Frank De Winne PhD fellowships

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The ‘Frank De Winne PhD fellowships’ are PhD grants strategic basic research under the impulse programme “Flemish Space Economy”. This impulse programme focuses on talent, competitiveness, international cooperation, and promoting interest in space among the population. The Talent section of the impulse programme “Flemish Space Economy” covers not only “Frank De Winne PhD fellowships” at FWO but also calls for “Frank De Winne postdocs” at VLAIO.

The FWO’s “Frank De Winne PhD fellowships” offer burgeoning research talents the opportunity to complete their PhD with research into applications in the space industry. It enables young researchers to take space research in Flanders to the next level while at the same time establishing and developing a sustainable career in the Flemish space economy.

In general: Strategic basic research in the context of a PhD grant stands for challenging and innovative research (at PhD level), which, if successful, may in the longer term lead to innovative applications (products, processes, services) with economic added value for specific companies, for a collective of companies, or a sector, or in line with the Flanders 2025 transition areas (socioeconomic benefits).

Features

• Period: 2 years, renewable once, for two more years
• Net monthly scholarship amount: minimum € 2,075.90
• Fixed bench fee: € 3,720 per year

Calls, evaluation and selection

A total of 3 calls for respectively 5, 6 and 5 “Frank De Winne PhD fellowships” have been planned.

The first call is open.  

• Submission deadline: Wednesday September 15, 2021, (5pm CEST)
• Announcement of selection results: early December 2021
• Start fellowship: January 1, 2022

The second and third calls will be integrated into the regular calls for SB PhD fellowships, but with a fixed number of fellowships to be awarded (6 and 5) respectively. A second call will be opened in early December 2021 with submission deadline 1 March 2022 and fellowships starting on 1 November 2022.

The application/evaluation/selection procedures are those of the fellowship SB programme.

The Frank De Winne PhD fellowships will focus specifically on:

• The bridging function between university and companies: maximum use of the facilities provided for in the SB Fellowship regulations (intersectoral mobility, Art 4§2 fellowship regulations), to conduct part of the research in another company (active in the space sector);
• The training component with additional focus on entrepreneurship and innovation (development of transferable skills, Art 18§2 fellowship regulations), specifically in the space sector, e.g. through internships at a company or another type of organisation;
• The strategic nature of the PhD project is in line with the impulse programme Flemish space economy, with valorization potential for (Flemish) companies operating in the space sector.

Profile and conditions

• For more details on the eligibility criteria, consult the regulations PhD fellowship strategic basic research.
• You are affiliated to a university in the Flemish Community.
• At the start of the fellowship, candidates must be holder of a diploma at least equivalent to a master’s degree following a bachelor’s degree and awarded by the competent institutions in one of the countries of the European Economic Area or Switzerland*.

*You can have your certificate, awarded outside EEA and Switzerland, recognized by NARIC, as being equivalent to a specific Flemish master degree. This also applies to diplomas awarded in the UK.

• To participate to the 2021 call “Frank De Winne PhD fellowships”

• • Your master degree or equivalent diploma must have been obtained not earlier than 3 years before March 1, 2021.
  • On 1 March 2021 you had 18 months scientific seniority at most.

• You can apply maximum two times for a PhD fellowship. An application for a Frank De Winne fellowship counts as one attempt.
• You have not previously received an FWO PhD fellowship (not even in part).
• You agree with the Research Integrity Clause

Submission and selection procedure

In a nutshell:

• You find a promotor affiliated to a Flemish university who is ready to guide you as a doctorandus.
• You submit your application online (FWO e-portal).
• The promotor is invited by the FWO to write a recommendation.
• Your application is submitted to the SBFDW FWO expert panel
• After the preselection, you can be invited for a second round with interview (in November 2021)
• If you are selected for the second round, you’ll be interviewed by the panel (in November 2021 – date to be defined). Guidelines for the interview can be found here
• The expert panels report to the Board of Trustees
• The Board of Trustees decides on the appointment early December 2021.
• You receive feedback on the decision and the findings of the expert panel.

Regulations

• General regulations
  These general regulations apply to all funding provided by the FWO.
• Regulations for PhD fellowship strategic basic research
  These regulations apply to the application for and awarding of PhD fellowships strategic basic research by the FWO.
• Regulations for the bench fee of FWO fellows
  These regulations contain all information about the bench fees for PhD and Postdoctoral Researchers of the FWO.
• Regulations internal and external peer review
  These regulations describe how the expert panels should be composed, the conduct code, as well as the scoring and selection approach.

Additional information for applicants

• An online info session was organized 8 July 2021. You can watch this webinar here
• The presentation can be downloaded  here
• Example application form with screenshots (incl. project description template)
• Expert panel:For the “Frank De Winne PhD fellowships” a specific expert panel “SBFDW” will be set up, including experts in space research and applications. Just as with the other PhD SB panels, at least half of the members must be affiliated with a non-Flemish institution, at least one-third must be directly involved in industrial R&D, and not more than two-thirds of the members must be of the same gender (Art 3 peer review regulations).
  • If during the evaluation of your proposal there is a panel consensus that the application is out of scope (no strategic importance for users in the space economy value chain) it can be rejected for that reason. Carefully consider the fit of your project proposal in this call!
  • The composition of the panel will be published a few weeks after the call has been closed.
• Percentiles (study results)
  How to position your study results within your study group? This is an element of the evaluation by the expert panel. Learn how to find ‘your’ percentile here.
• Scoring grids
  The scoring grid (scoring descriptors) will used by the expert panels as a reference framework for the evaluation during the preselection resp. interview sessions.
  • Scoring grid preselection PhD fellowship SB/FDW
  • Scoring grid interview PhD fellowship SB/FDW
• Interviews
  • Guidelines interview – (version 2021 still valid)
  • Date panel meeting (interviews): to be defined (November 2021)
• Applying for a FWO PhD fellowship in Corona times

The Covid-19 crisis is affecting and delaying many teaching and research activities since March 2020. Possibly, your last master year and master thesis, or your starting PhD research has been influenced. International mobility has virtually come to a standstill. Also family circumstances during lockdown, increased commitment to teaching or healthcare, … may have hindered your planned activities.

As a candidate PhD fellow you may be worried about the impact of all this on the strength of your application file and the ambitions of your research project.

Therefore we advise you to mention specific factors that influence your application in the entry field ‘career breaks’ and, where appropriate, ‘personal statement’, ‘research stays’ and/or in the project description file. The FWO will explicitly instruct the panel members to take this into account when assessing your application.

• Contact
  • See /en/contact/for-the-researcher/for requesting additional info and for specific questions.
  • For technical (IT) problems regarding e-portal and application modules send an email to the IT helpdesk: FWOhelpdesk@fwo.be

Impulse programme Flemish space economy

The impulse programme Flemish space economy (decision of Flemish government (Dutch version only)) focuses on talent, competitiveness, international cooperation, and promoting interest in space among the population.

Space economy encompasses all aspects of the space value chain. These are the so-called upstream activities that are needed to launch crafts into space, such as the development and construction of satellites, launching infrastructure and vehicles, space stations, scientific instruments, etc. The downstream activities are focused on operating the upstream infrastructure and keeping it operational, and the development, construction and marketing of products and services using space technology and data.

Space economy is therefore a broader concept than the actual space industry.

Examples are satellite data or Earth observation data that report changes to the Earth’s surface or are used for positioning, telecommunication or meteorology. Space data thus represent an added value to many sectors ranging from agriculture to defence. Finally, the space economy serves to address great challenges such as climate change, mobility or new security threats.

Read more

• Advisory report VARIO 2018: Flanders’ Space: een strategie voor de Vlaamse ruimtevaarteconomie (vario.be) (Dutch version only, English summary)
• Flemish space economy impulse programme, decision of Flemish government (Dutch version only)

Frank De Winne

Frank De Winne has, since January 2000, been part of the astronaut corps of ESA, the European Space Agency, where he is currently head of the European Astronaut Centre, the ESA’s astronaut training centre in Cologne. “I am pleased with the investment in young talent and the initiative to further develop space research in Flanders,” says Frank De Winne, who has already been twice in space onboard the ISS space station. “Space is increasingly becoming part of our daily lives. It is a fast-growing sector with high added value. Europe cannot afford to lag behind the rest of the world in terms of investments. That is why it is absolutely essential for Flanders to commit itself and encourage and support a career in space.” (Press release Minister Crevits 23 April 2021)