The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) proposes a new fellowship programme for incoming mobility, called CONEX - CONnecting EXcellence to UC3M. The main objective of CONEX is to provide excellent training and career development opportunities to researchers, so that funded researchers can make significant steps in their scientific careers.Through CONEX, researchers who are not resident in Spain are enabled to carry out extended periods of research in one of UC3M’s research institutes or research groups.Following 2 calls for proposals, the CONEX programme aims to offer 8 fellowships with a duration of 36 months to Very Experienced Professors (>10 years research experience) and 20 fellowships with a duration of 36 months to Experienced Professors (4 – 10 years research experience). Researchers are fully free in the choice of their research topic, institute and supervisor/mentor, to allow for a maximum benefit of the fellowship on their career development. To support the researchers in their career advancement, all researchers will have a supervisor or mentor and are required to set up and evaluate a Personal Career Development Plan. An ethical issues policy is put in place, in line with the FP7 rules on ethical issues.The evaluation is based on a peer-review process. The evaluation process and criteria are transparent and are communicated to the applicants through openly accessible applicant’s documentation and support mechanisms.The CONEX Programme is complementary to and coherent with other UC3M supported initiatives that currently facilitate mobility. CONEX is also expected to have positive effects on UC3M, in particular through its policy of ‘Concentrating talent’ and on the Spanish landscape in general. CONEX supports the objectives of the activity heading Life-long learning and Career Development and other European policies, such as the Innovation Union.