The TRGs shall contribute towards the development of an interdisciplinary culture as well as partnerships between researchers at UiO. It is also desirable that the Thematic Research Groups foster collaborations with international research groups and external stakeholders from the industry, governmental bodies or the society at large. The Thematic Research Groups should be seen as a step towards larger, interdisciplinary UiO:Energy Convergence Environments.
The overarching goal of the TRGs is to strengthen interdisciplinary research and dissemination of knowledge within a specific thematic area related to sustainable energy and/or the energy transition.
Goals
Each UiO:Energy Thematic Research Group should:
- Advance sustainable interdisciplinary energy research at UiO within a defined thematic research area
- Be in line with UiO:Energy’s mandate and match at least one of UiO:Energy’s four main research areas (see Requirements)
- Enable the group of researchers to be more competitive in assuring relevant funding from external sources in the future
Funding and organization
UiO:Energy will fund a total of four Thematic Research Groups. Each group will receive funding over a period of two years, with a total maximum funding of 4 MNOK from UiO:Energy. Two groups will be awarded in February 2020 and two in 2021/22.
Timeline for the first round of the Thematic Research Groups:
The host departments/centres are required to support the proposals of Thematic Research Groups, and they should be in line with the participating units? internal priorities and strategies. Research Groups involving several disciplines/units are highly encouraged.
UiO:Energy aims at providing premises where collaborators can meet at least monthly to assess progress and future development, but such an area may also be provided by the participating parties. Own-funding contributions are welcome, but not a prerequisite. Any own-funding should be clearly shown in the total budget.
Funding from UiO:Energy may be used to for the following:
- Temporary recruitment positions (at least one Ph.D[1], Postdoctoral fellow or young researcher should be funded for the full two years)
- Ph.Ds
- Postdoctoral/young researcher fellowships
- Adjunct positions
- Activities related to promoting internal and external collaborations such as
- Seminar series
- Workshops
- Public debates
- Exchange/visits to/from existing or potential external research partners
- General running costs
- Development of new courses
The TRGs will report to UiO:Energy annually.
Requirements
- The UiO:Energy Thematic Research Groups must be developed within one or several of UiO:Energy’s main research areas:
- Energy Transition and Sustainable Societies
- Energy Systems
- Carbon Capture and Storage
- Materials for Energy
Priority will be given to the first two topics in the first call (2019)
- Should address societal challenges that require a thematic approach
- At least one temporary recruitment position should be funded for the full two-year period
- Must involve several researchers at UiO. Interdisciplinarity is not strictly required, but highly encouraged. Each TRG must explore the possibilities for increased collaboration across faculties/departments/centres at UiO
- Active collaboration with relevant stakeholders and international research groups is encouraged
Assesment criteria and additional requirements
- Relevance to UiO:Energy mandate and programme platform
- Academic quality and originality. Please describe how the TRG aims to develop knowledge beyond the state of art in their particular research field.
- The TRG description must be a maximum of 5 pages, included an abstract of maximum 300 words.
- Describe the Thematic Research Area and the main scientific questions to be addressed.
- The track records of the principal investigators’ and their documented experience in proposing and developing these type of research collaborations within UiO, nationally and internationally
- Name each principal investigator and describe their role in the development of the TRG. CVs for the members shall be submitted as separate attachments.
- Plan for participation in national and international networks.
- The added value of this new research cooperation, including added value of interdisciplinary collaborations.
- Describe the contribution of the recruitment position.
- Added value of internal UiO, national and international collaborations.
- Societal relevance, generously understood. Describe:
- Involvement of relevant stakeholders
- Plans for development of projects, including plans for further external funding
- A clear dissemination plan.
- Description of the potential for teaching, including supervision and the development of relevant courses if relevant.
- A two-year budget must be submitted, giving a description of the financial contribution to the TRG from UiO:Energy and from other sources if relevant and how the funds are allocated to different activities. Please do not include overhead in the costs to be covered by UiO:Energy funding as these funds are internal UiO funding (part of the basis governmental funding). You may include OH in the own contribution if relevant.
- The project description and all enclosed documents must be written in English.
The applications will be evaluated by the UiO:Energy SAB (to be appointed in 2019) which is composed of researchers and industry representatives covering a broad range of disciplines that lies within our main research areas. The SAB will summarize their evaluation, and based on the evaluation report, the director will make a proposal for funding to the UiO:Energy board. The Board makes the final decision regarding the funding of two TRGs starting up in 2020.
Minor adjustments to the call, including budgeting principles, may be adjusted until one month before the deadline. These adjustments will be based upon dialogue with relevant applicants.
[1] The funding from UiO:Energy will only cover a maximum of 2 years, thus for all PhD positions and for any Postdoc position lasting more than 2 years, it is necessary to add own funding on top. UiO:Energy will fund a given position with approximately 787 kNOK (PhD)/900 kNOK (Postdoc) in 2019.