Recruitment procedure

Career stage: Early stage researchers (ESR)

Key dates

  • March 2022: Start of recruitment process, no deadline, candidates will be assessed right away, and when suitable also interviewed. Start as soon as possible after that. See below in yellow.

Update May 30th 2022: All positions are filled.

We look for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) with a master degree in a relevant discipline (life /technical/computational sciences) interested in combining clinical, experimental and computational research. The recruitment process comprises three stages:

  1. Candidates apply for a position using the online application form. The candidate submits a CV preferably using the Europass template. The Hyperboost Project Manager provides a first screen of the written applications to check eligibility of the candidate, and forwards the eligible applications to the respective principal investigator (PI) of the position the candidate is applying for. The PIs and the Recruitment Committee (RC) screen written applications. The RC advises beneficiaries and the ESRs who applied for a specific position e.g., w.r.t. other/more suitable positions within HYPERBOOST.
  • Skype interviews with a preselected long-list of 10 candidates by local recruitment committees.
  • (iii) Personal interviews with presentation of master thesis with ~4 short-list candidates. The local recruitment committee decides on the ESR to be hired and communicates this with the RC and PC/SB. Expenses made by the candidate for traveling and hotel will be reimbursed by the local organisation.

The Recruitment Committee (RC; B3, B6, B9) with non-academic and academic members of various gender and background will assist in all recruitment procedures: (i) advertisement/ESR criteria, (ii) promote and monitor gender balance, (iii) screen written applications to advice PIs and applicants, (iv) ensure implementation of the recruitment policy among all Beneficiaries.

Hyperboost organisations act in line with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. Hyperboost intends to hire an equal number of male and female ESRs.

Applicants need to fully respect three eligibility criteria

Early-stage researchers (ESR) must, at the date of recruitment by the PI, be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and have not been awarded a doctoral degree. This is measured from the date when they obtained a master degree which formally entitles them to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the Hyperboost research training is provided. For clarity; it is really about research experience, so another MSc degree, or a holiday, or work outside of research, do not count towards the 4 years.

Conditions of international mobility of researchers: researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not taken into account.

English language: candidates must demonstrate that their ability to understand and express themselves in both written and spoken English is sufficiently high for them to derive the full benefit from the network training. Information about TOEFL can be found here.

Secondments

In Hyperboost, each recruited researcher will be seconded to the organisations of two or more of the partners for a duration of several weeks/months up to 30% of his/her recruitment period. Normal practice during secondments is for the researchers to keep their contract with the sending organisation, which also pays the travel and subsistence expenses (e.g. accommodation). During their secondment, researchers receive supervision and training at the premises of the receiving organisation. Secondments are differentiated from short visits, i.e. of a few days. Secondments are mandatory. If you apply for one of the positions then you agree that you will be seconded to other organisations during your contract.

Contract, benefits and salary

Each candidate that is hired will be based at the premises of the principal investigator where they applied.

ESR 8 is a reasearcher position with the possibility (when suitable) to acquire a PhD.

The duration of Hyperboost is limited to 48 months starting from December 1st 2020. The duration of the contract will be 3 years except for ESRs hired by the AMC (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Chalmers University of Technology (Göteborg, Sweden) who were offered a 4-year contract due to the PhD system in both countries.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) programme offers competitive and attractive salary and working conditions. The successful candidates will receive a gross salary in accordance with the MSCA regulations for early stage researchers. Exact salary will be confirmed upon appointment [Living Allowance (37.320 euro/year * a correction factor to be applied per country) + Monthly mobility allowance (600 euro)]. A family allowance of €500 per month will be paid should the researcher have family, regardless of whether the family will move with the researcher or not. In this context, family is defined as persons linked to the researcher by (i) marriage, or (ii) a relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the national or relevant regional legislation of the country where this relationship was formalised; or (iii) dependent children who are actually being maintained by the researcher. The family status of a researcher will be determined at the date of their (first) recruitment in the action and will not evolve during the action lifetime.

The final amount will not change in case of secondments to another organisation. The contracts include social security coverage providing at least sickness and parental benefits, invalidity and accidents at work and occupational diseases, covering the researcher in every place of implementation of Hyperboost activities. As these will be paid by the employer and depend on country-specific regulations, the final net salary that each ESR will receive may differ. In the case of secondments to other beneficiaries or partner organisations, the social security provision will also cover the researchers during these periods.

In addition to their individual scientific projects, all fellows will benefit from further continuing education, which includes internships and secondments, a variety of training modules as well as transferable skills courses and active participation in workshops and conferences.

Online Recruitment Procedure

All applications proceed through the online application form on this website. Candidates apply electronically for one to maximum three positions and indicate their preference. Candidates provide all requested information including a detailed CV (preferably using the Europass template), a motivation letter, grades and optionally one or two reference letters. During registration, applicants will need to prove that they are eligible (three aspects: respect ESR definition, mobility criteria, English language proficiency).

Further information

The EURAXESS website may provide useful information (e.g., visa). More information about Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions can be found here. For other questions you can contact Dr. Laurian Jongejan (Project Manager, l.zuidmeer@amsterdamumc.nl).