Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ISTplus (ISTplus - Postdoctoral Fellowships)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-07-01 al 2023-06-30
ISTplus is a coherently integrated program with strong monitoring, evaluation and follow-up. It offers two-year fellowships for highly qualified, incoming postdocs with the following features:
- Open, bottom-up international recruiting process
- Truly interdisciplinary research options
- Targeted Competence Building program
- Secondment scheme with an intersectoral network of partners
Experienced in the recruiting of promising scientists from all over the world, we put great emphasize on the design of our selection process - ensuring scientific quality and potential is key to sustainable success. We accept applications from all scientific fields present at IST Austria: Biology, Neuroscience, Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science. Fellows will be integrated in world-class multidisciplinary research, with close interactions with colleagues from different fields (through shared facilities, joint projects, and events).
Interdisciplinary research hold great promise in tackling some of society's greatest problems related to health and the environment. With the ISTplus program we aim to break down the traditional boundaries between disciplines and foster both theoretical and experimental research, with an emphasis on close and meaningful collaborations between the two camps. At the beginning of their stay, fellows together with a Career Counselor can assess their professional profile and skill set. They will then be able to define their future career path (be it academic or non-academic) and elaborate a development plan to build on their strengths and expand skills where necessary or desirable. For this purpose IST Austria will implement a Targeted Competence Building Program. A co-supervision scheme will support the fellows during their stay, meant to oversee scientific progress, but also to provide advice regards individual career planning.
Conclusions: The ISTplus program resulted in the recruitment and training of 68 postdoctoral fellows, comprising 28 different nationalities, with mobilities from 22 different countries. The unique ISTplus secondment scheme resulted in the development of new and unexpected partnerships with non-academic partners spanning drug development, investment, finance, behavioral economics, data science, deep learning and digital health. These non-academic partners provided training and invaluable hands-on experience to ISTplus fellows.
- Open, bottom-up international recruiting process
- Truly interdisciplinary research options
- Targeted Competence Building program
- Secondment scheme with an intersectoral network of partners
Experienced in the recruiting of promising scientists from all over the world, we put great emphasize on the design of our selection process - ensuring scientific quality and potential is key to sustainable success. We accept applications from all scientific fields present at IST Austria: Biology, Neuroscience, Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science. Fellows will be integrated in world-class multidisciplinary research, with close interactions with colleagues from different fields (through shared facilities, joint projects, and events).
Interdisciplinary research hold great promise in tackling some of society's greatest problems related to health and the environment. With the ISTplus program we aim to break down the traditional boundaries between disciplines and foster both theoretical and experimental research, with an emphasis on close and meaningful collaborations between the two camps. At the beginning of their stay, fellows together with a Career Counselor can assess their professional profile and skill set. They will then be able to define their future career path (be it academic or non-academic) and elaborate a development plan to build on their strengths and expand skills where necessary or desirable. For this purpose IST Austria will implement a Targeted Competence Building Program. A co-supervision scheme will support the fellows during their stay, meant to oversee scientific progress, but also to provide advice regards individual career planning.
Conclusions: The ISTplus program resulted in the recruitment and training of 68 postdoctoral fellows, comprising 28 different nationalities, with mobilities from 22 different countries. The unique ISTplus secondment scheme resulted in the development of new and unexpected partnerships with non-academic partners spanning drug development, investment, finance, behavioral economics, data science, deep learning and digital health. These non-academic partners provided training and invaluable hands-on experience to ISTplus fellows.
WP1: To recruit the foreseen number of highly qualified candidates, run the research training program smoothly and succeed in generating the expected triple-i added value.
The Postdoctoral Office (PDO) has been responsible for directing the pre-award activities, including advertisement and dissemination of the program calls, running the application process and supporting the application system (including acting as a contact point for potential applicants), coordination of the selection and evaluation process and informing applicants of the evaluation outcomes (including subsequent redress requests).
The Grant Office (GO) was responsible for management of the project post-award (i.e. once the fellows had accepted the offer and commenced work on campus), including administrative and financial aspects and reporting obligations. The GO coordinated with the relevant departments (PDO, Communications, Ethics Officer) in compiling reports on the project deliverables. The GO was also responsible for the continuous project reporting (incl. researcher declarations), coordinating data collection with the relevant departments.
Results: Offers accepted across the 5 calls: 68. Fellows recruited across all disciplines at IST Austria: Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics.
WP2: To ensure the selection of the best candidates according to the principles of a transparent and impartial selection procedure, based on international peer review.
After a formal check by project management (eligibility and completeness), all complete and eligible applications (352) from calls 1-5 were assessed by an International Selection panel. All applications were discussed and ranked at a Selection Panel meeting. A total of 17 scientific reviewers were active across the first five calls.
Results: 352 applications reviewed by an International Selection panel.
WP3: To achieve maximum diffusion of appropriate information about the calls within relevant target groups, allowing us to attract a big pool of excellent candidates; to support the dissemination of the scientific results of the ISTplus fellows; and to increase the impact of the ISTplus program through communication with other target audiences.
Calls 1-5 were advertised across 9 different digital platform/portals. The program website (https://istplus.pages.ist.ac.at/) has been continuously updated and upgraded throughout the process, while the calls have also been advertised though all relevant social media channels. This dissemination strategy has resulted in 577 applications from 70 different countries across the first five calls. Fellows have also been active in disseminating project findings though internal forums and seminars, international conferences, as well as communicating to the public though the IST Austria Open Campus (summers 2018-2022)
Results: 577 applications received from 70 countries.
WP4: To guarantee that all ethical issues are handled in agreement with all national and European regulations and according to the highest international scientific standards.
For calls 1-5, all applicants submitted an ethics self-assessment form, which together with the respective project proposals was reviewed by the Ethics Officer. The ethics officer findings were available to the Selection Panel members before the Selection Panel meeting. Successful applications from calls 1-5 with identified ethical issues underwent a detailed review by the Ethics Officer to define the necessary subsequent steps associated with the internal ethics process (including applying for approval of animal experiments with internal and external authorities) as part of an ethics project plan (including follow-up checks if required).
Results: 352 eligible applications under went initial ethics review, 68 projects underwent in-depth review before project start. One ethics amendment submitted and approved during project running.
The Postdoctoral Office (PDO) has been responsible for directing the pre-award activities, including advertisement and dissemination of the program calls, running the application process and supporting the application system (including acting as a contact point for potential applicants), coordination of the selection and evaluation process and informing applicants of the evaluation outcomes (including subsequent redress requests).
The Grant Office (GO) was responsible for management of the project post-award (i.e. once the fellows had accepted the offer and commenced work on campus), including administrative and financial aspects and reporting obligations. The GO coordinated with the relevant departments (PDO, Communications, Ethics Officer) in compiling reports on the project deliverables. The GO was also responsible for the continuous project reporting (incl. researcher declarations), coordinating data collection with the relevant departments.
Results: Offers accepted across the 5 calls: 68. Fellows recruited across all disciplines at IST Austria: Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics.
WP2: To ensure the selection of the best candidates according to the principles of a transparent and impartial selection procedure, based on international peer review.
After a formal check by project management (eligibility and completeness), all complete and eligible applications (352) from calls 1-5 were assessed by an International Selection panel. All applications were discussed and ranked at a Selection Panel meeting. A total of 17 scientific reviewers were active across the first five calls.
Results: 352 applications reviewed by an International Selection panel.
WP3: To achieve maximum diffusion of appropriate information about the calls within relevant target groups, allowing us to attract a big pool of excellent candidates; to support the dissemination of the scientific results of the ISTplus fellows; and to increase the impact of the ISTplus program through communication with other target audiences.
Calls 1-5 were advertised across 9 different digital platform/portals. The program website (https://istplus.pages.ist.ac.at/) has been continuously updated and upgraded throughout the process, while the calls have also been advertised though all relevant social media channels. This dissemination strategy has resulted in 577 applications from 70 different countries across the first five calls. Fellows have also been active in disseminating project findings though internal forums and seminars, international conferences, as well as communicating to the public though the IST Austria Open Campus (summers 2018-2022)
Results: 577 applications received from 70 countries.
WP4: To guarantee that all ethical issues are handled in agreement with all national and European regulations and according to the highest international scientific standards.
For calls 1-5, all applicants submitted an ethics self-assessment form, which together with the respective project proposals was reviewed by the Ethics Officer. The ethics officer findings were available to the Selection Panel members before the Selection Panel meeting. Successful applications from calls 1-5 with identified ethical issues underwent a detailed review by the Ethics Officer to define the necessary subsequent steps associated with the internal ethics process (including applying for approval of animal experiments with internal and external authorities) as part of an ethics project plan (including follow-up checks if required).
Results: 352 eligible applications under went initial ethics review, 68 projects underwent in-depth review before project start. One ethics amendment submitted and approved during project running.
ISTplus has allowed the establishment of a Targeted Competence Building Program for postdoctoral fellows at IST Austria. The ISTplus project resulted the Grant Office, Human Resources, Postdoctoral Office, Legal Department, and Tech Transfer Office at IST Austria collaborating to create an intersectoral secondment program of tangable benefit to fellows looking to expand outside of academia. This program resulted in unique and unexpected intersectoral partnerships, spanning drug development, investment, finance, behavioral economics, data science, deep learning and digital health.
In addition to first-class scientific publications, the program has resulted in the scientific training of 68 international postdoctoral fellows, as well as providing first experiences of non-academic environments. The placement and transition of highly educated and trained fellows into such non-academic environments will likely not only have a positive individual impact on the fellow-level, but also a positive socio-economic impact and the wider societal impact through the fellows' continued innovation in their subsequent (new) career paths.
In addition to first-class scientific publications, the program has resulted in the scientific training of 68 international postdoctoral fellows, as well as providing first experiences of non-academic environments. The placement and transition of highly educated and trained fellows into such non-academic environments will likely not only have a positive individual impact on the fellow-level, but also a positive socio-economic impact and the wider societal impact through the fellows' continued innovation in their subsequent (new) career paths.