Faculty Postdoc Award

 
Goals
  • The Faculty of Psychology supports research projects for the purpose of profile building and to promote the independence of the early-stage postdocs (incl. senior scientists and senior lecturers) at our Faculty
  • The Awardees get the possibility to initiate a (possibly first) independent project and carry it out within the framework of their existing employment.
  • The term "project" is deliberately broadly defined; it can refer directly to the performance of full-fledged empirical studies at the University of Vienna itself or at an external research institution, as well as to concrete preparatory work for a project application, such as the collection of pilot data, networking with project partners, as for example in the context of a research stay with them, but also workshops.
Deadline
  • Continuous submission of projects
  • Application Deadline: 12.11.2024
Submission
  • Online Submission
Target Group

Postdocs, Senior Scientists and Senior Lecturers of the Faculty of Psychology. In all cases: maximum time post Ph.D. graduation date: 10 years before the respective deadline (extension in case of career breaks due to caring responsibilities or longer illness is possible and will be considered individually and upon request).

Funding and time frame
  • The Postdoc Award of the Faculty of Psychology will be given at the Christmas Party of the faculty.
  • At the same time the respective project is to be started.
  • A maximum of € 2.500,- can be awarded per project with a total of € 5.000,- per call.
  • At least 50% of the funds made available in a round of awards will be awarded to female applicants.
  • In addition, preferential support will be given to persons with special care obligations for children or persons with special care needs (through preferential funding in the case of two applications of equal quality).
  • Should the reserved funding amount not be fully utilized in one round, it will be carried over to the next round once.
  • Depending on the budgetary possibilities and on the result of an evaluation of the funding measure, which will take place after six award rounds, the Postdoc Award is planned to be established on a long-term basis.
Eligible costs
  • Funding can be provided for material costs, fees for test persons, contracts for work and services, contracts for freelancer, specific software and hardware directly related to the project (if not available from central funds), organization of conferences/workshops at the University of Vienna, travel expenses (exclusively for networking with project partners or stays to carry out the project).
  • Personnel costs (employment contracts) are not possible.
Application criteria
  • Independence of the research project: Applicants must plausibly demonstrate that the submitted project is an independently initiated project. Without the funding, it would not be possible or would be difficult to carry out the project
  • Co-financing from other funding sources is possible, but the project is independent of other projects, and in carrying out the project, the applicant take on the role of project leader (and thus make all essential decisions independently, but optionally in consultation with other project partners
  • Funding will not be provided for the completion or additional funding of existing, ongoing projects; a corresponding declaration must be made explicitly in the application.
  • It is preferred that the postdoc mentor or supervisor only acts as a mentor, but not as a cooperation partner and co-author, in order to promote the career and visibility of the independence).
  • Contribution to sustainable career planning and development: The concrete contribution to (sustainable) career promotion and scientific development must be made visible and must go beyond the aspect of (possibly first-time) taking over primary responsibility of a project.
  • Applications with formal errors (e.g. going substantially over word limit, not addressing mandatory aspects) will not be evaluated.
Eligible applicants
  • Eligible for funding are all employees of the Faculty of Psychology with a Ph.D./Doctorate, who have an ongoing employment contract with the Faculty of Psychology as "Post doc" (financed by global budget or third-party funds), "Senior Lecturer", or "Senior Scientist", and whose contract term allows the completion of the project within the project funding period. Staff members with unlimited contracts (including tenure track postdocs and assistant professors) are excluded from the application.
  • Supervision/care obligations: if supervision/care obligations exist, they must be informally and plausibly explained in the application.
Funding period
  • The duration of the project is fixed for one year, but may be longer in exceptional cases and with good reason (up to 3 years). A project timetable must be attached to the application. If funding exceeds one year, an explicit justification has to be provided in the application.
Content of the application
  • Scientific project description (max. 1800 words): project outline, including work program, time schedule (including confirmation that the project duration is within the period of employment), financial plan (maximum application amount: € 2.500,-)
  • Curriculum vitae (freely selectable format, but in any case mentioning previous academic career, current employment, previous third-party funded projects, and publications)
  • Independence and differentiation from other research activities: max. 250 words, including explicit self-declaration that independence of the project exists
  • Contribution to career development: max. 150 words
  • Confirmation (informal) from the immediate supervisor(s) that the project can be carried out at the immediate supervisor's place of work in case of promotion.
  • Application language: English
Award Criteria
  • The award criteria are scientific quality (40% weighting), independence (35%) and contribution to career development (25%).
  • The decision is made by a committee consisting of members of the four institutes as well as the faculty management, which rotates every one year and can obtain external expert opinions on a case-by-case basis. In the event of possible partiality bias (such as a “conflict of interest”) in an allocation round, the respective members are replaced by other representatives from the institute or faculty management.
  • There is no legal entitlement to funding. A rejected project can be revised and re-submitted once.
  • Only one application per applicant* per award round and person will be considered
  • The award can be received a maximum of two times. If funding is currently available (at the time of the award), no new submission is possible in the relevant award round.
  • Partial funding of awards is possible
  • A short report and a statement of account must be submitted no later than 2 months after completion of the project
  • Any funding budget not used up on a grant date will be carried over to the next possible grant date, and the funding budget available for the respective date will be announced.
Contact and Information
  • For scientific aspects: Vice dean for research and early-stage researcher, Claus Lamm
  • For technical aspects: Research Support Psychology, Esther Schmidt