ИНТАС объявляет конкурс на получение поддержки летних школ, привлекающих молодых ученых из стран СНГ

Call for the submission of letters of interest
INTAS SUMMER SCHOOL SUPPORT

INTAS is seeking ways to encourage increased participation of NIS scientists, younger than 35 years (YS), in international summer schools held throughout the year. The objectives are to involve them better in the international scientific community and to promote contacts between Ph.D. students and newly graduated Ph.D. scientists from the NIS and the INTAS member states. INTAS is thus looking for partner organisations that are running summer schools of international acknowledged quality and that are interested in working with INTAS to increase the participation of NIS YS in their summer school programmes. To achieve this, INTAS has earmarked an annual total amount of Ђ 250,000 to support such organisations. Interested partner organisations are invited to submit a letter of interest to INTAS by 30 November 2001.

Partner organisations

• Can be any scientific institution or organisation from any NIS, namely from Armenia, Azerbaidjan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine or Uzbekistan, or from the INTAS members, namely the European Community, one of the fifteen EC Member States, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
• Must have at least three years experience in the organisation of summer schools, and its statutes and aims should allow the involvement of YS from all the eligible countries listed above.
• Must have a high scientific standing and the necessary technical and organisational conditions, including English-speaking contact persons and teaching staff.
• Must select individual YS scientists involved in the schools according to transparent and public selection criteria, in particular based on the scientific performance of an applicant, and must ensure an impartial and equal treatment of all applying YS.
• Must announce publicly the summer school programme and the opportunities of participation, and open it to all countries mentioned above. In case the partner organisation is selected for INTAS support, the additional funding opportunities arising out of INTAS support shall also be announced.
  

Summer Schools that can be supported

• must be scientific teaching and/or training courses specialised in topical pre- and post-doctoral teaching, providing up-to-date coverage of fast-developing fields, thus being very conducive to research, lasting approximately 1-4 weeks
• may offer courses in any scientific field
• must have a good international reputation in the scientific community, and should have international participation of usually not less than 30 % of the participants; the usual size of a summer school should be not less than 25 participants.

How to submit a letter of interest?

Interested organisations should send their letter with the following information:

• contact address, telephone, fax, e-mail, Internet home page address if available, person in charge for co-operation;
• short description of the organisation, links and contacts with other international and/or European organisations;
• established summer schools programmes and related information (subject, date, duration, etc.);
• proposed selection criteria and procedure for INTAS-supported YS;
• requested support from INTAS per NIS participant and, if needed, the administrative overheads.

Evaluation and selection of partner organisations

An independent evaluation panel will review the letters of interest of all interested organisations and recommend those summer schools to be supported through the INTAS Young scientists Summer School Programme. Upon final decision, INTAS will negotiate the terms and conditions of the future co-operation via a suitable co-operation agreement. Depending upon the particular needs of the partner organisation, INTAS is prepared to support costs for the participation of YS from the NIS via participants' fees covering their participation including accommodation and meals, travel of NIS YS, and also, to a limited extent, an administrative overhead for the organisation.

The selection will be based on the following criteria:

• scientific standing of the organising committee and involved teachers;
• reputation of the summer school, which must have been organised for the last 3 years, and originality of the scientific programme;
• expected international participation, including YS from the NIS, and selection procedure applied for;
• amount requested from INTAS per invited NIS-YS, taking into account the school's own support to NIS YS such as low rates for accommodation and meals, reduced participation fees, etc.

In its selection INTAS will ensure a fair distribution across the scientific fields and countries. All candidate organisations will be informed on the outcome of the competitive selection by the end of February 2002.

Interested organisations may consult the INTAS home page www.intas.be for more information on INTAS, or forward particular questions to Prof. Federico Ferrini via e-mail ferrini@intas.be or phone 00322 5490146, fax 00322 5490156, or by post to INTAS, 58/8 Avenue des Arts, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.