping to squeeze in a few days on Kangaroo Island before heading home to her family in November.

Dr Zoltan Petres - Hungary

Coming from a European city like Budapest with its two million residents and centuries old history, Zoltan Petres finds life in Canberra a bit quiet for his liking. But he is delighted about the collaborative opportunities his Group of Eight European Fellowship at The Australian National University have made possible.

Dr Petres has been working with ANU and CSIRO experts in his field of complex systems modelling, a discipline that has huge benefits for a wide range of industries and particularly for small to medium enterprises (SMEs), on which the Australian economy is heavily reliant.

His employer in Hungary is the Computer and Automation Research Institute where, among other projects, he works with European industry giants like ThyssenKrupp and Knorr-Bremse and designs systems that will prevent trucks rolling over on icy roads.

In Australia for four months, Dr Petres was working on automatic text summarization, and has benefited from ANU's 3D virtual room and the CSIRO's advanced robot technology as well, both of which are not available to him in Budapest and will assist his own future research efforts.

Though he is looking forward to making his way home to Hungary for a Christmas involving hot wine and snow rather than beach and sun, he is confident the Go8 Fellowship will be the start of an ongoing collaborative research relationship with the ANU and Australia. Already there is potential for Australian involvement in a multi-lateral EU funded project to improve the efficiency of SMEs.

Dr Csaba Schneider - Hungary

Dr Csaba Schneider is no stranger to Australia, having completed his PhD at The Australian National University and postdoc work at The University of Western Australia in the 1990s.

He is now back and enjoying showing Perth and other parts of Australia to his partner and young family during his 5 months at UWA as one of the inaugural Group of Eight European Fellows.

Dr Schneider's research discipline is abstract group theory. He applied for the Fellowship because of the opportunity to work with Australian researchers who are recognised as some of the world leaders in this field.

He describes his academic supervisor and main research partner in Australia, UWA's Professor Cheryl Praeger as an "exceptional mathematician" with whom he hopes to continue a long- lasting research collaboration in future.

While group theory is classified as basic research, it has important applications in a range of other fields such as chemistry, geometry and theoretical physics.

Dr Dominik Rachon - Poland

Monash University is a very long way from his home town of Gdansk but this endocrinologist from Poland and Group of Eight Fellow says he feels a strong connection to Australia because its people are so open and friendly.

Dr Dominik Rachon arrived in Melbourne in late 2007 as one of four inaugural Go8 European Fellows who will spend up to six months working in a Go8 university. At the time he did not know anyone in Australia but in matters both professional and personal, he says he couldn't be happier. Within weeks of his arrival he was invited to spend Christmas with the family of a new colleague and to submit a review concerning postmenopausal hormone therapy for publication with his supervisor.

Dr Rachon says he particularly appreciates the opportunity to work with one of Australia's leading researchers in women's health, Professor Helena Teede at the Monash Institute of Health Services Research, with whom he will jointly publish an article before he returns to Poland.

The Go8 European Fellowships recognise the importance of international contacts for early career researchers and aim to help establish those contacts in Australia for talented young researchers from emerging European economies.

It may be the women of Australia who will benefit most from Dr Rachon's research given his particular interest and publication record on topics such as the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). His article, soon to be published in Climacteric - The Journal of the International Menopause Society, is based on data revealing that while oral HRT medication seems to increase the risk of blood clots, other methods such as patches which release oestrogen through the skin into the blood stream, when tailored to the needs of individual women, do not necessarily increase this risk.