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Researchers in exile are most likely to rebuild their careers when a university gives them meaningful academic work—not only emergency money or a temporary desk. A research appointment, seminar role, collaborative project or teaching opportunity restores professional identity while allowing the host institution to use expertise it did not previously have.
Safety, immigration help and financial support remain essential foundations. They do not, by themselves, solve the barriers that determine whether a displaced scholar can stay in academia: language, credentials, professional networks, family responsibilities, trauma, short grant cycles and uncertainty about what happens when the grant ends.
Contribution is an integration mechanism
Exile often interrupts more than a person’s location. It can break access to laboratories, archives, students, co-authors, salaries, professional status and the institutions that validate a research career. Treating a scholar only as a recipient of aid can unintentionally preserve that isolation.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A defined academic role changes the relationship. A host department might invite the researcher to lead a seminar, join a funded project, co-supervise students, teach within their expertise or publish with colleagues. Those activities create evidence of current work, introduce the scholar to the department’s networks and let colleagues understand what the researcher can contribute.
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PAUSE, the French programme hosted by the Collège de France with government and institutional partners, expresses the principle plainly: “By offering them our assistance we are safeguarding knowledge and research which can benefit us all.” The benefit is not abstract charity. It can include new research questions, access to regional expertise, language or area knowledge, and links to communities that a host university could not easily reach.
What effective support includes
A real research position
The appointment should state the researcher’s project, departmental home, supervision arrangements, access to facilities and authorship expectations. Even when a fellowship is temporary, the scholar needs the rights and practical access required to do the work promised in the application.
Visibility through teaching and presentation
Seminars, conference participation, guest lectures and carefully scoped teaching assignments help a researcher demonstrate expertise in the host system. Universities should pay for required work, explain local teaching and assessment rules, and avoid treating unpaid speaking as a substitute for a position.
Mentoring and professional networks
A named academic mentor can introduce the researcher to grant teams, laboratories, doctoral programmes, learned societies and employers beyond the host department. Mentoring works best when it has scheduled meetings, clear goals and more than one contact, so the scholar is not dependent on a single relationship.
Language, administration and credential recognition
Language classes should be connected to practical academic tasks such as writing a grant summary, teaching a class or handling student supervision. Administrative staff can help with contracts, tax, health care, housing, immigration paperwork and research-compliance training. Universities should explain how foreign degrees, publications and professional experience are evaluated instead of leaving the scholar to infer the rules.
Support for families and wellbeing
Relocation decisions often include partners, children and relatives. Information about schooling, childcare, health services and transport can determine whether a researcher can accept an appointment. Trauma-informed counselling and confidential referral routes should be available without making a mental-health disclosure a condition of academic support.
What recent evidence shows
A 2026 Swedish study by Lototska, Eklund and von Essen interviewed 30 displaced Ukrainian academics and five representatives from four universities. Participants identified language and cultural differences, limited networks, short funding cycles and uneven coordination as obstacles to entering and remaining in Swedish academia. The study also found that sustainable institutional strategies could benefit both researchers and host communities.
The network effect is especially important. Prior contacts often determine who hears about an opening, receives an introduction or learns how a university’s hiring process works. An open call alone may therefore reproduce inequality if applicants without local contacts cannot interpret the opportunity or secure a departmental sponsor.
Time is another design issue. The Inspireurope report identifies transition planning as central: a university and researcher should discuss, from the beginning, a route to a regular fellowship, an academic job or suitable work outside academia. No programme can promise a permanent post, but leaving the question until the final month makes a difficult transition harder.
Programmes that illustrate different approaches
| Programme | What it provides | Published scale or term | What applicants should verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scholars at Risk (SAR) | An international academic-freedom network that arranges temporary academic-refuge positions and urges institutions to support scholars affected by attacks. | Its Free to Think 2025 report records more than 160 temporary positions arranged during the year covered. | Host-institution sponsorship, position length, salary, family assistance, visa route and options after the appointment. |
| PAUSE | Researchers join French research units and receive funding, administrative help and professional-integration support; the programme also reports assistance with longer-term employment. | Current call terms vary. | Discipline eligibility, host-unit commitment, language expectations, renewal rules and post-programme employment support. |
| Philipp Schwartz Initiative | The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation offers full fellowships in German universities and research institutions, coordinated with SAR, the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund and the Council for At-Risk Academics. | Current fellowship duration and allowances depend on the call. | Host nomination requirements, immigration process, family benefits, research and teaching rights, and available extensions. |
| SAFE (European Union) | A European fellowship scheme for researchers at risk. | Launched in September 2024, it aims to support up to 60 researchers for as long as 24 months, backed by €12 million from the European Research Executive Agency. | Eligible countries and disciplines, application route, host obligations, mobility rules and what happens when the fellowship expires. |
| Academics in Solidarity | A Freie Universität Berlin mentoring network linking exiled researchers with established academics. | Received €600,000 for three years under German Federal Ministry of Education and Research funding in 2019. | Whether a current cohort is open, mentor availability, geographic scope and whether mentoring includes job or grant preparation. |
| Cologne/Bonn Academy in Exile | University of Bonn winter schools where fellows from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus present research, join working groups and discuss the idea of an academy in exile. | Winter-school schedules are cohort-specific. | Eligibility, travel and living-cost coverage, follow-up contacts and links to longer appointments. |
These models are not interchangeable. Some require a university to apply on a scholar’s behalf; others depend on a host nomination or a direct application. Geography, immigration status, discipline, family needs and the ability to work in the local language can change which route is realistic.
How a university can build a durable pathway
- Assign a departmental home before the researcher arrives. Name a principal academic contact, an administrative case manager and the facilities the researcher can use.
- Write an explicit work plan. Set research outputs, seminar or teaching opportunities, supervision, authorship and data-access rules in writing.
- Budget beyond the stipend. Include language instruction, conference travel, equipment, childcare or relocation needs where appropriate, and the staff time required for immigration and credential support.
- Create network entry points. Introduce the scholar to research groups, doctoral students, grant teams, professional associations and employers outside the university.
- Review progress early. Hold a structured review during the first months, then revisit research, wellbeing, family and administrative needs rather than waiting for a crisis.
- Start transition planning at the outset. Map possible academic and non-academic routes, identify the qualifications still needed and schedule applications before the emergency funding deadline.
- Measure inclusion by participation. Track access to labs, seminars, teaching, publications, grants and decision-making—not merely the number of people housed or funded.
What researchers in exile should ask before accepting an offer
- Who is my academic supervisor, and what work is guaranteed rather than merely encouraged?
- Will I receive an institutional email, library access, laboratory or archive access, and permission to present or teach?
- Who handles visas, contracts, health coverage, tax, housing and recognition of my qualifications?
- What support is available for a partner, children, disability or trauma-related needs?
- How often will I meet a mentor, and will I be introduced to researchers beyond the host department?
- What are the renewal rules and the realistic next steps six to twelve months before funding ends?
Scholars at Risk’s 2025 recommendation captures the institutional responsibility: “Higher education institutions should support scholars facing impact from attacks by offering positions of academic refuge to these individuals through SAR, the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara), the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF), PAUSE, and the Philipp Schwartz Initiative.” Calls and eligibility change, so applicants and hosts must check the current official terms rather than rely on an old announcement.
Why emergency aid alone falls short
A short grant can prevent immediate destitution while leaving a researcher without colleagues, credentials recognized, publications in progress or a plan for lawful work after the grant. Reception services can also be difficult to navigate when they are separated from a department that understands the scholar’s field.
Best Value
Universities therefore need both tracks at once: protection and agency. The practical test is whether a displaced researcher can do credible work, build relationships, receive fair credit and move toward the next opportunity. Outcomes will vary by discipline, language, networks, funding duration and personal circumstances; no universal success rate has been established.
University of Bonn Vice Rector Birgit Ulrike Münch describes the broader aim: “As well as an academic home, we also want to give the refugee researchers space to consider their own experience as researchers in exile, not least in the sense of entangled history, for example.” That combination—an academic home and room to shape the conversation—turns refuge into participation.
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