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Grants & Fellowships

The Ricercar Lab aims to promote fruitful collaborations and the exchange of ideas, encouraging scholars to apply for fellowships and grants to work at the Center for Renaissance Studies, which is located in the heart of the city center. Here scholars will find a quiet place to work, with the support of human and material resources, under the shadow of Okeghem’s Saint Martin Collegiate.

The Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance in Tours is an interdisciplinary center with 140 researchers working on medieval and early modern Art history, Philosophy, Literature, Archaeology, History, Classics, History of Sciences, Digital humanities and Musicology. The Center hosts two research programs in musicology: Ricercar Lab, dedicated to Medieval and Renaissance music, and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. These programs are also linked to Intelligence des Patrimoines, a large network agency devoted to cultural and natural heritage.

Ricercar has a permanent team supporting the development of ambitious projects based on fundamental musical skills (music encoding, research management, documentary resources). The research results are disseminated through digital resources and publications (Epitome musical series, published by Brepols).

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowships

We encourage researchers to apply for the European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (12–24 months), especially for projects focusing on area-specific studies, digital musicology and virtual musicology.

Area studies

Among its various research activities, Ricercar focuses on area-specific studies. We worked on projects such as La Musique en Picardie du 14e au 17e siècle, Le Hainaut et la musique à la Renaissance (in preparation), and Renaissance Music in Croatia. We are currently working on projects on Italy (Florence, Rome) and Spain. The study of a specific area enables the combination different methodologies—from source studies, to musical editions, music analysis, prosopography and music sociology, etc.—to generate a more comprehensive history of music. Thanks to the acquired experience and expertise in this field, Ricercar welcomes other similar projects, and offers its database as an efficient tool permitting their enhancement.

Digital Musicology

Ricercar has been developing digital tools and projects since 1992. Our early initiatives concerned the digitization of musical sources, images, the constitution of bibliography of Renaissance musicology, catalogues of works (French Chansons), and musicians’ biographies (Prosopography of Singers). We then moved on to the field of digital music editions (Du Chemin, Gesualdo) and digital music analysis (Imitation Masses), involving theoretical reflections on music ontologies that allowed the creation of a general data model for the whole Ricercar knowledge environment (musical works, sources, editions, people).

Virtual Musicology

The study of the musical and architectural devices of musical performance is being revitalized by new digital technologies. Ricercar is at the forefront in this field, both from a methodological point of view and through the skills developed in the context of historical places (such as the royal French residences) and 4D historical reconstruction projects (Saintes-Chapelles, Saint-Martin de Tours collegiate church). Visit our Virtual Music Heritage website for more information.

If you are considering Ricercar as a potential host for your research, please send the following documentation to vendrix@univ-tours.fr

  • Curriculum vitae
  • A brief statement confirming that you meet the eligibility criteria for a European Fellowship
  • A short (one paragraph) description of how your work would fit with that of a potential supervisor.
  • A short summary of your proposed research project, including its aims and/or scope, central research questions, and methodology.

If Ricercar is able to host your research, you will be given more support through the application process from an individual mentor, and also guidance for filing the documents.

Le Studium Fellowships

LE STUDIUM Loire Valley Institute for Advanced Studies provides one-year fellowships to boost international scientific exchanges in the Centre-Val de Loire region, and to create a dynamic scientific community for research and the innovation.

Le Studium programs 

Visiting Professorships (University of Tours)

This is a one-month fellowship. The campaign closes in November.

For further information, please contact Philippe Canguilhem, David Fiala or Philippe Vendrix.

PhD Fellowships

Each year, the University of Tours provides doctoral fellowships. Visit the website of the Doctoral School for further information.

The Chateaubriand Fellowship is a grant offered by the Embassy of France in the United States. It supports outstanding PhD. students from American universities who wish to conduct research in France for a period ranging from 4 to 9 months.

For further information visit Chateaubriand Fellowship