The ADMIRE Briefing for Candidates took place on Monday, 28 February 2022 and the recording is now available on the ADMIRE YouTube channel. The presented slide deck is also available to download.

In the briefing, the Programme Manager, Dr Edward Casey, brought prospective candidates through details of the ADMIRE Programme itself, its links with the wider AMBER Centre and its constituent host institutions and the details of the application process itself.

The presentation was followed by a questions and answers session, and the responses to these questions is now available on this website.

In the presentation, we wanted to make it clear that all of the relevant details are covered in the Guide for Applicants and the Terms and Conditions documents. Some of the details in the presentation represent guidance developed on the basis of managing the first call but the fundamental process remains the same: in order to be competitive, applications must follow the templates, address the eligibility and scoring criteria and be submitted before the call deadline on 01 May 2022 at 6 pm UTC.

Here, some key points and messages are summarised:

Applicants should make sure that they have read and understood the eligibility criteria, both in terms of the applicant and the application. This includes the "experienced researcher" eligibility criterion and the "transnational mobility" eligibility criterion, as well as the fact that the proposed supervisor must have given their approval to be linked with the application before the application is submitted. The application must also be made using the appropriate templates and submitted before the deadline.

The proposal document is a key aspect of the application: there is guidance given in the template itself on the key areas to address. Applicants may also be interested in looking at other resources prepared for H2020 Marie Sk?odowska Curie Actions Individual Fellowships (as this is the model of Commission run programmes that most closely matches the ADMIRE process). These include the Guide for Applicants , prepared by the European Commission and the Net4Mobility handbook . Various MSCA National Contact Points will also have prepared guidance document that may be useful: for example, the Irish Marie Sk?odowska Curie Office has an archive of guidance documents from H2020.

In conjunction with the proposal document, the CV is the key document in presenting yourself as a capable researcher. In order to ensure there is as little scope for unconscious bias to creep into the review process, we recommend that applicants "blind" their CVs (e.g., use an initial instead of a first name, remove reference to anything that might identify a gender, consider using terms like "parental" or "family" leave). The CV is a key document used in determining both "experienced researcher" and "transnational mobility" eligibility: consequently, do be as complete as possible, providing clear dates and periods of activity. Gaps in the CV and non-traditional research pathways are absolutely permitted but do need some level of explanation to ensure eligibility can be fully determined.

If an ethics statement is required (on the basis of the online self-assessment) this must be included too. There is guidance on the completion of a H2020 ethics self-assessment available.

The online forms are just as important as the uploaded documents and do need attention! This includes some basic biographical details, details of the application itself (abstract, keywords, ethics assessment) and various eligibility declarations.

While we hope that all of these documents make the process very clear, if there are any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out!