PE&RC call for institutional collaboration 2024

Introduction

In 2018, PE&RC initiated a call to stimulate collaboration between PE&RC members of Wageningen University and PE&RC members of other institutes via joint short-term PhD and/or postdoc projects. After many successful years of this collaboration initiative, the call is set out again for 2024 but with some modifications. We thus are happy to be able to invite academic staff members of PE&RC again to submit a proposal for institutional collaboration within PE&RC taking into account these modifications.

Eligibility criteria

• Applications must be submitted by at least two PE&RC registered staff members from at least two PE&RC institutes being: WUR-ESG, WUR-PSG, WUR-ASG, UVA-IBED, VU-A-Life, UU-E&B, NIOO, NATURALIS, and RADBOUD-IWWR.
• One of the applicants must be affiliated to Wageningen University as funds are provided by Wageningen University.
• Funds are meant for short-term PhD and/or postdoc projects. The project can be executed by one or two PhD candidates, one postdoc, or a PhD-Postdoc collaboration. In case of PhD projects, the application should involve work on a new project that is not part of the original PhD proposal. The outcome of this work may of course be included in the PhD thesis.
• Since funds only cover gross salary costs (postdoc max. scale 11.5) plus approximately 35% overhead, the groups must state how research expenses will be covered.
• Appointment of PhD(s) and/or postdoc(s) must be at Wageningen University as the call is funded by Wageningen University strategic funds. However, research activities may be performed at non-WUR PE&RC institutes.
• The maximum months of appointment to be funded are: o PhD project: four months o PhD-PhD project: two months each o Postdoc: three months o Postdoc-PhD: one month postdoc and two months PhD o Postdoc-Postdoc: 1.5 month each.
• The planned budget foresees in funding a total of three projects.
• Funded projects will have to be completed before 1 November 2025. Funds will be allocated in 2024 to the group(s) involved.
• Upon completion awardees are required to: 1. Submit a short project report (max two pages) and 2. Present their findings in the next edition of the PE&RC day.

Submission of proposals

Applicants are invited to submit a proposal that includes:

• Title;
• Focus and aim of the project (max. 250 words);
• Relevance given the PE&RC mission (Understanding the functioning of natural and managed ecosystems to improve the quality of life) (max. 150 words);
• The manner in which the proposed project will strengthen the institutional collaboration, identifying the specific role of the proposed candidate(s) (postdoc/PhD), including the expected output of the project (max. 150 words);
• Groups involved
• Scientists involved
• PhD candidate(s) or postdoc(s) involved
• Time to be spent on the project by the Postdoc(s) / PhD candidate(s);
• Appointment details: name of person(s) employed, employment period, chair group;
•  In case of a postdoc position; Salary costs (including salary costs for employer).

Proposals must be submitted by e-mail to office.pe@wur.nl on or before 12 September 2024, 09:00 am!

Selection procedure

• Proposals are evaluated by an evaluation committee established by PE&RC after the submission of the proposals to minimize conflicts of interest.
• A maximum of six applications will be selected by this committee based on eligibility, quality, and added value for PE&RC (quality and added value to PE&RC weigh equal). Selected applications will be informed one week ahead of the PE&RC day. Note that proposals that according to this committee do not meet the qualification “good” for one of these three criteria are not selected.
• Selected applicants (i.e. the academic staff members submitting the application) are required to pitch their proposal during the 2024 PE&RC Day (10 October 2024). The PhD candidate(s) / postdoc(s) involved in the application may also take part in the pitch during the PE&RC Day. If one or more of the applicants cannot be present during the pitch, this needs to be communicated to the PE&RC Office as soon as possible. Only if there are valid and strong arguments for all staff members to be unable to perform the pitch (to be judged by the PE&RC Office), it will be accepted to have the involved PhD candidate(s) / postdoc(s) pitch the proposal.
• In a pitch the scientific content is presented. The pitch can be supported by a PowerPoint presentation and/or established means to support a scientific pitch (e.g. a scientific dialogue). In other words, the pitch should focus on bringing the idea forward in a clear and engaging way and why what is proposed is scientifically so exciting and/or relevant for PE&RC and/or the collaboration.
• The PE&RC Day audience votes for the scientifically most exciting pitch / proposal. Each participant votes for the #1, #2 and #3 preference. The #1 gets 3 points, the #2 two points and the #3 one point.
• Final selection of those to receive the funds is based on the combined scores given by the evaluation committee and the pitch score given by the audience (the evaluation committee score counts for 67%, the pitch score for 33%). To do so both the ratings of the evaluation committee and the pitch score are converted to a hundred points scale (so total summed scores for both the evaluation committee as well as the pitch presentation sum to 100).
• The best three proposals are awarded the grant.
   

The proposals funded in 2023 can be found below:
Project 1;  Enhanced biological pest control by intercropping – a challenge in spatial data analysis
Project 2;  Understanding Past Ecology to Protect Future Forests
Project 3; What’s more? Viruses in an important agricultural pest