ELEVATE · Irish Research Council International Career Development Fellowships in Science, Engineering and Technology – Co-funded by Marie Curie Actions.

Irish Research Council International Career Development Fellowships in Science, Engineering and Technology – Co-funded by Marie Curie Actions.

The ELEVATE International Career Development Fellowship Programme was set up by the Irish Research Council (www.research.ie) to assist Experienced Researchers (ERs) in the development of their research careers in both Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), and Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) areas. ELEVATE is co-funded by the Irish Research Council and the European Commission Marie Curie Actions via an award under the FP7 COFUND Programme. ELEVATE is a 3-year Fellowship, open to ERs of any nationality and residing in Ireland, to undertake a research period of up to two years in a research organisation abroad (i.e. the Outgoing Phase), followed by a reintegration period of one year in an Irish research organisation (i.e. the Returning Phase). Fellows were able to freely choose the research topic and host organizations that can best facilitate their professional development. All disciplines were represented, with the following disciplinary breakdown: Social and Human Sciences 19 awards, followed by Information Science and Engineering 9, Environment and Geoscience 5, Life Sciences 4, Physics 4, Chemistry 2, Economic Sciences 1 and Mathematics 1. Experienced researchers applying for fellowships were required to design, monitor and review an individual Career Development Plan, and had two Mentors throughout the Fellowship. The evaluation criteria reflected the importance of professional and personal development of the Experienced Researchers. ELEVATE fully supports the objectives of the activity heading ‘Life-long learning and career development’, and other European policies, such as the Innovation Union. Fellows were spending their mobility period in some of the world’s most prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Columbia University, Stanford University, Harvard University, UC Berkeley and MIT. ELEVATE programme filled a gap in the Irish funding opportunities that has been present for a number of years, and has made a significant impact on careers of the Fellows as well as on the Irish and European research landscape. Progress reports and early termination reports received by the Council indicate substantial research outputs produced by the Fellows: more than 200 published articles/book chapters, 340 conference papers and presentations, 150 seminars and lectures, various outreach activities and numerous other outputs or knowledge exchange activities such as research visits, participations in organisation of research conferences and other. Fellows also engaged in teaching and supervision of PhD students. Additional research outputs were reported in final reports as accepted for publication, submitted or under preparation. Fellows have also been successful in securing prestigious PI-lead research grant, such as ERC grants and the recently established prestigious Irish Research Council’s Laurate Awards which provide funding for frontier research (http://research.ie/2018/03/22/government-announces-e29-6m-investment-in-frontier-research/). A significant proportion of ELEVATE Fellows have secured employment during the lifetime of their fellowship, in many cases a permanent academic position. Feedback from Fellows indicates that ELEVATE Fellowship was a key contributing factor that strengthened their competitiveness as candidates for these positions. Not only are all these Fellows in good position but a significant number of Fellows are employed within Europe, which means that the European Research Area benefits from their knowledge and experience. List of host organisations Home host organisations in Ireland (employing Fellows): Dublin City University Dublin Institute of Technology Institute of Technology Waterford Royal College of Surgeons Ireland St. Patricks College Drumcondra The National University of Ireland, Galway The National University of Ireland, Maynooth The University of Dublin, Trinity College The University of Limerick University College Cork University College Dublin International host organisations (hosting Fellows during their outgoing phase): Aberystwyth University Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute Columbia University Cornell University Durham University, UK Freie Universität Berlin Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University School of Medicine H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Florida Harvard University, Boston ICAHM - ICOMOS Imperial College London INRIA, France KTH Royal Institute of Tech, Sweden Massachusetts Institute of Technology. USA Paris Observatory, France Queen Mary University of London, London Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland RWTH Aachen University, Germany Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland, USA Stanford University School of Medicine, USA Stanford University Station Biologique de Roscoff (CNRS – UPMC) Stockholm School of Economics Technical University Dresden The University of Bergen, Norway The University of Oxford, UK Universidad de Almería, Spain University College London University of Aberdeen, Scotland University of Birmingham, UK University of British Columbia, Canada University of California, Berkeley, USA University of California, Santa Barbara, USA University of Cambridge University of Denver, USA University of Guelph University of Kaiserslautern University of Massachusetts Amherst University of Melbourne University of Oxford University of Oxford, UIK University of Pennsylvania University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy, Japan University of York, UK Utrecht University, The Netherlands Project public website: www.research.ie/ELEVATE

Data: CORDIS, © European Union