IceLab opens project call for shared postdoctoral fellows

IceLab opens project call for shared postdoctoral fellows

IceLab project team with new multidisciplinary postdoctoral fellow. From left: Olivier Keech, Sebastian Diehl, Yun-Ting Jang (postdoctoral fellow), Jonas Westin

ImageGABRIELLE BEANS

Teams of two or more researchers are invited to submit novel multidisciplinary project proposals in this funding call, to help launch projects that benefit from collaboration across disciplines and methodologies. Three projects will access funding for a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship. These shared postdoctoral fellows, supervised by multidisciplinary teams of researchers spanning departments at Umeå University or the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, enable new collaborations to grow from an idea into tangible new research.

The Integrated Science Lab (IceLab) supports the successful project teams along their multidisciplinary journey by hosting the selected postdoctoral fellows in IceLab's interdisciplinary research hub, participating in all activities and connecting with IceLab researchers daily. IceLab members explore the uncharted territory between traditional disciplines, and regularly integrate theoretical, computational and empirical work. In addition, the supervising project team of an IceLab multidisciplinary postdoctoral fellow become IceLab affiliates in turn and, where relevant, become connected to Stress Response Modeling at IceLab, a Swedish research council funded excellence center.

Information Meeting and Pitch Event

IceLab invites you to join an information meeting on the call on April 29th, in KBC Glasburen or through Zoom. During this meeting the project selection process will be explained, and researchers interested in finding a partner to submit a project proposal with will be offered the opportunity to pitch their idea. Register in advance if you are interested in attending or pitching.

The deadline to submit project proposals is May 27th.

More information on the project call, registration for the information meeting and link to the application portal here.

Three stage selection process

Multidisciplinary projects and postdoctoral candidates are selected in a multi-phase process.

In the first stage researcher teams submit their proposed postdoctoral projects. An external review committee will evaluate the project proposals and recommend up to six projects to proceed to the next stage.

In the second stage a joint call for postdoctoral candidates that includes all six projects will be published, in June. The goal is to identify top postdoctoral candidates who match the required expertise of each project. Researchers involved in the top-ranked projects select the best candidate for their project.

In the final stage, the shortlisted project teams submit their top candidates to an internal review committee of IceLab members and affiliates. The internal review committee will rank the project and postdoctoral fellowship candidate pairings and offer fellowships to the top three.

The 2023 multidisciplinary postdoctoral projects

These were the projects and postdoctoral fellows selected in 2023. The three fellows have joined IceLab and work has begun on the projects.

• Deciphering infection-related epigenetic dynamics to explain the variability of human susceptibility to infections with respiratory pathogens. Guilherme Barros, with Martin Rosvall, Department of Physics, Johan Normark, Department of Clinical Microbiology, and Anna-Smed Sörensen, Department of Medicine Solna (Karolinska Institute)
• Resolving microbial genomes in complex communities at the single-cell level. Jyoti Verma, with Laura Carroll, Department of Clinical Microbiology, MIMS, Johan Henriksson, Department of Molecular Biology, MIMS and Nicklas Strömberg, Department of Odontology.
• Modelling ecological sustainability and economic viability of multitrophic farming for Nordic latitudes. Yun-Ting Jang with Olivier Keech, Department of Plant Physiology, UPSC, Sebastian Diehl, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, and Jonas Westin, Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.