Is there a Ronin alternative in Europe? How to be an independent scientist in the EU? I am a senior postdoc in a theoretical/computational field and for various reasons I am quite tired of jumping from one postdoc to another (have to switch cities/continents every few years, and many post-doc funders contractually require a maximum academic age). I am not eager to work in industry either though. I found out that some people become &quot;independent researchers&quot;. Sometimes it means essentially doing freelance R&amp;D for various for-profit companies, but sometimes they actually perform normal academic research, but their funding is channeled not through universities with their unwieldy bureaucracies.
In particular in the US there is an organization called Ronin institute, which helps independent researchers to apply for funding and receive it. My question is: is there anything comparable in (continental) Europe?
IGDORE is based in Sweden and registered as a non-profit. From what they say the latter makes them eligible for certain Swedish and EU grants.