12/12/2023
Call for Expression of Interest
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP
Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, Riga, Latvia
_____________________________________________________________________ The Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry invites excellent postdoctoral researchers to express their interest in applying for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Postdoctoral Fellowship call (MSCA-PF-2025). The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are a chance to promote the career of researchers holding a PhD through international mobility and advanced training. Researchers from any nationality with no more than eight years of experience in research are eligible for the call. The grant covers two years of living allowance, a mobility allowance, a family and special needs allowance (if applicable), as well as funding for research, training, and networking activities, and management and indirect costs. The call will be open from April 10 to September 11, 2024. First EU-funded projects will start in April 2025.
The Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (LSIWC) is one of the leading research centres in the Baltic region, covering a variety of wood and lignocellulose research levels from both fundamental and applied aspects. The mission of LSIWC is the development of scientifically based, environmentally friendly low-waste technologies for obtaining competitive materials and products from wood and other types of biomass.
The institute holds decades of experience in wood and other biomass investigations and has a broad array of scientific infrastructure, which has been modernized in recent years - from cutting-edge analytical instruments to pilot-scale biomass preparation and processing units. LSIWC is equipped to develop and test wood-based solid materials; wood and cellulose fiber-based composite materials; bio-based chemicals and materials obtained by hydrolysis, steam-explosion, pyrolysis, carbonization, fermentation, or extraction; polymers for adhesives and foams; microbial biomass. Many of the developed technologies have been recognized by industrial partners in Latvia and abroad. Chemical and physical analysis, as well as life cycle assessment of the biomass feedstocks or the developed products can be done.
Furthermore, the staff of the institute have extensive experience in leading and implementing international projects. The work environment is supportive and friendly. Many of the researchers are supervisors of students from the biggest Latvian universities, working on their BSc, MSc, or PhD thesis. LSIWC is the second non-university scientific institution in the Baltics with its own Student Council, which keeps up social activities and helps to encourage early career researchers at LSIWC.
The Open Days for MSCA-PF applicants will be organized in two stages. First, online meetings will be held in March 2024, which will include updated information from the Horizon-Europe National Contact Point about the call, and an overview of the research directions and possibilities at LSIWC. Additionally, the available supervisors will discuss their research topics. At the same time, new proposal ideas are welcome, as long as they are in line with the institute’s strategy and are practically compatible with the available infrastructure. Secondly, potential applicants are welcome to visit LSIWC in person to see the research facilities and to
meet the supervisors. The International Conference for Young Researchers on Biorefinery Technologies and Products BTechPro2024 will include a lab tour at LSIWC and an MSCA matchmaking event will be planned in the conference program on April 24, 2024.
To increase your chances to get funded, please, also consider the ERA Fellowship. Since Latvia has a Widening country status in the Horizon Europe framework programme, applicants with a host institution in Latvia may choose to be considered for funding from WIDERA work programme - for an ERA Fellowship, in case you do not receive funding from MSCA PF call. All you need to do is tick the respective box in the portal when applying for regular MSCA PF. Applications to the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships will be automatically resubmitted to the ERA Fellowships call if the proposal fails to reach an adequate place in the ranking to be funded, but passes the evaluation threshold. More information about the ERA Fellowships and PostDoc Latvia options for non-funded, but highly evaluated MSCA-PF applications will be specified during the Open Days.
➢ To express your interest and/or find out more about the invitation, contact the Leading Researcher at LSIWC Kristīne Meile [email protected]
➢ To learn more about the MSCA-PF call visit https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/calls/msca-postdoctoral-fellowships-2024
➢ For information about the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry go to www.kki.lv
➢ Information about the BTechPro2024 conference is here www.btechpro.lv
