International Training Programmes (ITP)

International Training Programmes (ITP) are short to medium-term, intensive, interactive, and practical trainings organised at a university or university college in Belgium/Flanders.

The trainings target participants from 31 scholarship countries with relevant professional experience in the ITP’s subject and who will be able to transfer the obtained knowledge and skills to a wider audience in their home countries.

You can only apply for an ITP scholarship if you meet the following requirements:

• Nationality and country of residence:  A candidate should be both a national and a resident of one of the 31 eligible countries (not necessarily the same country) at the time of the application.
• Relevant professional experience and a support letter: Priority is given to candidates who are employed in academic institutions, research institutes, governments, the social economy or NGOs, or to those who aim to have a career in one of these sectors. The training candidate should have relevant professional experience and a support letter confirming (re)integration in a professional context where the acquired knowledge and skills will be immediately applicable.
• Fungibility with other VLIR-UOS funding: Candidates who are working at a university where we already fund IUC, TEAM or SI projects, can receive an ITP-ICP scholarship if they clearly motivate the reason for their application and if they clarify why the participation at the ICP or ITP programme cannot be funded as part of the IUC, TEAM or SI programme or project funds that already exist.
• Other VLIR-UOS scholarship applications and previously awarded scholarships: A potential candidate can only submit one scholarship application with us per year – irrespective of the scholarship type – and can, therefore, only be selected for one VLIR-UOS scholarship every year. Candidates who already received one of our scholarships to participate in another ITP, will not be eligible. Candidates who already received one of our scholarship to participate in an ICP (or vice versa) can only be selected if the previously attended course is thematically linked to the ITP.

Benefits:

• VLIR-UOS only provide scholarships for the full duration of the training programme. It is not possible to apply for a partial scholarship.
• The detailed current amounts and more information on the different allowances can be found in the document ‘Allowances and guidelines for VLIR-UOS scholarships’.

There are two categories of allowances:

• Lump sum: this is an allowance for which the amount has been determined on the basis of former expenses and international benchmarking, the justification of which consists of (i) the scholarship guidelines and (ii) the agreement signed between VLIR-UOS, the Flemish host university, the possible partner university and the scholar. However, in the framework of financial control, the university must be able to present proof of bank transactions to or a declaration of receipt from the respective scholar, upon request;
• Expenses that must be accounted for: these expenses must be accounted for individually with receipts, invoices, bank transactions and / or other supporting documents (e.g. airline tickets, in-surance).