Call for applications 2020
Between the 15th of April 2020 and the 31st of May 2020, we invite applications for the Romanian Young Academy hosted by the University of Bucharest. Notifications on the results of the applications will be sent in July 2020. There will be maximum 20 RYA members selected during this first round of applications.
Eligibility
The RYA addresses Romanian early career researchers from both within the country and from abroad and to foreign researchers who are active in research in Romania and who received their (first) PhD not earlier than 7 years ago (that is, not earlier than April 2013). They can come from all disciplines and can apply on the basis of their personal research projects. Interdisciplinary projects and projects with a marked civic component, which can also lead to new policy proposals through a transfer of knowledge from academia to society will be preferred.
Required research themes
The broadly-defined research and civic action theme for this round of applications is ‘Global Challenges of the 21stCentury’, with three specific sub-themes: 1) Technological development and human health/ quality of life; 2) Climate change and environmental sustainability; 3) Democracy and social cohesion. Applications that do not fall within these 3 sub-themes will not be considered.
Assessment procedure
During the June-August period, the applications will undergo a double peer review process. The reviewers will be international specialists selected by the RYA international advisory board. The selection criteria can be found here: https://rya.org.ro/selection-criteria-2020. After we receive your applications, we will download the PDF application document of each application and send it by e-mail to two reviewers abroad. The final score for each applicant will be the average calculated on the basis of the scores provided by these two international and independent reviewers and this should be above the EC threshold of 6,5 out of a maximum of 10 points. When we have all the decisions and we can calculate all the final average scores, the RYA director will send an e-mail to each applicant, in which his/ her final average mark will be communicated. This will be personal communication that will respect all the GDPR requirements. Then, we will upload the final list of selected members on the RYA website at this address: https://rya.org.ro/selected-applicants-and-statistics-2020 (Selected applicants and statistics). Appeal is possible and will be solved with celerity by two newly assigned reviewers.
Responsibilities of the selected RYA members
The selected RYA members will not be obliged to reside in Bucharest, but they will have to attend two general meetings per semester, each of 2-3 days, in which conferences, workshops, meetings, outreach and other events will be organised. Any RYA member who fails to attend at least 3 out of the 4 yearly meetings will lose the RYA membership and the RYA granted research support. The RYA members’ responsibilities will be: 1) to engage in research and produce at least one significant publication per year that is directly related to the theme they applied for; 2) to be involved with, and support the development of a civic component related to their chosen research theme and propose specific public policies in this respect (the civic component can be developed after the member was selected, but it has to be already briefly specified in the application); 3) to collaborate and develop common projects that would facilitate the transfer of knowledge from academia to society.
Support and funding
The RYA support will consist primarily in helping researchers work at high international standards, in an interdisciplinary environment, network and encounter national and international mediators and role models in both science and politics who could both help them open new paths in their independent careers and support them in applying their original ideas to specific civic action and policy advice. The RYA will also act as a platform of discussion to raise the general public awareness that science is addressing increasingly complex problems, which require policy advice and policy making on an increasingly global scale and that young researchers are part of this process and can face this challenge.
For its first three years (2020-2022), the RYA will be funded by Stiftung Mercator. Each of the selected RYA members will sign a contract with the University of Bucharest, in which it will be specified that he/ she is entitled to research support funds of Eur 1000 per semester related to the research presented during the two general meetings he/ she is required to attend each semester. This financial research support will be received by the RYA members as soon as the semestrial funds will be received from the Stiftung Mercator, respectively around the dates of 1 June and 1 December of each year. The contract will also stipulate that RYA members may also receive additional funding within the limits of Eur 6000 per year for the entire group for conferences or other events they intend to organise in groups of at least 3 members pertaining to different thematic groups. This funding is not guaranteed for each RYA member and will be obtained on a competitive basis, according to the decision of the international advisory board. The projects submitted for this funding should also meet the RYA specific criteria such as excellence, interdisciplinarity, international participation and envisaged impact of the civic action proposed. The director of the RYA will apply for additional funding for the RYA members – first, for the Marie Curie COFUND scheme, in September 2020.
Privacy policy
All information you submit to us will be stored on servers in the EU and will be secured through technical and organisational measures against loss, destruction, access, modification or dissemination by unauthorised persons. We will only use your personal data for the application and review process. In particular, your personal data will be transmitted encrypted with us. We use the coding system SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Furthermore, once the application is received and sent to the reviewers, we will delete it from the system. However, applicants should be aware that the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure, which is why we cannot completely guarantee the security of the data transmitted to and from our website via the Internet. Our website may also contain hyperlinks to and from third party websites. If you follow the hyperlink to one of these websites, please note that we cannot assume any responsibility or guarantee for third-party content or data protection conditions. Please, consult the privacy policy of those third-party websites before submitting your personal information to those websites. For more information, please also consult the ‘Legal notice’ (https://rya.org.ro/legal-notice) and the ‘Data protection statement’ (https://rya.org.ro/data-protection-statement) available on this website.
Submission of applications
The application form can be accessed here: https://rya.org.ro/en/application-form or by clicking the ‘Apply now’ button, which can be found on the menu page ‘Applications’ under ‘Applications 2020’. You will be required to fill in the form with your personal data and those of your referees and to upload one PDF file containing your CV, a research project of no more than 2000 words, and 2 letters of recommendation from your named referees – all in English. The research project should briefly mention the proposed topic, the present state of research on the chosen topic, the preparatory work done, the theories and methods to be applied, the plan of procedure with a time schedule for 3 years and the envisaged civic action(s) and public policy(ies) related to the topic. As already noted above, applications will be received between the 15th of April 2020 and the 31st of May 2020 (included, until midnight).
Contact information
For further information or clarifications, you can contact the RYA director, Dr Diana Stanciu, at the e-mail address: diana.stanciu@rya.unibuc.ro