A Successful Applicant in 2007 Dr. Colm Cunniffe.

A Successful Applicant in 2007

Dr. Colm Cunniffe

Background an My history with IRCSET

Primary Degree: Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology & Telecommunications, University of Limerick 2002

Ph.D from the Electronic and Computer Engineering Department University of Limerick 2007

Applied for IRCSET postgraduate scholarship in 2002 and was unsuccessful having been placed in the “C” category.

Applied for IRCSET second call postgraduate scholarship that same year with no edits and was placed in the A+ category, however only people in the A++ category were awarded scholarships

Postgraduate funded by Enterprise Ireland

Thursday, April 20, 20232 Dr. Colm Cunniffe

IRCSET Postdoc Proposal

Applied for IRCEST Postdoc in January 2008 and was successful

Call opened in December 2007

Worked on the proposal between December and January

Closed at the end of January 2008

A lot of thought

Reviewed by Mentor and Colleagues

The results were out in May 2008


Application Details

Application is online

Four parts to application

– Applicant Details– Proposed Research Document– Host Organisation Details– Referees


Applicant Details

Title is very specific, and includes buzz words “nano” and “next generation”

The proposal is a follow on from a sub set of my Ph.D work which won best paper award at a conference

The abstract includes specifics to the literature review

– Outlines what has been done– What will be done– The benefits of this research

Third level education:- keep this section short but include title of FYP research and note any awards or distinctions

Tie in public private collaborations with other relevant academic details.


Applicant Details

Why are you staying in the same institute?

– We all know every university has specialised scientific equipment such as SEM TEM AFM etc.

– What equipment do you have that isn’t available in any other institute

– This includes specialised or even customised equipment that you may have developed over the last few years for your Ph.D

– What expertise are in your group that you may need?


Applicant Details

– I only gave one reference– Employment details:- short and relevant– Publications

• Select carefully• Say what your contribution was• Some of it can be repetitive but it may be necessary• If you are not the first author say why• If there are several people listed as authors say why• If you did all of the work on the paper, say so and state why other

authors are listed (this shows independent research)• I stated that it was the policy of our research group to list the

supervisors name first on the paper and other authors were listed as part of our internal review process


Proposed Research Document

– Project outline:-• Include all requested headings• Aims:- short and precise• Background

– Well defined

– Use figures if required, they are allowed and don’t count towards the word count

• Outline– Where the problem is

– What you will do

– Benefits of this research

• Justification– Give details of the benefits of this research in the grater scheme of

things. How this research may have a knock on benefit to other areas.


Proposed Research Document

Milestones

– Break them up and detail them, 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 7-15 months, 16-24 months and 7-24 months for dissemination of results.

Impact of work

– Give an application of your research and the benefits


Reference and Lab Report

References and lab reports

– List the number of publication and break them down specifying book chapters, patents, journal and conferences publications

– Highlight any awards received for best papers especially if it is related to the proposed research

Reference

– Supervisor should reiterate any distinctions or awards you have received during your past academic career

– Supervisor should also reiterate the number of publications you have


My Thoughts on Success

Good publication history

Good lab report

Good reference

Include images where necessary, they take up space but are not included in the word count

Select included journals carefully

Practice writing funding applications

Brainstorming

Review papers for journals and conferences


Thank You


A Successful Applicant in 2007 Dr. Colm Cunniffe.

Documents

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