10 PostDoc fellowships in all research fields, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

10 fellowships for 12 months, renewable once, will be granted in the 2016 call.
All research fields are eligible. The program is based on a bottom-up approach.

The program aims to
• invite excellent researchers to pursue high-level scientific research and training at ULB;
• improve researchers’ career opportunities and prospects;
• establish long-term academic collaborations with foreign institutions in which researchers have been previously studying or working and in which they will pursue their career;
• increase the international dimension of post-doctoral recruitment.

10 fellowships for 12 months, renewable once, will be granted in the 2016 call.

Eligibility conditions

• The researcher must hold, at the deadline for the submission of proposals, a doctoral degree (PhD) or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience;
• The researcher must have up to 8 years of post-doctoral experience at the date of his/her recruitment;
• The researcher may be of any nationality;
• The researcher must comply with the mobility rule: he/she cannot have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Belgium for more than 12 months during the 3 years prior to the deadline for submission of proposals.

The fellowship includes:
• A net monthly allowance.
• A bench fee of 5.000€/year for laboratory-based research or 2.500€/year for non-laboratory based research.

The application must be submitted by June 30, 2016, 5pm at the latest (Brussels time) on the ULB participant portal (http://cvchercheurs.ulb.ac.be/Portpart/Public/). 

The application must include:
• The duly filled application form.
• A curriculum vitae, including a publication list.
• Two letters of reference from scientists working in the same field, including, if possible, one from the PhD supervisor.
• A letter from a ULB academic staff member to support the candidate’s application indicating that, if successful, the candidate will be hosted in the research group and will receive appropriate scientific and training environments. The ULB academic staff members are encouraged to conduct an interview, possibly through a conference call, of any candidate prior to write such a support letter. The list of all research entities and ULB academic staff members is available on the ULB website: http://www.ulb.ac.be/rech/inventaire/facultes/index.html

For confidentiality reasons, the letters of reference should be sent directly to the ULB research administration (agreindl@ulb.ac.be). The object of the email should specify the name of the applicant followed by “- ULB fellowship”.

Evaluation criteria and procedures

The evaluation of the proposals will be conducted in 5 steps:
· Administrative eligibility check.
· First internal assessment.
· External assessment by peer reviewers.
· Assessment by the Evaluation Committee of the Research Council.
· Official decision taken by the Research Council. 

Administrative eligibility check

The eligibility check will be carried out by the research administration office. Incomplete applications and/or candidates who do not fulfil the rules of transnational mobility will result in an ineligible application. 

Internal assessment

Within 3 weeks after the submission deadline, the Bureau of the ULB Research Council will select, based on the same evaluation form as the one used by the external reviewers, up to 30 proposals that will be submitted to the external assessment. 

External assessment by peer reviewers

The second stage, a peer review evaluation, involves remote individual assessments, carried out by two reviewers. The reviewers will be scientific experts identified by the ULB research administration office and validated by the university scientific advisors.

Reviewers will be contacted by e-mail by the research administration office to assess one proposal. The experts should not have any conflict of interest with the applicant or the ULB promoter in any way. The assessment form and guidelines will be provided to both the reviewers and the candidates. The assessment forms filled by the reviewers will remain confidential.

The evaluation criteria are listed below:

Each criterion will be scored according to the following scale:

5 (excellent): The proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion.
4 (very good): The proposal addresses the criteria very well, but a small number of shortcomings are present.
3 (good): The proposal well addresses the criteria, but a number of shortcomings are present.
2 (fair): The proposal broadly addresses the criteria, but there are significant weaknesses.
1 (poor): The criteria are inadequately addressed, or there are serious inherent weaknesses.
0: Proposal fails to address the criterion or cannot be assessed due to missing or incomplete information.

Committee of the Research Council and the Research Council Evaluation

The Evaluation Committee of the Research Council will proceed to the selection by ranking the applications. The final ranking will rely on their own evaluation and the external evaluations and must be formally approved by the Research Council.

The top 10 applications will be retained for funding. If budget becomes available due to the withdrawal of a candidate, the fellowship will be offered to the following ranked candidate.

At the end of the evaluation process, the results will be communicated by e-mail. An evaluation summary report will be sent to both selected and non-selected candidates.

Reports

At mid-term, the fellows are required to submit to the research administration office and their supervisor, a short progress report (3 pages max) on research activities and prospects. This intermediate report will be also transferred/submitted to the Bureau of the Research Council by the end of the first year. The fellowship will be renewed on the basis of a favourable evaluation by the Board/Bureau of the Research Council.

At the end of the fellowship, a final report must be submitted. Guidelines for the final report will be communicated to grantees.

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

http://infofin.ulb.ac.be/?AC=400&VP=1&PID=1816