Research Award, The Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society, Germany

Max Planck Research Award

Excellent scientists and scholars of all nationalities who are expected to continue producing outstanding academic achievements in international collaboration – not least with the assistance of this award – are eligible to be nominated for the Max Planck Research Award.

On an annually-alternating basis, the call for nominations addresses areas within the natural and engineering sciences, the life sciences, and the social sciences and humanities.

The Max Planck Research Award 2016 will be awarded in the life sciences in the field of

Organismal Biology
with particular focus on sensing the environment

Reductionist approaches in biology have enabled a deep understanding of physiological processes and the underlying molecular mechanisms and structures. Recent conceptual and methodological advances in life sciences increasingly led to a more systemic approach, posing new challenges of interdisciplinary research and the bridging of scales from the molecular to the organismic level. Organismal biology aims at an integration of this entire spectrum of biological investigation. This research will be required to understand life at all levels from cells and tissues to organisms and their performance, eventually to address questions of both ecology and evolution. The Max Planck Research Award will be conferred to individuals who conduct outstanding interdisciplinary research at the forefront of organismal biology, with a particular focus on sensing the environment.

The deadline for nominations is 15 January 2016.

Every year, the Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society grant two research awards to one researcher working abroad and one researcher working in Germany. These two awards will be bestowed independently.

The Presidents/Vice Chancellors of universities and the heads of research institutions in Germany are eligible to make nominations (c.f. list of eligible nominators). Direct applications are not accepted. As a rule, each award is endowed with €750,000 and may be used over a period of three to a maximum of five years to fund research chosen by the award winner.

Nomination

Requirements

1. The nominee must be recognised internationally as an outstandingly qualified academic (e.g. awards, positive responses to publications, etc.).
2. Expectation of continued outstanding academic achievements in international collaboration − not least with the assistance of the award.
3. Nomination by a person entitled to make the nomination (c.f. list of eligible nominators).
4. Expert reviews by important international and German collaborative partners and/or academics.
5. The Humboldt Foundation assumes that candidates will abide by the Rules of Good Scientific Practice during the application and sponsorship periods.

Selection procedure

Nominations must be submitted by 15 January 2016.

The deadline is not an exclusion date; however, it may not be possible to process nominations which arrive late or incomplete. The Selection Committee meeting will take place in spring/ summer 2016. Reviewing the applications takes four to six months.

It is the nominator's responsibility to ensure that he or she has submitted all the necessary documents. Nominations not submitted as a single entity will take longer to process. The documents required in addition to the nomination documents, i.e. the confidential statements by the expert reviewers, can be submitted to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation directly, at the same time as the nomination.

An independent Selection Committee composed of academic peers makes the final decision on the nominations received. The Selection Committee makes its decision solely on the basis of the nominees' academic qualifications.

Nominees will be notified about the Selection Committee's decision immediately after the meeting.

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/max-planck-award.html