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EUMETSAT fellowship calls

 

Second Call for Proposals for one regular EUMETSAT fellowship

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At its 10th meeting in 1989, the Council established a EUMETSAT Research Fellowship Programme. At its 17th meeting in 1991, the Council adopted the “EUMETSAT Research Fellowship Guidelines” (the Guidelines), which set out the legal framework of Research Fellowships. The guidelines have been reviewed and updated by 101st Council session in 2022. The EUMETSAT fellowship programme supports the member states in developing applied research and in further exploiting the EUMETSAT satellite observations.

Last Updated

14 April 2023

Published on

17 March 2023

  • With the release of this ‘Second Call for Proposals for one regular EUMETSAT fellowship’, the Secretariat invites the representatives of EUMETSAT member states to solicit proposals from institutes in their respective countries.
  • Taking into consideration the fact that the first call for one normal fellowship was not successful, in line with the fellowship guidelines, all EUMETSAT member states are eligible to submit proposals.
  • The institutes intending to submit proposals are asked to confirm compliance to the Fellowship Guidelines and to ensure their proposals are compatible with a Fellowship duration of between one and three years, with an intermediate set of meaningful results to be presented at the end of the first and second years and a defined deliverable for the end of the Research Fellowship. The institutes are requested to submit their proposals to the member state representative i.e. the signatory of the cover letter in due time (noting that 20 May 2023 is the close of the Call for Research Proposals, the Secretariat would propose 31 May 2023 as the deadline for proposals).
  • Potential Research Topics: when proposing research projects, preference should be given to operational satellite data and products or their use in operational applications. Potential future products and applications are also included.

Below is a list of generic topics for research projects. This list is neither complete nor exclusive and just serves as a starting point.

  1. Use of satellite data for the core activities of National Meteorological Services including Nowcasting, very short range forecasting applications and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP);
  2. Use of satellite data for climate applications;
  3. Development and application of Day-2 products from EUMETSAT satellite data;
  4. Calibration and validation activities for EUMETSAT satellites;
  5. Development of new scientific applications for EUMETSAT’s satellites, including oceanography, hydrology and atmospheric composition.
  6. Exploration of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications enhancing the exploitation of EUMETSAT satellite data.
  • The institutes are requested to return their proposals to the Member State representative, i.e. the signatory of the cover letter (not to EUMETSAT). The Member State representative will screen the proposals received in response to the Call for Proposals. For each vacant Research Fellowship, the Member State representative will select no more than one proposal ensuring that the proposal meets the scientific evaluation criteria, conforms to the selection criteria and is compliant with the EUMETSAT Fellowship Guidelines. Each Member State can propose hosting any number of projects up to the number of open Fellowship positions.
  • Institutes who are interested to submit a proposal should contact us for receiving additional information and the detail of the Member State representative who should receive their proposal.

Guidelines for proposal preparation

The proposal for the Research Fellowship project shall be concise but offer enough detailed information, in particular on which satellite data will be used and how the data will be used, in order to allow for a proper scientific evaluation.

The proposal shall in particular address the following items:

  • Project title;
  • Area of research;
  • Rationale, objectives and expected results with a focus on which satellite data will be used and how the data will be used;
  • Name of the scientific supervisor of the project;
  • Relevance of the research to existing and future EUMETSAT programmes;
  • Benefits to operational community;
  • Benefits to other users than the host;
  • Work plan for the first year of the project;
  • Brief indication of goals and work foreseen beyond the first year if relevant;
  • Relevant scientific expertise, facilities and logistic support.

Proposals shall be submitted in English and shall be no longer than three pages.

The following assumptions should be made:

  • The proposal will compete with other proposals;
  • The proposal should neither repeat nor overlap with existing research projects carried out or funded by EUMETSAT;
  • Only one Research Fellow will be appointed at a Host Institute at any time.

Furthermore, the proposal shall contain a statement declaring that the Host institute will be able to offer a direct contract of employment to the selected candidate in accordance with applicable national legislation. If the Host institute cannot make such a declaration, it shall state the legal reasons why it cannot issue such a contract itself and how it proposes to overcome the legal obstacles. The Host institute is requested to inform its Member State representative and EUMETSAT immediately of any potential legal issues related to the contract.