Brian Cahill
Brian Cahill
Arturo Castro Nava
Arturo Castro Nava
MCAA Management
DAAD/Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience (P.R.I.M.E.)
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) offers a new funding programme - co-financed by the Marie Curie Programme of the European Commission - for outstanding postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines and nationalities: "Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience" (P.R.I.M.E). The funding consists of salaries instead of scholarships.
Funding is provided for 18 months, in which 12 months have to be spent abroad and 6 months (re-integration phase) at a German university. The re-integration phase is mandatory. The German university administrates the salary during the whole funding period.
The next call for applications will be published on 16 November 2015 with an application deadline on 1 February 2016. The starting date for funding will be 1 September 2016. Further details can be found at: https://www.daad.de/deutschland/stipendium/datenbank/en/22962-postdoctoral-researchers-international-mobility-experience/
My personal assessment: This COFUND funding could be most well suited to those who want to have a one-year Marie Curie postdoc in a highly reputable university outside Germany (Sorbonne, ETH, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT etc.) and then have a half-year reintegration phase in Germany. The call is suitable for all those with PhD or those who will defend their PhD in the next 8-9 months. The publication record will be assessed taking the time since PhD into account. The call information says that finding a re-integration phase German host other than your current employer could be assessed by the reviewers as showing willingness to broaden your research interests, a more independent attitude and more suitability for a research career. Nevertheless they don't rule out the current employer.
5 Comments
Dear Maria,
I was looking through the offerings of the DAAD for other reasons and came across the program. I think it suits an ESR who will graduate soon or graduated recently on the back of a highly succcessful doctoral thesis with a good support from the reintegration host in Germany. The main competition is probably German candidates who require foreign experience for their CV but don't really want to live outside of Germany for very long. This call could also be quite interesting for our German members in foreign countries.
If I was the German host institution, I would recommend finding a really excellent foreign lab, working like crazy when you are there, publishing many papers and returning to submit a proposal for a DFG Emmy Noether Group. In this case the host institution believes the candidate to be a very promising young scientist. I would think that teaching is one way they could support the career of the candidate but from a German point of view supporting the candidate to write a habilitation (teaching experience is required) would also make sense.
As regards language, you need a statement from the hosts that English is sufficient to do the planned work and research. Maybe other language capabilities would help the application but are not a knockout criterion.
Warm regards,
Brian
Hi Brian,
that's what I've done when I submitted my Marie Curie EIF 10 years ago (actually 11, 10 years are since I entered it). I was under 30 and argumented in the sustainability after the grant that for Emmy Nother it is required to have 2 years abroad and I can do it this way with Marie Curie and then get a junior professorship. Well, then I ended applying for a reintegration grant in Romania instead of returning to Germany although my Aufenthaltsbewilligung was still valid. Not sure 1 year is enough for Emmy Nother.
Regarding language I understand English is sufficient for Germany, but for abroad you need the language of the country, even if working in a foreign group there (ex. one could go to Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome where German is official, or to any other foreign academy, ex. the French one where French is official and not only Italian is needed).
BTW were you based in Darmstadt? I might visit a professor there in January. And which field are you in?
I will go this weekend to Karlsruhe.
kind regards
Maria
Hi Maria,
I live in Göttingen and started my initial fellowship 8 years ago this month at a research institute in Heilbad Heiligenstadt in Thuringia - the Institute for Bioprocessing and Analytical Measurement Techniques. I'm still working there.
Two members of our chapter board are based at the TU Darmstadt, Vignesh and Ehsanul. They both worked very hard organizing our event there and won great support from their project supervisors and research group.
With regard to Emmy Nöther, the DFG currently requires "substantial international research experience, as a rule evidenced by a research stay abroad of at least 12 months during the doctoral or postdoctoral phase or by comparable scientific cooperation with researchers abroad (the collaboration may have resulted in a relevant publication)". The PRIME fellowship would clearly help satisfy this point. Emmy Nöther is of course for those a maximum of four years since the PhD (with some flexibility in the case of parental leave).
Best Regards,
Brian
Hi,
then it must have changed. When I consulted it it was a juniour professorship of which Emmy Nother was paying 2 years abroad and 4 years in Germany, if the 2 years were not done otherwise, and Marie Curie was better funding than Emmy Nother ;)
However, since I went on Marie Curie on 4 years of experience and not 4 years since PhD (which was 2012) I might qualify. But, I think that Emmy Nother also wanted young people around 30 years old, at least 10 years ago.
I meet now at lunch a former Marie Curie fellow who worked in Göttingen and I also know one who studied there, the world is small.
kind regards
Maria
Hi Brian,
KIT also announced it and I had a look.
It says success rate 10-20% - I wonder if this is from the figures of last year. As the eligibility conditions are quite hard - for me as abroad came only Italy in question, where I have a 3 years old language certificate (in 2015 and not in 2016, hopefully they take the date of the call and not of deadline) and stayed there 2 1/2 years. And two hosts etc.
Also, the German university, like at the DFG, must give a statement of further integrating the person. Do you have any idea what this might mean? Is it enough to say a further collaboration for courses as private dozent for example?
thank you and kind regards
Maria