Call for Personal Post-Doctoral Fellowships by 10th April 2018

8 March, 2018

Call for Personal Post-Doctoral Fellowships

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
Deadline: 10 th April 2018

The MacDiarmid Institute invites applications for new Personal Post-Doctoral Fellowships. Up to five positions are available in this round of funding.

Funding will be awarded for a fixed term, full-time (37½ hour week) position with the employment contract held with one of the MacDiarmid Institute Partner Organisations. Successful candidates will be placed on the postdoctoral fellow salary scale of the partner organisation, and also receive a $10,000 (NZD) grant, per annum, towards research expenses and travel.

Funding is available up to the end of 2020, with a maximum contract length of 30 months.

Application Requirements

1. A completed application form.
2. A (maximum) three-page research proposal. An additional two pages are allowed for references. This should include a statement of the research question(s), methods, expected and potential outcomes, and a justification for why the candidate and the investigators involved are the right people to conduct the research.
3. A (maximum) one-page summary of the benefits to the applicant and to the MacDiarmid Institute. This should include a statement about impact on the applicant’s career, investigator involvement, alignment with the MacDiarmid’s themes and science plan, and outcomes beyond the MacDiarmid Institute.
4. Applicant’s CV and publication list in standard NZ RS&T template.
5. The intended MacDiarmid supervisor’s (and the MacDiarmid co-supervisor’s if applicable) CV in standard NZ RS&T template (The main supervisor must be a current MacDiarmid Institute Principal Investigator (PI) – a co-supervisor can be a MacDiarmid Institute PI, EI or AI).
6. A letter of support from the intended MacDiarmid supervisor, explicitly indicating that the MacDiarmid Partner Organisation will support the appointment of the applicant, if successful. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to get appropriate assurance from the
   Partner Organisation.
7. Two letters of reference from previous supervisors or collaborators, to be sent by the referees directly to the MacDiarmid Institute Centre Manager, Catherine Gibbs (catherine.gibbs@vuw.ac.nz).

Please note that your referees cannot be your intended supervisor or co-supervisor.

Selection criteria

A successful applicant for a Post-doctoral Fellowship will have:

• A PhD in a relevant subject area.
• A proven research track record.
• Demonstrated experience in writing scientific articles.
• A proven track record of working collaboratively.

A successful research project must have:

• Research that aligns with at least one of the MacDiarmid Research themes (Functional Nanostructures, Materials for Energy Storage and Utilisation, Tomorrow’s Electronic Devices).
• Research that contributes to one or more MacDiarmid projects as outlined in the 2018–2020 Science Plan (can be provided on request).

In addition, the selection panel will consider whether the applicant exhibits:

• Ability to work in an organised and structured manner without supervision.
• Willingness to participate in the MacDiarmid Institute’s outreach activities.
• Willingness to participate in the MacDiarmid Institute’s industry engagement and commercialisation activities.
• Drive, enthusiasm, integrity, and openness.

Successful holders of the post-doctoral fellowship will be expected to support and implement the vision and mission of the MacDiarmid Institute.

Eligibility

Applicant must be or able to be New Zealand-based, work at one of the MacDiarmid Institute’s Partner Organisations, and be eligible to work legally in New Zealand.

Process

Please submit your application form, research proposal, summary statement, CV and publications list, supervisor’s CV (and co-supervisor’s CV), and supervisor’s letter of support to the MacDiarmid Institute’s Centre Manager, Catherine Gibbs (catherine.gibbs@vuw.ac.nz) by 10 th April 2018.

All shortlisted applicants will be called to interview. It is expected that the interviews will take place late April 2018.

Page limits

All page limits are based on single spaced, Times New Roman or Arial, 12 point font with left and right margins of at least 2cm.

Please use the standard NZ RS&T CV template for preparing your CV. This template is the one you should use whenever you are required to submit a CV as part of a research proposal to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the Health Research Council (HRC), or the Marsden Fund. It allows you to maintain your own master CV, from which you can draw on when submitting a research proposal. You also need to
submit your intended supervisor’s CV (and co-supervisor’s CV). If they have ever submitted a New Zealand research grant application, then they should already have a CV in this format.

File formats

Files should be in either Microsoft Word or PDF format.

File naming conventions

Due to the number of applications that we expect to receive, we need to be able to clearly identify your documents in our filing system. To make sure that your documents are kept together please adhere to the naming conventions below.

File names must begin with your SURNAME, followed by an underscore, followed by your initials, followed by another underscore and then one of the following:

For example, Joseph M. Smith would submit six documents called:

Contact

If you have any questions about the application process please contact the MacDiarmid Institute’s Centre Manager, Catherine Gibbs (catherine.gibbs@vuw.ac.nz).