The scheme offering a six-month stay in Einstein’s cottage
Considering its wide eligibility and what it offers—five to six months in the garden cottage of Albert Einstein’s summerhouse in Caputh, Brandenburg, Germany—it is perhaps surprising that the Einstein Forum and the Wittenstein Foundation have not had to restrict applications in some way to their Einstein fellowships.
Happily, the fellowship is once again open to researchers under the age of 35, based anywhere in the world, who want some time away to pursue a project in a different field from their previous research.
The fellowship favours those who are open to interdisciplinary approaches, in particular, following the example set by Einstein himself.
In addition to accommodation, the successful fellow will receive a stipend of €10,000 and reimbursement of travel expenses. Applicants do not need to have a permanent post in a university. The deadline is 15 May.
Shyam Wuppuluri, an independent researcher based in Maharashtra, India, was a recipient of the fellowship in 2021. Here, he talks about what he kept in mind.
What’s your project about?
I examined two important world views that science deploys: one is holism, looking top-down on a phenomenon, and the other is reductionism, which is about working bottom-up from the detail. I looked at how science could benefit from unifying these opposites.
In biology, for instance, you cannot get everything out of studying the genetic structure of an organism. You need to know a lot of other context.
How was the application?
The application procedure was pretty easy, but what was quite challenging was that they look for interdisciplinary work.
All of my earlier projects had been interdisciplinary in nature, but still I specified openness to other disciplines as being one of the goals of my work.
What else did you keep in mind?
They’re quite generous in that it can be the start of a bigger project, but I disciplined myself to accept the need to have a structure and timeline for my project.
It’s very easy to get lost in abstraction and end up not producing anything at the end.
I did write what the outcome would be, though I don’t think they judged purely based on that.
The most important part is to justify why you ought to stay at Einstein’s house and why you need this time to do this research. Why this fellowship? Why me? These were questions I kept in mind.
What were your answers?
I don’t remember exactly but I always think of these two questions to contextualise and situate myself and the fellowship in the larger scheme of things.
Since I teach at a school, my explanation of why I need that much time and space is obvious, and this may not apply to those who already work in a research environment.
What were the outcomes and outputs you specified?
I specified I would aim to publish a book on the topic and, luckily, I could indeed publish it. But that wasn’t ironclad.
The only thing the forum expects is to summarise the work through a lecture at the end of the stay.
Which other possible sources would have been available to you for this project?
This is a highly unique fellowship, but it’s highly underrated; most people do not even know about it.
I don’t see many other places that give this sort of access—and especially if you want to research in solitude, this would be the perfect option.
What are the surroundings like?
It’s a place that has its own charm in the middle of the forest; it’s mystical in certain ways. You stay there and spend a lot of time just thinking, and then you can always visit the Einstein Forum nearby and go and visit libraries and so on.
A lot of goalless learning happens there. I don’t think there is any other fellowship that has a structure like this. It’s quite flexible, quite open, and people are extremely supportive.
It is still pretty prestigious—what do you think helped you win through?
I am not from an Ivy League university or whatever. Beyond what I have already mentioned, I had one thing on my mind: I was going to be brutally honest and not fit the proposal around the fellowship opportunity; I already had a strong proposal that matched this fellowship.
I would recommend to all other applicants to just be as honest as possible.
What about the interview?
It’s true that when people get shortlisted, they might get very intimidated because you do have a video interview with all board members—at least 10 of them—and these are top leaders in those fields. But this was one of the best interviews I ever did in my life.
The panel made sure I was extremely comfortable and were extremely kind, which was not something one might expect. I did also admit things I was not sure about when answering questions. I think that helped me; honesty saves everybody’s time.
This is an extract from an article in Research Professional’s Funding Insight service. To subscribe contact sales@researchresearch.com