Etta-Becker-Donner Scholarship Programme
Introduction
The Austrian Latin America-Institute (LAI) was founded in 1965 with the objective to deepen the scientific and cultural dialogue and exchange between Austria and Latin America. In the area of science and technology, the LAI understands itself as a coordination and cooperation platform between researchers and research institutions located in Austria and abroad. By means of different projects, events and trainings, the network of contacts spreads from Europe to Latin America and promotes a continuous exchange of knowledge and experiences. In the sector of scientific cooperation and higher education, the institute is financed by the Austrian Ministry for Science, Research, and Economy (BMWFW). Thanks to the funding of the BMWFW, the LAI has the opportunity to realize different activities for supporting the academic cooperation and scientific exchange between Austria and Latin America like the Etta-Becker-Donner Scholarship Programme. This programme is implemented in cooperation with the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna Violetta (Etta) Becker-Donner was director of the Museum of Ethnology of Vienna as well as co-founder and president (1965-1975) of the Austrian Latin-America Institute. In the last years of her scientific work she especially concentrated on South and Central America.
Objectives of the call
The objective of the Etta-Becker-Donner Scholarship Programme is to promote the mobility of Latin American researchers and support contacts between research institutions of Austria and Latin America. To this end, calls are launched periodically in order to support Latin American researchers to participate at scientific conferences taking place in Austria and to establish scientific relations with Austrian research institutions which might evolve into a scientific partnership.
The scholarship programme consists of two components:
- Participation at conferences
The scholarship programme supports the participation of researchers from Latin America at scientific conferences taking place in Austria. The participation at the conference allows the researchers to get to know their Austrian counterparts and/or find potential partners. Moreover, it allows the researchers to make their institutions and research work known to a broad public. Thus, the scholarship also works as a mechanism to facilitate the creation of scientific networks.
- Appointments at research institutions
In order to maximize the benefits of their stay in Austria, the researchers also have to organize an appointment at a research institution which is of thematic interest to them. The visit to a 3 Austrian research institution allows the researcher to further deepen the scientific relations to the Austrian counterparts and to explore possibilities for joint cooperation.
Call
The sixth call has been opened for researchers until 11th of March 2018. The scholarship programme supports the participation of five researchers from Latin America at scientific conferences taking place in Austria between May and December 2018. The scholarship covers costs up to a total amount of € 2.600 for travel expenses, conference fee and daily allowance up to 10 days.
Under the current call, only researchers from the following regions may apply for the scholarship:
Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
Caribbean: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic
1-2 Scholarships will be reserved for the annual conference of the Austrian Research of Latin America (Jahrestagung der Österreichischen Lateinamerikaforschung) which will be held from the 18th of May until the 20th of May 2018. The interdisciplinary conference has been organised by LAI and LAF Austria since 1985 en Strobl am Wolfgangsee. LAF Austria is an Austrian platform of scientists and investigators, working within the broad topic of Latin-American Studies with the aim to build a network of investigation and science on the national, European and international level.
Eligibility criteria
The following minimal criteria have to be met in order to be eligible:
- Be a researcher from Central America or the Caribbean
- Have a postgraduate level and/or at least three years of research experience (full time)
- Be a member or an employee of a research institution and/or a higher education institution and/or a SME1 which dedicates its work to research. For this purpose a recommendation letter of the applicant’s research institution is required.
- Participate actively in a scientific conference taking place in Austria. A confirmation or an invitation of the conference organizers regarding an active participation is required.
- Have sufficient knowledge of the conference language in order to be able to participate actively. A verification of language skills is required.
- Have a research appointment at an Austrian research institution. It is required to add an invitation letter of the Austrian research institution which you plan to visit.
Evaluation criteria
These criteria are used by the evaluators to assess the applications:
- Have carried out research projects in your country/region during the last three years.
- Impact of the participation at the conference: benefits for the researcher and his/her research activities.
- Give evidence of your active participation at the conference and point out the type of participation, e.g. holding a lecture, presenting a poster. The abstract of the presentation or poster, as well as the confirmation of the conference organizers upon the active participation, has to be included in the application.
- Impact of your visit to the Austrian research institution on possible future cooperation. It is required to add an expression of interest of the Austrian research institution which the applicant plan to visit.
- Participation in research networks
- International cooperation: within and outside of Latin America and the Caribbean
- Multiplier effect: benefits for the applicant’s research institution. The objective is that the participation has a multiplier effect in the applicant’s country and/or region. For this purpose a recommendation letter of the applicant’s research institution is required.
Additional criteria of the jury
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Balanced regional and thematic distribution of the applications
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Priority will be given to female researchers.
Selection process
The selection process contains following steps:
Formality check
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The following criteria have to be met in order to be considered for the evaluation process:
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Submission of a complete application form as Word document
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Letter of recommendation of the applicant’s research institution
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Confirmation of the conference organizers or invitation
that the applicant will participate in the conference held in Austria
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Letter of expression of interest by the research institution to host the applicant.
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Meeting of deadlines
Evaluation process
The evaluation of the applications will be realized by the Austrian Latin-America Institute according to scoring matrix below. The LAI will give a score for each criteria and a total score for each application.
Selection process
Those applications which successfully passed the evaluation process, will be presented to the Selection Committee which is responsible for the final selection of five scholarships. It is constituted by a representative of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science, Research and Economy, a representative of the Executive Board of the Austrian Latin-America Institute and representatives of Austrian Universities and/or institutes in the field of science. Its aim is to create a balanced selection, considering the objectives of the call, the quality of the applications, the results of the evaluation as well as regional and thematical distribution. Please note that priority is given to female researchers. After the selection process, all applicants are informed about the results.
Funding principles and reporting
The scholarship covers costs up to a total amount of € 2.600 for international and local travel expenses, conference fee and daily allowance (up to 10 days).Loss on currency conversion is not within the eligible costs.
Payment
The scholarship amount is paid in two rates. The first rate (€ 1.300) is paid after signing the document “Compromiso de beca”. The second rate is paid after the revision of the report and the invoices. In case that the grantee spends less than the total amount of the scholarship, the second rate covers the remaining amount of the realized expenses. The scholarship amount is transferred to the applicant’s account mentioned in the application form.
Reporting
The final report includes following items:
- a narrative report (2 A4-pages)
- a compiled list of expenses (a template will be provided)
- all original invoices for travel costs (airfare, local public transport) and conference fees
- confirmation of daily allowance
- a receipt of the grant in your bank account
- the original boarding passes of the flight
- the confirmation of participation issued by the conference organizers
- a confirmation letter of the visited research institution
The final report has to be sent straight after the conference to the Austrian Latin-America Institute. At first step, the scholarship holder only has to send scanned copies of all invoices and boarding passes to becas.ebd@lai.at. After revision by the LAI, all original invoices and boarding passes have to be sent to Österreichisches Lateinamerika-Institut
For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
https://www.lai.at/wissenschaft/kompetenzzentrum/etta-becker-donner-stipendien?utm_source=ARMACAD.info&utm_medium=ARMACAD