guide-for-applicants-v3

MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE ACTIONS COFUND
IF@ULB
Call 2018
Guide for applicants
July 2018 – v.1

MSCA-IF@ULB-Call 2018 Guide for applicants
July 2018 – v.1 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 IF@ULB IN BRIEF .......................................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 CALL 2018 TIMELINE ...................................................................................................................................... 3
2 ELIGIBILITY ........................................................................................................................... 4
3 SUBMISSION ........................................................................................................................ 5
3.1 REQUESTED DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................................................ 5
3.2 SUBMISSION PROCESS ..................................................................................................................................... 6
4 EVALUATION ........................................................................................................................ 7
4.1 ELIGIBILITY CHECK .......................................................................................................................................... 7
4.2 EVALUATION CRITERIA .................................................................................................................................... 7
4.3 REMOTE EXPERT EVALUATION .......................................................................................................................... 7
4.4 PANEL REVIEW .............................................................................................................................................. 8
5 RESULTS ............................................................................................................................... 9
5.1 COMMUNICATION OF THE EVALUATION OUTCOME ............................................................................................... 9
5.2 APPEAL ........................................................................................................................................................ 9
6 RECRUITMENT .................................................................................................................... 10
6.1 STARTING DATE & DURATION ......................................................................................................................... 10
6.2 REMUNERATION .......................................................................................................................................... 10
6.3 ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT ............................................................................................................................ 11
7 ETHICS, OPEN SCIENCE & RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT .................................................. 12
7.1 ETHICS ....................................................................................................................................................... 12
7.2 OPEN SCIENCE & RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................. 12
8 CONTACT INFORMATION .................................................................................................... 13
9 PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ............................................................................................ 14
10 ANNEX 1 – EVALUATION FORM ........................................................................................... 15
11 ANNEX 2 – ETHICS SELF-ASSESSMENT ................................................................................. 16

MSCA-IF@ULB-Call 2018 Guide for applicants
July 2018 – v.1 3
1 Introduction
1.1 IF@ULB in brief
Individual Fellowship at the Université libre de Bruxelles, IF@ULB, is a comprehensive fellowship
programme providing excellent experienced researchers the opportunity to conduct frontier research
and receive diversified training in an environment of scientific excellence and state-of-the-art facilities,
under the supervision of renowned academics and with the support of an extensive collaboration
network of academic and non-academic institutions. IF@ULB is funded in part by ULB and in part by the
European Commission through the Marie-Skodowska Curie COFUND Programme.
IF@ULB will propose three calls within a five-year programme. To impact ULB’s post-doctoral policy as
widely as possible, the project will be open to all fields of research, organised into three panels:
 Social Sciences and Humanities,
 Physical and Engineering Sciences, and
 Life Sciences.
For each panel and each call, IF@ULB will offer to fund 7 excellent researchers for a research project of
a 24-month duration, reaching a total of 63 fellowship positions over five years.
1.2 Call 2018 timeline
The timeline of the first call of IF@ULB call is the following:
 Call opening: Wednesday, August 1st, 2018 at 14:00 Brussels time (UTC + 2)
 Call closing: Monday, October 15th, 2018 at precisely 17:00 Brussels time (UTC +
2).
 Eligibility check: October 2018
 Evaluation: November 2018 – February 2019
 Information to applicants: March 2019
 Start of projects: Between April 2019 (earliest) and Mid-October 2019 (latest)
 Fellowship duration: 24 months
Two additional calls are scheduled for late summer 2019 and early summer 2020, respectively, and will
be announced at the IF@ULB website.

MSCA-IF@ULB-Call 2018 Guide for applicants
July 2018 – v.1 4
2 Eligibility
 Applicants of any age and of any nationality are eligible.
 Eligible applicants are experienced researchers:
 with a PhD degree and maximum 7 years of post-doctoral experience at the
date of the call deadline or
 without a PhD but a documented full-time equivalent research experience
of minimum 4 and maximum 11 years at the date of the call deadline.
 Full-time equivalent research experience is measured from the date when a
researcher obtained the degree allowing him or her to embark on a doctorate.
This needs to be proven by the employment (or equivalent) contracts.
 Eligible applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work,
studies, etc.) in Belgium for more than 12 months during the last 3 years before
the call deadline.
 Eligible applicants should not have already benefited from a postdoctoral
fellowship in Belgium for more than six (6) months before the call deadline.

MSCA-IF@ULB-Call 2018 Guide for applicants
July 2018 – v.1 5
3 Submission
Applications are submitted on line in the dedicated platform accessible at IF@ULB website (www.if-at-
ulb.ulb.be). Applications sent via other means (e-mail, post, etc.) will not be considered. It is the
responsibility of the applicant to submit the application on time to avoid last minute delays due to the
high number of submissions. The submission platform will be automatically deactivated at precisely
17:00 (UTC+2) on Monday October 15th, 2018 and will not be able to accept further submissions. No
extension will be granted unless there is an unequivocal technical issue with the submission platform,
in which case all applicants will be notified accordingly.
3.1 Requested documents
The application file of the applicants is complete when all the following documents are submitted in
.pdf format:
 A copy of the PhD degree or a certificate confirming that all the requirements
related to the PhD programme in the home institution are fulfilled prior to the
call deadline.
 If no PhD degree has been obtained, a career description proving at least four
years of full-time research experience by the call deadline. Applicants should
attach proofs (e.g. contract, employer certificate) proving their research
experience.
 A detailed CV of maximum 5 pages, including a publication list. The mandatory
template is available at the call website.
 A research and training project of maximum 10 pages describing the state-of-
the-art, the research questions and/or objectives, the methodology, the work
plan, the training programme in an academic and, if relevant, non-academic
environment, the dissemination, exploitation and communication activities, the
information on ethics issues (not included in the 10 pages, see section 7.1). A
compulsory template is available at the call website.
 The letter of acceptance from a ULB academic member confirming that the
applicant, if successful, will be integrated in the research group and receive the
appropriate training. Applicants are invited to consult the ULB Research
inventory to identify a supervisor:
http://www.ulb.ac.be/rech/inventaire/facultes/index.html
 A copy of the passport or identity card.