CERMA student scholarships 2022 – 2023

CERMA is launching the new edition of its scholarship competition for its student and postdoctoral members. The main objective is to encourage the creation of new collaborative research projects involving several CERMA professor members. This call for projects also aims to diversify the training of students and improve their CVs. The competition also intends to promote greater integration of sustainable development (SD) in projects, in accordance with the strategic orientations of CERMA. These are three annual scholarships in the amount of $5,000 for the year 2022-2023. Applications will be evaluated as they are received until all three scholarships are awarded.

END of the competition this year

Competition Rules

1. Applicants must be graduate students or postdoctoral researchers. They must not be summer interns of research groups.
2. Projects must result from the collaboration of at least two professor members of the Center, with preference going to new collaborations.
3. The application can be presented jointly by two candidates from these research teams.
4. The project must fit into CERMA’s research areas.
5. The application must demonstrate that SD has been seriously considered in the project:
   a. It must in particular explain how the project can potentially respond to one or more UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and which specific target(s) are particularly targeted.

• b. In the unlikely event that the project does not meet any SDGs, even in the long term, for example due to its overly fundamental nature, this must be clearly justified. In this way, the request will be evaluated in the same way as the others.
• c. We strongly invite you to highlight the potential limits of the project concerning other aspects of SD than those it aims to respond to; the identification of these limits will not harm the evaluation of the relevance of the project but will make it possible to assess the capacity of researchers to consider SD in a global manner.
• d. Exploratory projects that aim to integrate SD in an interdisciplinary manner are encouraged.

6. Each scholarship will be in the amount of $5,000 for 1 year.
7. A total of three (3) projects will be funded for the year 2022-2023. The number of scholarships is limited to one per research group.
8. The scholarship awarded must be used within the year and will not be renewable.
9. The application must be submitted by the candidate(s).
10. The application will be evaluated on the relevance of the collaboration, on the quality and scientific relevance of the project, on the way in which it will respond (or not) to the identified SDGs as well as on the CV of the candidates. The clarity, coherence and quality of the presentation of the file will also be considered.

11. Applications will be evaluated according to a pre-established grid and a minimum of 75% is required to be eligible for CERMA scholarships.
12. When the grant expires, a short report must be provided highlighting the results obtained, the benefits and the achievement (or not) of the objectives.
13. The amount of the scholarship will be paid into the account of the member-professor who will manage the payments to the recipient(s) and/or other project expenses, as described in the application.

The competition is open from August 1, 2023. Applications will be evaluated as they are received. CERMA members will be notified when the three scholarships available for this competition have been awarded. The evaluation of applications will be submitted to a committee composed of the director, two regular faculty members of the center who have not submitted an application, and the coordinator.

Presentation of the file:

The request must contain the following elements:

Curriculum vitae of the candidate(s) (2 pages maximum)
A document including:
o Name of candidate(s)
o Project title
o Member-professors involved
o Description of the project (2 pages maximum)
▪ General goal, objectives, benefits and relevance of the project
▪ Advantages, interest or necessity of collaboration
▪ Expected benefits in scientific terms and project progress
▪ Benefits for the candidate(s) at the personal and/or professional level, whether in scientific terms, in new skills, for their career objectives, etc.

o In accordance with the criteria indicated above (point 5 above), a paragraph specifying which SDG(s) and target(s) the project aims to respond to and how, as well as the potential limits in terms of SD (around 200 -300 words)

o Planned use of the grant amount (remuneration of the candidate(s), purchase of materials or equipment, conferences, training, publication costs, travel costs for experiments, others) with budget forecasts and a brief timetable (one page maximum). Please note that the money must be spent as described in the application.

• The request must be signed by the research directors.

For any questions and to send the request, contact the generic CERMA address: cerma@ulaval.ca.