Call for applications 2010
FICS, Finnish Graduate School in Computational Sciences (in Finnish: Laskennallisten tieteiden tutkijakoulu) is a doctoral program jointly offered by 22 departments in 9 universities in Finland.
Computational science forms a new "third pillar" of scientific inquiry, complementing theory and experimentation. FICS brings together the core methodological topics and important fields of application of computational sciences:
(1) Computational Statistics and Information Technology
(2) Numerical and Applied Mathematics
(3) Computational Physics
(4) Computational Biology
(5) Future Computational Sciences (economics, medicine, agriculture, humanities, ecology, neuroscience etc.)
FICS offers funded and non-funded positions for excellent doctoral students starting on August 1, 2010, for a maximum of 4 years. The number of funded positions is 6-7.
Why FICS?
By joining FICS, you will have a possibility to conduct cutting edge research in high-level, international, interdisciplinary groups. Many of the research groups in FICS belong to the Centers of Excellence of the Academy of Finland, and our supervisors are internationally well known in their fields.
FICS offers access to special courses and workshops, tailored to the needs of FICS students and taught by leading experts in their field. Our supervisors are highly committed to guiding you through your 4-year doctoral studies. For those selected in funded positions, FICS provides a monthly salary. All students are eligible for travel grants.
FICS brings together students and supervisors in several fields of interest among computational sciences and their applications. In our courses, get-togethers and other activities you will have a chance to network with these highly talented experts.
Timetable
Submission opens: Thursday 1 April, 2010
Submission closes: Sunday 25 April, 2010
Reviewing of submissions: May, 2010
Interviews of a few applicants: June 15, 2010 (roughly)
Student selection: Until end of June, 2010
The first funded positions begin: 1 August, 2010
Who can apply?
The applicants need to have a Master degree before they can start in FICS. An interest in scientific research and the work of a researcher is essential.
The applicant should already have a committed supervisor in FICS. In case the applicant's supervisor is not listed in our board of advisors, the applicant is asked to contact one of the members of the board of advisors in advance to discuss his/her application. See here for a non-exhaustive list of supervisors within FICS. We favour students having supervision in both computational and application aspects. Also, the participation of postdocs as co-supervisors is warmly recommended.
How to apply
The applications consist of two electronic submissions:
- a filled-in application form submitted electronically. A printout of an example form is shown here. (You need not make a printout of your form, but just submit it electronically.)
- a doctoral studies portfolio submitted via EasyChair. Some hints on using EasyChair:
- You must first create an account. To do this, on the starting page, click "If you do not have an EasyChair account or have problems to log in then click here." Then on the next page, choose "If you do not have an EasyChair account, click here to obtain one." Then follow the advice given on the next page.
- After you have created an account, log in to the system. Then choose "New Submission" at the top of the page.
- Fill in your information under "Author 1", and mark the "Corresponding author" tick box.
- Do not fill in any other authors.
- Fill in the "Title and Abstract" and "Keywords" describing your doctoral thesis research. Please use meaningful names and keywords, not just "My Portfolio" etc.
- Upload your portfolio under "Upload paper". (The contents of the portfolio are described below.)
- Press "Submit Paper" once.
The portfolio should include the following parts:
- Letter of introduction: at most 1 page, stating your research interests, which research group you are associated with, the reasons for pursuing graduate studies in FICS, and career objectives.
- Curriculum vitae: at most 3 pages, containing name, contact information, age, education (institutions, degrees, grade average), and work experience.
- Scanned pdf copies of relevant diplomas (for example, MSc and Bsc degrees). Diplomas must be in Finnish, Swedish or English. If not, they must be translated and the translations must be officially confirmed.
- Transcripts of studies: List of all courses, number of credits and grades that you have passed (Fi: opintorekisteriote, Sw: studieutdrag), The transcript should be in English or Finnish and the grading system (if different from the Finnish one) should be explained.
- Scanned pdf copy of an English language certificate (TOEFL), unless you had your education in English or unless you graduated from a Finnish university.
- Research and study plan for the whole period of doctoral studies (5-6 pages, with scientific references where appropriate), consisting of
- state of the art of the research field
- planned research including methods
- expected research results and time schedule including expected dissertation date (month and year)
- concrete goals for the first two years of study
- financing plan: how you are going to finance your full-time post-graduate studies. The plan should be as precise as possible.
- bibliographic reference list.
- Mobility plan: at most 1 page, stating your detailed plans for interdisciplinary and international mobility. A long research visit of about 6 months is expected; abroad, to industry, or to an application area group.
- Publication list, with explanations of how you have contributed to the publications (if there are several authors) and how the publication possibly will contribute to the doctoral thesis.
- Pdf copies of at most three publications
The portfolio should be submitted as a single PDF file. There exists software for joining your PDF documents into one file. For example, in Linux/Unix: pdftk (to join files in1.pdf and in2.pdf into a new PDF file named out1.pdf: "pdftk in1.pdf in2.pdf cat output out1.pdf") or pdfjoin ("pdfjoin --outfile out1.pdf in1.pdf in2.pdf") and in Windows: PDF Tools. In case this is impossible for you, contact the FICS coordinator Ella Bingham, fics-coordinator@hiit.fi.
The applications or their appendices are not returned. The applicant may be invited to an interview.
Recommendation letters
The main supervisor must submit a separate recommendation letter to FICS, email fics-coordinator@hiit.fi, in plain text or pdf format, before the deadline of the applications. The format of the recommendation letter is free but it should state at least
- the name of the applicant,
- the commitment of the supervisor to supervise the applicant if accepted,
- the planned topic (or field) of the dissertation,
- the estimated date for the dissertation,
- a confirmation for the mobility plan that the applicant has proposed in his/her application
- an outline of the funding plan for the part not covered by FICS, and
- the commitment of the supervisor to participate actively in FICS.
Also, at most two additional recommendation letters by other researchers may be submitted separately to fics-coordinator@hiit.fi before the deadline of the applications.
Decisions on student intake
Each application is reviewed by FICS experts primarily for the quality and innovativeness of the research plan, availability of interdisciplinary supervision within FICS, previous studies and research (if applicable), financing plan, recommendation letters, ranking given by the member of the Board of Advisors representing the student, and other possible indicators.
Decisions of student admission are made by the steering group.
Funded vs. non-funded positions
There are only a few funded positons offered per year. In addition, non-funded positions are offered: a non-funded position entitles the student to participate in FICS activities, to apply for money for travelling etc. Non-funded students must report their progress similarly to funded students. In short, the only difference between funded and non-funded students is the source of their salary.
Students with already guaranteed funding (holding a research position or employed by relevant university research projects) are encouraged to apply for a non-funded position.
Please note that a student can only belong to one graduate school at a time - this applies both to funded and non-funded positions. Thus if you have a position in another school and you get accepted to FICS, you must then either resign from the previous school or reject the new position. Please inform us at fics-coordinator@hiit.fi about any multiple positions.
Duration of funding
The funded doctoral student positions will start on 1 August, 2010 at the earliest. Funding is provided until the projected completion of the doctoral studies, maximally for 48 months. The current funding period of FICS from the Academy of Finland is until the end of 2013, and any funding beyond 2013 is contingent on the Academy of Finland's funding decision for FICS.
Applicants should state for how long a period they would prefer funding and when the funding period would start. FICS expects students to finish their doctoral degrees in 4 years and will take this into account when providing funding. If the applicant is not a fresh MSc graduate, he or she should describe the current status of his or her doctoral studies and research. The estimated date of the doctoral defense is expected to be roughly four years from the start of the doctoral studies (not from the enrollment to FICS), by default from the end of MSc studies.
Location and salary
The positions are located in the premises of one of the departments within FICS, according to the supervisor of the student.
The salary for a doctoral student is based on the salary system of the employing university. At the moment, the salary is within levels 1-4 in the demands level chart for teaching and research personnel of the university salary system.
Requirements if accepted
The applicants, if accepted, are required to engage themselves in full-time research and study for a maximum of four years. They are also required to participate actively in the school, including its events. The progress of the research has to be reported periodically to the school. The official requirements for doctoral students are found in the study guides of the participating universities.
Accepted applicants must apply or register for the right to pursue doctoral studies at the university of their supervisor. For this, certified paper copies of diplomas must be submitted (translated into English if they are not in Finnish or Swedish). Please consult your university about this.
Contact information
FICS is coordinated at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Aalto University School of Science and Technology. The director of FICS is professor Samuel Kaski and the coordinator is Dr. Ella Bingham.
For enquiries, please contact the coordinator:
Dr. Ella Bingham
HIIT, Department of Information and Computer Science
T building, Room A339
Aalto University School of Science and Technology
PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
fics-coordinator@hiit.fi, tel. +358 50 384 1501, +358 9 470 28872.
