Extended support for postdoctoral research fellows in Luxembourg
Managed by the National Research Fund Luxembourg (FNR), the AFR postdoc scheme ran from 2008 to 2016. Its main objectives were to attract promising researchers to Luxembourg, support researchers from Luxembourg in excellent research groups abroad, promote international and intersectorial mobility, and improve working conditions through the provision of work contracts. It also targeted enhanced employment and career opportunities through dedicated support measures. The project AFR-POSTDOC (AFR postdoc (Luxembourg)) organised five calls for proposals, which resulted in support for 108 fellows. A total of 195 fellow-years were completed by end-November 2015, of which 166 were co-funded by the EU. Project efforts included extending the online submission tool and management system AIMS as well as an online paperless reporting system to monitor the AFR population and produce regularly updated statistics. All researchers funded under this second Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) received work contracts with full social security coverage. Selected fellows had training budgets for both scientific and non-scientific training. They took part in international conferences and summer schools as well as non-scientific training courses benefiting their career development. The FNR organised training seminars throughout the project period, and covered the participation of 10 fellows at two EuroScience Open Forums – ESOF 2012 and ESOF 2014. Together with the European Science Foundation (ESF), AFR-POSTDOC organised an international conference on career tracking (February 2012). This led to FNR's participation with another four funding agencies in a 2014/15 ESF career tracking pilot study. The majority of the 80 AFR postdocs who took part were fellows from the current and former COFUND contract. Funding for the AFR postdoc scheme also enabled the FNR to organise the 2015 MSCA International Conference on the COFUND action, which took place in Luxembourg on 10 and 11 December 2015. Conference contributions are available on the conference website. Extended COFUND support allowed more grants to be awarded as well as improved working conditions and career prospects for the fellows. AFR-POSTDOC also increased the visibility of the AFR postdoc scheme, and promoted public-private partnerships as a complementary path to the classic academic career.
Keywords
Postdoctoral research, postdoc scheme, AFR-POSTDOC, scientific training
