WHRI-ACADEMY fellowship programme Second Call for Proposals

WHRI

Are you an expert in

    1. Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
    2. Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry
    3. Physiology, Pathophysiology, including cardiovascular disease and Endocrinology
    4. Cellular and Development Biology
    5. Neurosciences and Neural Disorders
    6. Immunity and Infection
    7. Diagnostic tools, Therapies and Public Health
  • Then you may be interested in helping us evaluate proposals within the WHRI-ACADEMY Second Call for Proposals?

  • Nr of positions available : 100

Overview

The William Harvey International Translational Research Academy (WHRI-ACADEMY) is a new mobility fellowship programme which aims to provide multidisciplinary projects to transnational researchers to help to maximise their career development opportunities in healthcare and life sciences.
A large number of European and international universities and research institutes and industry and private partners have already enrolled as host organisations on the basis of their excellence in post doctoral training and development, outstanding infrastructure, high scientific prominence and high intensity of innovation activities. Please note that WHRI-ACADEMY programme is open to enrol additional host organisations (How to become a host organisation)

Life at Queen Mary, University of London

The key aspects of the programme are:

  • truly worldwide collaborative opportunities for fellows in both academic and industrial environments;
  • partner organisations who will host the fellows both within and outside the EU thus providing mobility opportunities for fellows to and from a wide geographical area;
  • a transnational inter-sectorial exchange dimension between academia and SMEs to enable academic research fellows try an SME working environment without a gap in their academic careers;
  • an incoming mobility component to enable top-class Third Country fellows from emerging economies to be hosted in Europe to both enhance competition and to establish mutually-beneficial research cooperation; and
  • a reintegration component to counter the brain drain of European researchers to Third Countries.
WHRI-ACADEMY starting date is on 02 January 2014 and it will run for 5 years, launching indicatively 4 calls for proposals.
WHRI-ACADEMY offers 175 new post-doc fellowships spread between three different schemes(incoming, outgoing and reintegration) and a training programme, including workshops, dedicated training in complementary skills and industrial placement. WHRI-ACADEMY fellowships have a minimum duration of 12 months and a maximum of 36 months.

Programme calls

WHRI-ACADEMY starting date is on 02 January 2014 and it will run for 5 years, launching indicatively 4 calls for proposals.

Calls

Opening date

Closing date

Fellowship scheme

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TYPE OF MOBILITY FELLOWSHIPS AND DURATION

WHRI-ACADEMY offers three types of trans-national mobility fellowship schemes.

1. INCOMING:

  1. For non-residents of the host country.
  2. Researchers from any nationality can apply to.
  3. Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the Host Organization country for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the application deadline.

2. OUTGOING:

  1. For residents of Members States or Associated Countries.
  2. Researchers from any nationality can apply.
  3. Mobility is from a EU Member State or Associated Country to a Third Country (with a preferably return phase to either a EU Member State or Associated Country)
  • Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the Host Organization country for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the application deadline. 

3. REINTEGRATION: from a Third Country to a EU Member State or Associated Country.

  1. Only EU Member State or Associated Country nationals that have carried out research in a Third Country for at least 3 years can apply.
  2. Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the Host Organization country for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the application deadline.
  • In all cases (Incoming, Outgoing and Reintegration), the duration of the fellowship must be a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 36 months.

EU Member States, Associated Countries and Third Countries

  • The 27 EU Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
  • The Associated Countries are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Faroe Islands, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey.
  • Third countries are neither EU Member States nor Countries associated with FP7.
  • The duration of the trans-national mobility fellowship schemes is:

  1. For INCOMING: a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 36 months.
  2. For OUTGOING: a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 36 months.
  3. For REINTEGRATION: a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 36 months.

Eligibility Criteria

  • A number of eligibility criteria must be fulfilled by the deadline for proposal submission. Proposals not meeting the criteria will not be evaluated but rejected instead.
For an application to be eligible: a) It must be received before the deadline: 13 October 2014, 17h00 UK time
b) It must be submitted via email: [email protected]
c) It must include the following 5 documents:
- Application form
- Research Project
- Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- Letter of Commitment
- Budget
The templates of these documents can be found in the section “Application package” of our website www.whri-academy.eu. Please note that these templates cannot be modified, and, once completed, they must be converted into PDF.

d) Level of experience. Please note thatapplicants must, at the time of the recruitment by the Host organisation, either be in possession of a doctoral degree (PhD), or have at least four years of research experience (full-time equivalent) since gaining a university diploma giving him/her access to doctoral studies either in the country in which the degree/diploma was obtained or in the country in which the research training is provided. Only time spent on post-graduate research activities (remunerated, and including the period of research training, e.g. PhD training) can be included (i.e. working outside research should not be taken into account).

The WHRI-ACADEMY applicants must:

1. To comply with the EU FP7 definition of “transnational mobility”

INCOMING

  • For non-residents of the host organization country.
  • Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the Host Organization country for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the application deadline.

OUTGOING

  • Mobility is from a EU Member States or Associated Countries to a Third Countries, with a preferably return phase to either an EU Member States or Associated Countries.
  • Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the Host Organization country for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the application deadline.

REINTEGRATION

  • For EU Member State or Associated Country nationals that have carried out research in a Third Country for at least 3 years.
  • Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the host institution country for more than 12 months in the years 3 years prior to submission deadline.
Please note that, the Guidelines for Applicants provides examples to help you better understand how to comply with the “transnational mobility” requirement.

2. To comply with the EU FP7 definition of “experienced researcher”

The candidate must, at the time of the recruitment by the Host Organization, either:
a) be in possession of a doctoral degree; or
b) have at least four years of research experience (full-time equivalent) since gaining a university diploma giving him/her access to doctoral studies either in the country in which the degree/diploma was obtained or in the country in which the research training is provided.
  • Candidates who are about to receive their doctoral degree are eligible to apply but they need to have their PhD degree by the day they receive the offer (indicatively 3 months after the application deadline).
Please note that, the Guidelines for Applicants provides examples to help you better understand how to comply with the “experienced researcher” requirement.
  • Extensions to this period may be allowed in case of eligible career breaks which must be properly documented. For further details, please read the Guidelines for Applicants.
  • First-professional degrees will not be considered in themselves as PhD-equivalent. Note that in the context of Marie Curie Actions, Medical Doctors (MD) studies are not taken as equivalent to PhD studies. For MDs, the requirement of 4 years of full-time research experience will apply. This equivalence should be strictly regarded as a specific objective of the Marie Curie Actions (evaluation of research experience), and should not be regarded as conflicting with national rules in some Member States or Associated Countries, which may recognise the equivalence of MD and PhD for other reasons (i.e.: for career progression in the public sector). For medical doctors who have been awarded both an MD and a PhD, the date of the doctorate studies makes the applicant be eligible and takes precedence in the calculation of the eligibility time-window.

Employment conditions and funding

  • As a general rule the WHRI-ACADEMY fellow is appointed under an employment contract for the duration of the fellowships at the host organization except in adequately documented cases or where national Financial Regime regulation would prohibit this possibility. When an employment contract cannot be provided by the host organization, the WHRI-ACADEMY fellow must be recruited under a status equivalent to a fixed amount fellowship, provided that it is compatible with the national legislation and that adequate social security is provided (but not necessarily paid from the fellowship).
  • Fellows employment contract shall be in line with the European Charter of Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. A brochure and further information can be found in the link: http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/rights/brochure.
  • The Living allowance will depend on the experience of the selected fellow. The Host Organizations are allowed to use their own salary scales to support the costs for the fellows’ salary costs. Within WHRI-ACADEMY, the fellows must benefit of 1 500 EUR/year asmobility/travel allowance. This allowance refers to relocation and mobility costs of the fellows. It does not take into consideration family status of the applicant. Furthermore, the fellows must benefit of 15 000 EUR/year as contribution to the research costs. This allowance refers to those eligible direct costs related to the research project such as consumables, travel and subsistence for attendance to scientific events, publications, material for the dissemination of the research project, salaries of a person (i.e.: PhD student) for assisting the fellow, etc.).
Please note that the EU contribution per fellow-year is 29,800 EUR and it shall correspond to up to 40% of the annual fellowship cost. Please note that the Marie Curie country corrector coefficients are applied to. Please note that the Marie Curie country corrector coefficients can be found in the 2013 Marie Curie Work Programme. This document can be found in the Section Library, www.whri-academy.eu/whri-library

Research areas

For the planning and operation of the evaluation of the proposals by panels, the following research areas apply.
  1. Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry. The research area 1 encompasses molecular synthesis, modification and interaction, biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, metabolism, and signal transduction.
  2. Physiology, Pathophysiology, including Cardiovascular disease and Endocrinology. The research area 2 encompasses organ physiology, pathophysiology, endocrinology, metabolism, ageing, tumorigenesis, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome.
  3. Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. The research area 3 encompasses molecular and population genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, biostatistics, biological modelling and simulation, systems biology, and genetic epidemiology.
  4. Cellular and Development Biology. The research area 4 encompasses cell biology, cell physiology, signal transduction, organogenesis, developmental genetics, and stem cell biology.
  5. Neurosciences and Neural Disorders. The research area 5 encompasses neurobiology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, neuroimaging, systems neuroscience, and neurological and psychiatric disorders.
  6. Immunity and Infection. The research area 6 encompasses the immune system and related disorders, infectious agents and diseases, and prevention and treatment of infection.
  7. Diagnostic tools, Therapies and Public Health. The research area 7 encompasses aetiology, diagnosis and treatment of disease, public health, epidemiology, pharmacology, clinical medicine, and regenerative medicine.
  8. Ethics and medical research: The research area 8 encompasses the informed consent, privacy and data protection, human embrionic stem cells (hESCs), use of human biological samples and data, research on animals, research in developing countries, and dual use.
There is no predefined budget allocation among the research areas. The applicant chooses the main research area of the project but secondary areas can also be selected in case of multidisciplinary projects. The research areas are accompanied by a list of research areas keywords. Applicants can also choose free keywords.
  • The Host Organizations section on this site gives information about the research portfolios of the organizations who have already agreed to take part in WHRI-ACADEMY programme. Please note that WHRI-ACADEMY programme is open to enrol additional host organisations (How to become a host organisation)

What to expect at Barts as an International Student

Evaluation and selection

The evaluation and selection process follows and fully complies with the Guidelines of the European Code and Charter. The selection and evaluation will take place within a maximum period of 3 months following the deadline for the submission of proposals.
Criteria Weightings Threshold
Criteria 1: Project objectives 30% 3
Criteria 2: Methodology 30% 3
Criteria 3: Work plan 15% 3
Criteria 4: Clarity and quality of training for the development of the researcher 30% 3
Criteria 5: Supervisor(s) and chosen host organisation 15% 3
Criteria 6: Communication and results dissemination 10% 3
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The Evaluation panel experts will assess and score the application on the basis of the Relevance, Research & Innovation quality and Feasibility and Exploitability.
The criteria to be assessed are detailed here. Weighting is equal among criteria and you need to reach a minimum score of 3 for each criterion.
  • Criteria 1: Quality of the Proposal

  • Criteria 2: Quality of the host organization

  • Criteria 3: Supervision and Career development

  • Criteria 4: Transfer knowledge

Evaluation scores will be given for each of the four criteria. Each criterion will be scored out of 5. Scores will be given with a resolution of one decimal place. A score 0 means that the proposal fails to address the criterion under examination or cannot be judged due to missing or incomplete information. A score 1 means poor and, therefore, that the criterion is addressed in an inadequate manner, or there are serious inherent weaknesses. A score 2 means fair and, therefore, that while the proposal broadly addresses the criterion, there are significant weaknesses. A score 3 means good and, therefore, that the proposal addresses the criterion well, although improvements would be necessary. A score 4 means very good and, therefore, the proposal addresses the criterion very well, although certain improvements are still possible. A score 5 means excellent and, therefore, that the proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion in question.
  • Only proposals scoring a minimum of 12 points will be considered for funding.

HOW TO APPLY

Please follow carefully the different steps during the preparation and final submission of the application.For further information, please read the Guideline for Applicants.
STEP 1: READ the admission requirements.
STEP 2: SELECT the research area of your interest
STEP 3: CHOSE the Host organisation and Scientist-in-Charge you wish to work with
STEP 4: CONTACT the chosen Scientist-in-Charge to discuss your project idea.
Please note that it is important to prepare a project idea that fits well with the Scientist-in-Charge lab research interests in order to convince him/her that you are the ideal candidate!
  • The section “Host organisations” of the project website www.whri-academy.eu gives information about the institutions that have already agreed to take part in the WHRI-ACADEMY fellowship programme.Please note that WHRI-ACADEMY is open to enroll additional Host organisations.
STEP 5: EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) – if the chosen Scientist-in-Charge approves your project idea and s/he is happy to accept you as a candidate for a WHRI-ACADEMY fellowship, you shall complete the EOI and send it to [email protected]
  • Please note that the template “Expression of Interest – EOI” can be found in the section “Application package” of the project website, www.whri-academy.eu

STEP 6: PREPARE YOUR PROPOSAL jointly with your chosen Scientist-in-Charge and his/herorganisation. Please note that the application documents can be found in the section “Application package” of the project website, www.whri-academy.eu
STEP 7: SUBMIT your proposal via email, [email protected], before the deadline.

INDICATIVE TIMETABLE

  • Launch of the Second Call for Proposals: 14 July 2014
  • Deadline: 13 October 2014 at 17:00 (UK time)
  • Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) sent to applicants: up to 2 weeks after the deadline submission
  • Notification of the results: up to 3 months after the deadline submission (no earlier than 12/01/2015)
  • Notification of acceptance by successful applicants: within 30 days of receiving the notification of the results and confirmation of selected proposal for funding
  • Starting date of the project for successful applicants: within a time frame of 6 months following the notification of the results and confirmation of selected proposal for funding

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Enquiries should be addressed to the Programme Office [email protected] +44 (0)20 7882 6233

Information for students from India

India is an important country for Queen Mary and one from which we receive a large number of applications each year for all levels of academic study. As such we have a team based in Delhi at our Regional Office who are dedicated to helping Indian students apply too and eventually enrol at the College. You can find details of our staff based in the Regional Office in India on these pages, please do feel free to contact them if you have any questions.
  • There are currently 320 students from India at Queen Mary studying a range of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level including: Biological and Chemical Sciences, Business and Management, Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Engineering and Materials Science, Medicine, Dentistry, Law, and Politics.

Watch a video on student experiences of applying for a UK visa:

QMUL International students

Queen Mary has a long history of welcoming students from around the world. Over the years, many thousands of international students have graduated from the College and gone on to pursue successful careers. Today, we are home to students from more than 150 different countries. This diversity contributes to a lively and welcoming community which should make you feel comfortable and at home. Read More

GUIDE FOR APPLICANTS


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Are you an expert in Genetics,Genomics,Bioinformaticsand Systems Biology Then you may be interested in helping us evaluate proposals within the WHRI-ACADEMY Second Call for Proposals?