Fellowships
Salary
There will be a gross annual salary of €51,717 (in absence of family allowance) or €56,306 (if family allowance is paid). Research expenses will also be available.
As well as providing an attractive salary, the Research Leaders 2025 programme will make a significant investment in the development of the fellows in order to empower them to develop into the next generation of research leaders.
Research Costs
The fellowship will include Research, training and networking costs, based on the type of project funded:
- Desk-based projects - €300/month
- Field-based projects - €500/month
- Laboratory-based projects - €1,250/month
Where a project has a mix of activities, the calculated costs will be based on the most expensive (e.g., for a mixed laboratory and field-based project, the costs will be based on a laboratory project).
Location
Months 1 – 18 hosted in an academic or non-academic organisation of their choice worldwide (outside of Ireland).
Months 19 – 36 hosted at a Teagasc research centre in Ireland
Career Development
The fellow and the primary supervisor (see below) will produce a high-level Career Development Plan before the commencement of the fellowship. This plan comprises the research objective and the researcher’s training and career needs, including training on transferable skills, planning for publications and participation in conferences.
Supervision and Support
Each fellow will have a primary supervisor, a member of the scientific staff at Teagasc, who will supervise the fellow for the full duration of the fellowship. In addition, during the outgoing phase and if there is a secondment to industry, the host organisation(s) for this/these phases will also be expected to provide a competent supervisor to help guide the research activity and advise the fellow on an ongoing basis.
In addition to regular meetings with the appropriate supervisor, each of the fellows will have sixmonthly meetings with a scientific supervisory committee. This committee will include the scientific supervisor for the outgoing phase, the scientific supervisor for the return phase and one other member. The role of the supervisory committee will be, in collaboration with the fellow, to examine the progress on the research objectives of the fellowship, to help the fellow to overcome any scientific roadblocks that might arise during the course of the fellowship and to suggest remedial action if progress is insufficient.
Career Mentoring
Each fellow will have a career mentor. The career mentor will be a senior researcher, independent of the host research group(s). The fellow will not be in a direct reporting relationship with the mentor, so that the fellow can benefit from advice and guidance that isn’t influenced by power dynamics. The fellow will be encouraged to express any particular preferences that they might have, including preferences to have a mentor of the same gender or race, or a mentor from the non-academic sector. Where it is not possible to find an appropriately-qualified mentor that meets those preferences within Teagasc, the Research Leader 2025 Management Team will work with the fellow to identify a suitable career mentor outside of Teagasc.
The role of the career mentor is to meet with the fellow every six months to discuss the fellow’s progress on the Career Development Plan and their future career options after the end of the fellowship. The mentor will encourage the fellow to think about their long-term career objectives and how these can be achieved. The mentor, being at a senior stage in their own career, will be able to draw on their own experience to give advice on how to achieve these objectives and how to overcome any obstacles that the fellow might face. The discussions between the mentor and fellow will remain confidential and both parties will sign an agreement to this effect before commencement of the relationship.
Training
Discipline-specific training
The primary form of training in the fellowship will be training-through-research. In addition, training needs for skills within the chosen discipline will be identified in the Career Development Plan and plans to source that training will be included in the Annual Learning and Development Plan.
Transferable Skills
Each fellow will be enrolled in a Management Development Programme. This programme will be specifically designed to develop enrolees into high performing people managers who can lead motivated, productive teams.
Teagasc provides a series of one- and two- day courses for experienced researchers every year. The schedule of training for 2016-2017 includes modules on writing successful grant applications, advanced scientific writing and presentation skills, media and communication skills, managing people and teams, statistics and data handling workshop, career planning and development, project management, supervising and professional skills (mentoring), supervising and professional skills (supervising), advanced scientific writing and presentation skills, and preparing for recruitment. The personalised choice of courses will be made using the career development plan, taking advice from the supervisory team and the career mentor. It is expected that the host institution for the outgoing phase will also provide the fellow with access to transferable skills training
Annual Retreat:
Fellows will be invited to an annual retreat where they will engage with the other fellows; already established research leaders from academia, industry and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs); national funding agencies and the National Contact Points for Horizon 2020. The first retreat will be held at the commencement of the fellowships (before the fellows start their outgoing phase), with subsequent retreats held annually.
The retreat will be held in a hotel over two days with a social event and dinner on the first evening. The event will include:
- An induction programme for new fellows and an introduction to Teagasc
- Research project management training
- Career Role Models: Presentations from current research leaders (Professors, heads of Irish and international research centres, senior managers in industry and CSOs etc.) describing the course of their research career and the lessons they have learned. In order to provide relevant role models, speakers will reflect the composition of the fellowship group. This will include female research leaders, research leaders who have been successful in a country outside of their country-of-birth and research leaders who have taken non-traditional paths to the top of their profession.
- Research Commercialisation and entrepreneurship workshops, including successful case
- studies of research commercialisation in the agri-food area
- Workshops on securing funding for research including presentations from funding agencies on the common features of successful and unsuccessful grant applications.
This retreat will represent an opportunity for mutual learning between the fellows; fostering
interdisciplinary links; learning from the experience of researchers who have been very successful in academia, industry and CSOs; and developing their commercialisation and grant-writing skills