“Working at the Vilnius University Medical Science Center, I see that the working conditions provided here are in many aspects no less advanced than those at famous foreign universities, and in some cases, you can receive even more support here. In Lithuania, we have an excellent molecular biology infrastructure and many international colleagues. Therefore, I encourage everyone considering a return to Lithuania not to hesitate,” shares Dr. Miglė Kazlauskienė, a recipient of the MJJ Foundation science grant, sharing her motivation for returning from Switzerland.

“Upon returning to the Life Sciences Center, I found a very high-level scientific infrastructure, a lot of support from my laboratory head and colleagues, and an international team,” says neuroscientist Dr. Nemira Žilinskaitė-Tranas, who returned to Lithuania after her doctoral studies at the prestigious University of Cambridge.

The foundation has already allocated over €1 million for the salaries of 45 researchers who won the competition between 2019 and 2024 and arrived from Japan, Canada, Italy, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, France, the USA, the UK, Ukraine, and other countries. For scientists wishing to arrive from abroad in 2026–2027—selected by independent experts in targeted scientific fields and the MJJ Foundation board—the foundation will provide a monthly salary subsidy for up to two years to supplement the salary paid by the university, aiming to compete with European universities for the best minds.

This year, in launching the grant competition, the MJJ Foundation is cooperating with the Future Biomedicine (AB) Foundation, established by Prof. Arvydas Janulaitis, a pioneer of modern biotechnology in Lithuania. The AB Foundation aims to contribute to the development of personalized medicine research in our country and funds scientific research.

“The shared goal of our partnership is to help more researchers return to Lithuania and develop their research and innovations here. Therefore, for scientists working in the field of personalized medicine and looking for opportunities in Lithuania, we can jointly provide a salary grant, research funds, and, of course, a community and mentorship,” says Kotryna Stankutė-Jaščemskienė, head of the MJJ Foundation.

Another partnership has been established with the BSV Ventures fund to encourage applied research scientists to consider a business direction and to engage more actively with specialists and researchers from other fields. For scientists planning to return or move to Lithuania, this could provide additional value in realizing their ambitions, testing ideas, gaining new skills, and discovering partnerships.

“There is a very important reason why we focus a huge part of our venture capital activity at BSV Ventures on scientists and engineers. We believe that our region and our country have an extremely large untapped potential. We have the tools, we have the funding—it is time to expand horizons and build bridges. It sounds like a theoretical model, but over a few years, we have noticed that this is exactly how highly significant deep tech and life sciences technologies, which we can already be proud of, are born. Today is the best time to create and scale solutions that change the world,” stated Andrius Milinavičius, partner at the BSV Ventures fund, while introducing the new collaboration with the MJJ Foundation.

Priority areas: physical, computer science, engineering, health, biomedical, personalized medicine, technological, and veterinary sciences. Additional points in the evaluation process are awarded to researchers working on applied research.

We invite you to submit applications by registering on the foundation’s website: https://mjjfondas.lt/kryptys/mokslas/

Eligible Applicants

The foundation’s salary grant is available to researchers who have defended their PhD abroad, seek to continue their career and research in Lithuania, and wish to share their knowledge in the foundation’s priority areas with students at Lithuanian universities. Registration can be completed either by the academic wishing to arrive (or who returned no earlier than 6 months prior to the publication date of this call) or by the university seeking to invite them (deans or vice-deans of faculties).

Applications are invited for submission until January 10, 2026.

Registration and Grant Procedures

Candidate registration along with an introduction is completed electronically in either Lithuanian or English by filling out the form on the foundation’s website: https://mjjfondas.lt/kryptys/mokslas/

The researcher’s salary grant is awarded in cooperation with the inviting university. The researcher receiving the grant agrees to represent the foundation’s name by adding it to their job titles.

Academics wishing to participate in this year’s selection must begin their academic activities in Lithuania in 2026–2027. The MJJ Foundation provides the funding for a period of one to two years.

Evaluation of Applications

Only fully completed and detailed applications will be submitted for evaluation. An expert evaluation of the detailed applications will be carried out by a panel of independent experts well-versed in the specific academic field and members of the MJJ Foundation board.

If you have questions about the return process or working at Lithuanian universities, you are welcome to write to kotryna@mjjfondas.lt. We will gladly introduce you to international scientists who received MJJ Foundation grants between 2019 and 2025 and have already returned to Lithuania, whose information can be found HERE.