TRAIN@Ed Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme

Outline

Building on the outstanding success of our previous Chancellor’s Fellowship programmes and our world class research performance, we are investing in a pre-tenure track fellowship scheme, designed to support fellows to combine academic rigour with the variety of opportunity found in industry.

TRAIN@Ed Fellows will collaborate with an academic partner at the University of Edinburgh and a non-academic partner, for example, an industrial research partner or civil society organisation. As part of the three-year individual fellowships, the scheme will train as a cohort to have the skills toolkit required for a sustainable research career in either academia or industry. Our cohort-training concept will be at the heart of the skills development activities of TRAIN@Ed Fellows and is designed to support fellows to develop into effective and professional researchers, who have the skills to be successful in their longer-term career goals.

What is funded

The scheme will have a particular focus on:

• Data Science and Innovation;
• Creative Industries;
• Life and Medical Sciences;
• Energy and Marine Energy;
• Financial and Business Services;
• Food and Beverages.

Data-driven innovation is the core research and innovation focus of the Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Region City Deal, recently announced by the UK and Scottish Governments. We would be keen to see a data driven aspect to any research fellowship, and innovation through data will be part of the training opportunities offered.

Duration

The TRAIN@Ed Postdoctoral Fellowship has a duration of up to 3 years.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet eligibility criteria as listed below. These conditions are designed to encourage the mobility of fellows between countries.

• Applicants must, at the date of the application deadline (30 April 2019), be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years full-time equivalent research experience. 
• Applicants must, at the date of the application deadline (30 April 2019), have no more than ten years’ experience since defending their PhD (career breaks for parental leave, sickness absence or army service are excluded)  
• At the date of the application deadline (30 April 2019), the applicant must not have resided or carried out their main work activity (including studying) in the UK for more than 12 months in the past 3 years (not counting holidays or short stays).  
• For researchers returning from a career break, a slightly modified mobility criterion can be used, that at the date of the application deadline (30 April 2019) the applicant must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the UK for more than 36 months in the 5 years immediately prior to the application deadline. To qualify as returning from a career break the applicant must not have been active in research for at least 12 months immediately prior to application deadline, as determined by fellowships or employment contracts in the research area. 
• Applicants must submit a research proposal that ties in with one of 6 research themes  
• Applicants require the support of an academic supervisor at the University of Edinburgh  
• Applicants must submit an Ethical Issues Form. In the event of a research proposal being contrary to Horizon 2020 ethical principles, UK legislation or to UK Research Council policy or the policy of the host department, the application will be removed from the process, the candidate informed and given the opportunity to appeal.  
• Projects must secure support from a private sector partner in the form of secondments, mentorship or other types of cooperation.

Further Information

If you have any questions, please contact train.ed@ed.ac.uk

Further information is available at https://www.ed.ac.uk/human-resources/jobs/train-ed