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National Elites Foundation travel grants

Iran’s National Elites Foundation (NEF) provides different grants for non-resident Iranian scientists and professionals in order to support knowledge transfer to Iran.The grants are available under different programs such as “Post-doctoral Fellowship”, “Sabbatical Program”, “Collaboration Opportunities for Adjunct Professors”, etc. For the list of programs, please visit this link.

Travel grant that supports lectures and workshops is one of the grants available from NEF. Here is more information about this grant and the application process.

  • Applicant is a non-resident Iranian scientist or professional who has either outstanding work experience in a reputable company or has received his/her PhD or post-doctroal fellowship in one of the top 400 world universities according to QS World University Rankings. Applicants who are close to finishing their PhD are also eligible.
  • Iran’s National Elites Foundation (NEF) is a public organization with a board of trustees where its president is Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology.

Application Process:

  1. The applicant creates an account in  international.bmn.ir
  2. The applicant selects the funding program he/she wants to apply to.
  3. The applicant selects the area of specialty.
  4. The applicant can select up to three Partner Institutions.
    1. The International Institute for Future Knowledge Development of Iranians (IranKnowledge) is one of the Partner Institutions that works closely with our organization. They are not the host but can facilitate finding the right host for you. Feel free to select them as the Partner Institution.
  5. The applicant enters other information including CV, research proposal, lecture summary, etc.
  6. NEF would review the applicant profile and informs the applicant within 2-3 working days about his/her general eligibility.
  7. Once approved by NEF, the Partner Institution would review the applicant’s request, and respond in around 2 weeks time.
  8. The Partner Institution will find a host faculty member, and connect him/her to the applicant.+
    1. If the applicant introduces a host faculty member, it expedites the process.
  9. The applicant will arrange with the Partner Institution on how to receive the grant money. The Partner Institution usually requires applicant’s bank account to Iran, and will deposit the money to that bank account. The applicant needs to provide some other documents such as copy of passport, and the flight ticket.
  10. If your Partner Institution is IranKnowledge and applicant does not have a bank account in Iran, he or she can make a request that the money be transferred to a relative’s bank account.
  11. The grant money depends on the one-way flight travel time. It is 3 million Tomans for travel time less than 4 hours, 4 million Tomans for travel time between 4 and 8 hours, and 5 million Tomans, and 5 million Tomans for travel time more than 8 hours.