Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is committed to building and supporting a skilled workforce within the Irish Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sector and, to this end, incentivising diversity and gender-balance within the Irish private and public research system. The primary purpose of SFI’s Advance Award Programme is to provide female postdoctoral researchers with an opportunity to remain in, or return to, high-quality research and in particular, to undertake further training that has substantial industry relevance. Advance Awards are intended to allow a flexible time commitment by the researcher, and thus can be carried out on a full- or part-time basis. The award is suitable for women wishing to return to research after a break owing to family commitments, although this is not a mandatory criterion.

An interested candidate is encouraged to identify an academic mentor, who will apply to SFI to host her within his/her team and research facilities. Eligible academic mentors will be Principal Investigators on an active SFI award of scale, including, but not limited to, Principal Investigators funded under the SFI Research Centres programme. Successful academic mentors will possess a strong track record in research, mentorship and in delivering impact from their research activities.

It is SFI’s expectation that the Advance researcher will collaborate closely with at least one of the academic mentor’s industry partners during her training to ensure relevance to several possible career paths, and that following completion of the Advance Award, the researcher will be in a position to secure STEM employment in industry or in the public sector.

Applications may be submitted for an Advance Award up to a maximum of €175,000 direct costs for a term of between 12 and 24 months. SFI’s expectation is that the Advance researcher’s time commitment should not be below 50%.

Eligibility

Applications to the SFI Advance Award programme will only be accepted from the academic mentors (“Lead Applicant”). Applications cannot be submitted directly by the candidate Advance researcher (“Researcher”).

The Lead Applicant must:

• Be a named Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on a SFI Research Centre, or,
• Be a named PI or co-PI within an SFI CSET or SRC award whose current end date falls beyond the proposed end date of the prospective Advance Award, or,
• Be a named PI on an eligible SFI award (Research Centres, CSETs, SRCs, other awards above €150,000 per annum that align with a NRP area, with significant industry linkages and preferably undertaking research with an applied focus) whose current end date falls beyond the proposed end date of the prospective Advance Award.

The Researcher must:

• Be a woman
• Hold a PhD, MD, or equivalent
• Not hold or have held a significant, independent research award of greater than one-year duration and in excess of €100,000 (or equivalent) direct costs. Personal awards may be permitted
• Not hold a faculty position at the time of her application or at the start of the award

For further details on eligibility and application procedure please download the Advance Award programme call document.

Downloads

Advance Award Programme Call Document (PDF)(Word)

Advance Award FAQs (PDF)

Deadlines

Deadline for submission of Expressions of Interest (EoI) is 13.00 h (Dublin Local Time) on 28^th March 2014.

Deadline for submission of full proposals (by invitation) is 13.00 h (Dublin Local Time) on 23^rd May 2014.

Information Webinar

A Webinar will be held on Wednesday, 26^th February at 14.00 h – 15.00 h (Dublin Local Time) to outline the details of the Programme.

To reserve your Webinar seat now, please register at:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/434968346

How to apply

As detailed in the Advance Award Programme Call document, EoIs and full proposal applications should be submitted electronically, in the form of a single Adobe PDF document, from the proposed host institute research office to advance@sfi.ie before the respective deadlines.