The Zimin Foundation continues to provide resources to fund the Fedor Stepun Fellowship Program, which supports Russian and Ukrainian scientists at risk due to the war in Ukraine. Under the program, launched at Ruhr University in 2022, eight half-year fellowships have just been awarded to postdocs at risk.

The new fellows were selected by a professional jury that included the Scientific Advisory Board of the program, representatives of the Institute for Slavic Studies at Ruhr University and Osteuropa-Kolleg NRW. The stipend is endowed with €2,000 per month for the academic year 2024-2025.

This year’s fellows come from the fields of chemistry, media sciences, computer science, philosophy, philology, and theology. They will conduct research under select professors from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen and work together on research proposals to enable a sustainable and longer-term stay in Europe. The University Alliance Ruhr with its Liaison Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, together with RUB Research School, provides administrative management.

Here's what some of the first fellows (set 2022) are saying about the program:

Ivan Fomin
“After my hasty departure from Russia, I was not at all sure that I would be able to continue my research work. In this situation, the Fedor Stepun Program was a real salvation for me. It was thanks to it that I was able to regain some ground under my feet, catch my breath, and return to academia”.

Valeriy Zolotukhin
“In the difficult situation caused by the outbreak of the war, the Fedor Stepun Fellowship gave me the opportunity to return to sharply interrupted work. It helped me, above all, that when I came to Ruhr, I found myself within the wonderful community that had developed at the University of Bochum - attentive, interested, and united beyond professional interests by shared values, views, and a search for answers to the challenges that the war in Ukraine had brought”.

Anna Gerasimova
“The fellowship allowed me, first, to develop my own project on the study of reading practices, which existed only in draft form. Second, I got to know the German academic system and the system for funding science. And third, the fellowship helped me to make many new connections with my colleagues and expanded my opportunities for collaboration, both in academia and as a volunteer”.

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Full information about the program can be found here https://www.research-school.rub.de/stepun

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