Inter-university cooperation

Some of the interuniversity agreements that Charles University concludes with foreign partner universities promotes the mobility of academics and doctoral students. These are short-term (one- to three-week) research, study and lecture visits.

Numbers of academic mobilities are contractually defined (number of days and people per year), subject to reciprocity and current financial conditions at both universities. Participation in academic mobility is by no means claimative or automatic.

Who can apply to take part in the academic mobility competition:

a) scientific and teaching staff of all faculties of Charles University, incl. post-doctoral students (in regular employment with Charles University, not freelancers),

b) PhD students of all faculties of Charles University (only for mobilities to Germany)

Financial backing of the stay

The faculty of CU contributes to travel expenses according to internal rules, the host university contributes to the living expenses (ie. accommodation and per diems). The level of contributions varies from country to country and is also governed by the university’s current financial capacity. If a foreign university does not have sufficient financial resources to cover subsistence costs or can only partially cover them, the researcher must secure an additional source of funding.

Requirements for the application

The applicant shall contact her/his current or potential scientific partner at a foreign contracting university and negotiate with them the specific content, purpose and the date of her/his stay. On the basis of this agreement, she/he shall prepare a request including:

1) Academic Visitor Application (please indicate the dates of your stay at the foreign university)

2) Invitation letter on letterhead from a foreign partner showing consent to the purpose of the applicant's stay

3) Personal data consent

4) Justification for multiple stays (when applying for more than 2 trips per year to one country).

List of partner universities:

Three-stage selection procedure

1) Faculty of Charles University

The application that meets all requirements shall be approved by the head of the department. At the faculty level, the Vice-Dean for Foreign Affairs shall decide on the nominations. The deadline for submitting all documents is 15^th December 2025. Please send all the documents to anna.jezberova@lf1.cuni.cz

2) Rectorate of Charles University

The Vice-Rector for International Relations shall decide on nominations on the CU level.

3) foreign university

The nominations submitted by the Vice-Rector for International Relations of Charles University are subject to an approval process at the level of the rectorate of the partner university. Nominations received are announced through the foreign departments of the faculties, usually during January/February 2026.

General selection criteria

• mutually beneficial cooperation
• perspective of long-term cooperation
• support for junior scientists
• new scientists and new disciplines
• reciprocity

The weight of the criteria varies from one partner university to another, depending on the priorities of the university's international strategy.

Obligations of mobility participants

1) immediately report any cancellation of the stay to the foreign department of the faculty, so that IRO CU can offer the vacancy to other candidates,

2) complete the Foreign travel report form within 14 days of return and submit it to the international office of the faculty signed by the head of the department, who will then forward it to IRO CU.

The above-mentioned conditions and procedure only apply to the agreements with universities from Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Greece. In the case of other countries, the agreements are framework and do not specify the conditions of academic stays, do not ensure financing, and no nomination from the Charles University rectorate is required. It is therefore not necessary for applications to go through the CU rectorate approval process. In these cases, academics arrange their stay directly with the receiving workplace according to the conditions of the host university, and the faculty only informs the rectorate about the employee's departure.

Information about the selection procedure for academics can be found on intranet: https://intranet.cuni.cz/Stranka/620fa16f-789c-4974-9d46-4f2da57acf7f

Information about the selection procedure for doctoral students can be found on the website: https://cuni.cz/UK-3055.html