New travel fund call for foreign PhD candidates

Extended Deadline: November 10th 2019, 24:00 hrs

Are you a foreign PhD candidate who is currently working on complexity research? Or do you know someone abroad would like to visit the Centre for Complex Systems Studies (CCSS) to further develop his/her research skills? The Swaantje Mondt Fund will give you or your collaborators a great opportunity to exchange knowledge and develop new research skills at the CCSS. This is the third time that the travel fund is open for applications. Over the past year, the grant helped 12 PhD candidates to work or study at an institute abroad.

Swaantje Mondt Fund

The CCSS has received a generous gift from Martine and Jaap Mondt. Through the Swaantje Mondt Fund they offer PhD candidates of Utrecht University the opportunity to either conduct part of their research abroad or to follow courses abroad to further develop their research skills. Foreign PhD candidates working on complexity research are also welcome to come to Utrecht. Both benefactors of the Swaantje Mondt Fund have gained valuable international experience during their career, and wish to offer young talented researchers the same experience. The fund was founded in memory to their beloved daughter Swaantje. The CCSS will receive €10.000 per year for a period of five years.

Aim of the call

To offer foreign PhD candidates who are currently working on complexity research the opportunity to conduct part of their research at the Centre for Complex Systems Studies at Utrecht University.

Available budget for the call

€ 10.000 total budget.

Conditions

  • The research of the applicant should focus on complexity research from an interdisciplinary perspective.
  • Research should be related to the field of complex systems.
  • To ensure an optimal research collaboration during the visit of the CCSS, all applicants are obliged to contact at least one of the Associate Members or Junior Members to explore the possibilities for a joint project. The travel fund will only be granted if PhD candidate is co-supervised or invited by one of these members.
  • The final application must be pre-approved and signed by the supervisor and co-supervisor or inviter.
  • The academic activities of the foreign PhD candidates should mainly take place at the CCSS, and the CCSS will provide them office facilities and meeting place.
  • Other hosting agreements with home institute or institute at UU should be arranged by the applicant.
  • For the current call, research will preferably take place in 2019-2020 and the length of the visit should be at least one month.
  • A maximum of € 2000 is available per application. Declarable costs are for travel and housing. Costs such as consumable research resources are not declarable.
  • Each applicant can submit only one application for this call.
  • The application must be submitted in the enclosed format with all the required information.

Assessment criteria

  • Track record of the PhD candidates.
  • The quality of the application. The application gives a brief impression of the nature of the travel, the PhD candidate, the study/research area, the scientific contribution to complexity research, the length of the stay, and the requested budget.
  • Added value to the CCSS and community at Utrecht University.

Procedure and timeline

  • Submit by email to the CCSS coordinator dr. ir. Qingyi Feng (q.feng@uu.nl).
  • Deadline is November 10th 2019, 24:00 hrs.
  • The applications will be checked on eligibility. Non-eligible applicants will be informed before November 12th 2019.
  • Members of jury will discuss all eligible applications. Members of the jury will not contribute to the decision process on applications of their own group.
  • All applicants will be notified at the latest by the end of December 2019.

Jury

  • Prof. dr. Vincent Buskens, chair (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, UU)
  • dr. Mara Baudena (Faculty of Geosciences, UU)
  • dr. Laura Filion (Faculty of Sciences, UU)

Other obligation

The successful applicant will be asked to write a short article about his/her experiences afterwards for both the benefactors and the media, for example, the website or newsletter of the CCSS.

Questions

If you have questions about the call, please contact dr. ir. Qingyi Feng (q.feng@uu.nl).