| 1. | Can Australian teams participate in FP7 and receive funding? The short answer is “yes” (participation) and “no” (funding).
Participation is open to international organisations and legal entities established in third countries after the minimum conditions laid down in the ‘Rules for participation’ have been met, as well as any conditions specified in the specific programmes or relevant work programmes.
more…
Industrialised third countries (such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA) can participate in FP7, but with their own funding. EU funding is only granted in exceptional cases, generally when specifically set out in the relevant work programme.
more… | 5785 |
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| 2. | What is available for a Masters or a PhD? Scholarships available for European students coming to Australia
The first step for finding support for your PhD or your Master in an Australian university is to check in your own country. So visit the websites from the National Department of Education, regional or State agencies, your home university and other foundations. They are most likely to have support available. Having a look at EURAXESS can be very useful to guide you: ec.europa.eu/euraxess.
The next step, would be to check with the Australian Higher Education’s institution you want to go to. Have a look at the “Prospective Students” pages. Some (read most) universities offer scholarships for postgraduates students, generally for PhD, including international students and generally in the form of a tuition fee rebate for excellent candidates.
Finally here is a list of some opportunities:
- Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS)
- The IPRS provides 330 scholarships each year. Scholarships are available for a period of two years for a Masters by research or three years for a Doctorate. The Scholarship covers tuition fees and health cover costs for Scholarship holders, and health cover costs for their dependents.
www.dest.gov.au
- Endeavour Europe Awards
- A maximum of a one year stipend of AU$50,000 tax free, in monthly payments (also inclulding travel allowance). Each year up to 14 scholarships are offered. For a PhD or a Masters.
www.dest.gov.au
- Endeavour Research Fellowships
- Provide financial support for postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows to undertake research in Australia. In 2007 4 awards will be available to applicants from Europe. Awards are valued at up to A$25,000 including a travel allowance of A$5,000, an establishment allowance of A$5,000; and a monthly stipend of A$2,500 for up to six months.
www.dest.gov.au
- IDP Education Australia Limited (IDP)
- The organisation co-administered some programmes in different countries.
www.idp.com/students/scholarships/scholarships.asp
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| 3. | Where can I find information about positions and opportunities in Europe (PhD, postdoc, etc.) | 5003 |
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| 4. | What are the Marie Curie actions in FP6? The Sixth Framework Programme’s Human Resources and Mobility activity is focused on training and mobility for researchers. These activities, known as the Marie Curie Actions (MC), are aimed at the development and transfer of research competencies, the consolidation and widening of researchers’ career prospects, and the promotion of excellence in European research. The Marie Curie actions have a “bottom up” approach. This is expressed in the freedom of choice of field of research projects.
The 40 pages handbooks about these fellowships are very well done and quite complete to have a good overview of the schemes.
To apply to a fellowship:
- Note that the next calls will be open with the new Framework programme (between late 2006 to early 2007) and have news conditions.
- The calls for proposal are announced on the CORDIS website
- Read the work programme of the scheme for the exact scope of each call, study the latest Guide for Proposers (i.e. Outgoing International Fellowships), the commission also proposes guidelines for evaluators, model contracts that will be very useful when writing an application.
- In any case you will need to contact a host institution in Europe, then try to get someone with the experience in writing MC fellowships for advices.
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| 5. | Framework programmes experts The European commission relies on external and international experts panels to assess all of the projects submitted to Brussels for funding. During FP7 individual evaluators have to register on an online database. Once they are registered their application is processed and they are eventually selected for one or more panels.
The Commission calls this database a database of prospective independent experts. Once registered the evaluator will be selected in compliance to the commission’s internal rules. But the evaluator will have an active role on a panel only if applications in the particular calls are relevant to his/her expertise, if there are sufficient applications etc. On a panel, the expert will be flown to Brussels for the meetings.
Final notes:
- The commission is very strong on Gender equity, and therefore committed to balance the overwhelming male expert population with women.
- Issue #19 of FEAST focus details the experience of an Australian expert
- To register and for more information please visit: https://cordis.europa.eu/emmfp7/
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| 6. | Do people really benefit from international collaboration? | 2728 |
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| 7. | Is there funding for short visits to Europe? Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS)
Financial support for postgraduate Australian students to travel to conferences in systematics or taxonomy and relevant to the Aim and Objectives of the ABRS. A maximum of $1,000 is available for an international conference and $500 for travel within Australia. Up to $10,000 is available each year for these awards.
www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/admin/training | 2648 |
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| 8. | What is EURATOM? EURATOM is the abbreviation for the European Atomic Energy Community, one of the building blocks of the European Union. In relation to FP7, the obligations of the Euratom treaty in the field of research are reflected in the specific programme on nuclear research.
cordis.europa.eu/fp7/euratom | 2372 |
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| 9. | What is the “Researcher’s Mobility Portal”? EURAXESS: a pan-European Internet portal, which aims at providing references to funding and job opportunities for researchers wishing to go abroad or to return to their home country and at providing information about national regulations and procedures as well as the everyday living conditions relevant to mobile researchers.
ec.europa.eu/euraxess
FEAST has now launched the Australian Researchers’ Mobility Portal, which is the Australian counterpart to the European portal mentioned above.
www.mobility.org.au | 2372 |
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| 10. | How can one become an evaluator for FP7 proposals? The Commission chooses evaluators among experts having the highest level of knowledge and being internationally recognised authorities in the relevant specialist area. Individuals having the necessary qualifications and being interested in acting as evaluators can register their candidature in a database on CORDIS. There is also a possibility for organisations to recommend lists of potential evaluators.
cordis.europa.eu/experts | 2352 |
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