Instructions for applicants for research fellowships

Applications with all attachments must be submitted electronically via www.jobbnorge.no:

• A cover letter including a brief account of your research interests and motivation for applying for the position
• The names and contact information for two reference persons. One of them must be the main advisor for the master's thesis or equivalent thesis
• Project proposal
• CV
• Transcripts and diplomas showing completion of the bachelor's and master's degrees.
• Relevant certificates/references
• A list of academic publications
• Academic publications that you want to submit for assessment (including your master’s thesis or equivalent)
• If you have a master's degree from an institution outside of the Nordic countries, or a 2-year discipline- based master's degree (or the equivalent) in a subject area other than the one associated with the application, you may later in the application process be asked to submit an overview of the syllabus for the degree you have completed.

The application must contain all information and all material that should be taken into consideration when evaluating your academic qualifications.

Advice and instructions are given below for formulating the following attachments:

CV

You should organize your CV into clearly delineated sections:

Personal data, Education, Work Experience, Teaching Experience, Academic Endeavors, Popular Science Endeavors and Administrative Experience. Your last name should appear at the upper left corner of all pages.

Project description

A plan for the research work in the form of a project description of normally 5-8 pages must accompany the application. The project description must describe the theme, set of issues being addressed and the choice of theory and method. Several important points must be considered when drawing up a project description to apply for the doctoral education at the Faculty of Social Sciences:

• Applicants must document their familiarity with the research field, both nationally and internationally.
• The problem examined must be clearly presented and appropriately delimited. It must be demonstrated that the project will extend existing knowledge and/or will be a basis for further research within the field.
• It must be demonstrated that the methods and theories proposed are well suited to answering the problem or that there are good opportunities to develop the method and theory necessary. Analytical methods must be described.
• Research ethics should be assessed. The application must state whether the project depends on permission from research ethics committees or other authorities or from private persons (such as informants, patients or parents). If possible, such permissions should be obtained and attached to the application.
• Applicants must assess whether the research project involves processing of personal data.
• The description must specify a progress plan for the various parts of the research project, including any possible stays abroad.
• A plan for the training component and academic dissemination.
• Establish a budget with respect to the expenses for conducting the project: software, books, courses, data collection, fieldwork and the like.
• Details of any intellectual property agreements that have been entered into with a third party
• It should be demonstrated that the project can be completed within the standard length of time and the financial framework available.

Scholarly works with a list of such

If you have published scholarly works beyond degree dissertations, we ask that you draw up a list of such.

Publications that are of special relevance to the project or other scholarly works that you wish to see taken into consideration in evaluating the application should be specially marked on the list.

Sole authorship generally counts for more than co-authorship. You thus need to delineate your own effort in any possible joint work and attach a co-author declaration.

Diplomas/certificates

Copies of diplomas and academic transcripts must be certified. Certificates and other documentation that you believe to be relevant may also be attached.

Evaluation and weighting of qualifications

When evaluating the application, an emphasis is placed on basic qualifications, academic qualifications, project quality and personal suitability. For your education at the second degree level, the master's or equivalent thesis and overall marks received for the degree are given the greatest weight.

Processing flow

The best qualified candidates will be invited for interviews. The head of department is the authority that makes the recommendations for filling academic positions. The head of department will select one of the applicants who on the basis of an overall assessment is deemed best-qualified for the position, rank all the relevant candidates and submit a proposal for approval to the employment body.

Applicants can calculate that it will take up to 3 months from deadline until the appointment is made. All applicants will be notified at their specified E-mail addresses of the outcome of the process when the recommended candidate has accepted the position.

• Education: Admission to the doctoral programme at the faculty requires completion of a 5- year master's degree, or the equivalent education, within the subject area in which the applicant desires to be accepted. The minimum requirement for applicants who have degrees with letter marks will normally be a B, both on the master's thesis and for the master's diploma on the overall.

• Supervisor(s): Admission to the doctoral programme is preconditioned upon the department having sufficient supervisory capacity in relation to your project.

• Current position: Applicants who have full-time doctoral degree grants (from the Research Council of Norway or equivalent sources), will not normally be considered.

• Previous grants: The employment period for university positions is 4 years, including the obligatory work hours comprising 25 % of the total employment time. A reduction is made for any possible previous employment in recruitment positions. If you are or have been employed in a research fellowship, you must state the precise number of months that the employment relationship has lasted. Student grants and scholarships that are not associated with doctoral programmes are excepted from this.

• Doctoral programme: The successful candidate who is offered the position will be admitted to the faculty's doctoral programme as at the date the employment commences. The candidate will receive a letter concerning this in the post. In general, information about the faculty's doctoral programme can be found on our web pages.

• Agreement upon admission to organized doctoral programme:A standard agreement has been prepared for admission to an organized doctoral programme at UiB, which among other things governs the relationship between the individual research fellow and the department, supervisor(s) and possible external employer respectively. The agreement is entered into in connection with admission to the doctoral programme.

• Transfer of rights to the University of Bergen: All research fellows must enter into a contract with their employer governing the rights to economic exploitation of their research results.

• Working capital: At present, the candidates have NOK 36 000, - per year in working capital for purchasing books, software, participating in conferences, fieldwork/data collection, etc. The departments will make office space with a PC, etc. available. The department will cover expenses for fieldwork/data collection beyond the ordinary working capital, provided that the department approves the budget in the application (see the section on ”Project description”). After admission to the doctoral programme, it is also possible to apply to the faculty for support for stays abroad at research institutes.