WSL Fellowship Program. Relevance of Science for WSL Opportunities for Science at WSL The WSL...
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Transcript of WSL Fellowship Program. Relevance of Science for WSL Opportunities for Science at WSL The WSL...
WSL Fellowship Program
• Relevance of Science for WSL
• Opportunities for Science at WSL
• The WSL Fellowship Program
• Discussion
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 2
Overview
• WSL is a research institute located away from universities in Zurich, but is actively involved in science teaching (>3000 h/year)
• A significant fraction of our activities is driven by national demands and national mandates (avalanche bulletin, forest inventory, forest protection, etc.)
• WSL has strong links to practice
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 3
Relevance of Science for WSL
• WSL therefore has to carefully balance its efforts in science with its efforts in outreach and extension towards the practice
• WSL has to maintain a sound balance, since both elements are mandated by the official decree of the Swiss parliament
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 4
Relevance of Science for WSL
• As a result of this dual mandate, and due to the fact that WSL has to cover many fields relevant to the terrestrial environment:– There are usually at best few, but often 1-2
scientists working in a specific science field– Many scientists have additional mandates for
outreach and knowledge transfer to practice– WSL has only few science fields that are
internationally strong and well supported
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Relevance of Science for WSL
• Self-declared attribution of time across the 10 research units (2010-2014 mean)
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 6
Relevance of Science for WSL
ResearachTeachingOutreachMgmt & Admin
• On the other hand, WSL has to strive for an internationally recognized science capacity, and this for two reasons:– WSL is part of the ETH domain, and striving for
scientific excellence is expected from all members
– Irrespective of who the stakeholders are (practitioners, scientists), science always has to strive for excellence, otherwise its relevance deteriorates.
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 7
Relevance of Science for WSL
• In summary: – WSL has highest interests to keep a strong focus
on excellence in science– WSL is interested in attracting the best
scientists when filling open positions or as guests and partners for scientific collaboration
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 8
Relevance of Science for WSL
• WSL has tremendous offerings to science due to outstanding data archives and science platforms from its dedication to monitoring and to the National mandates
• Such data series often cover long time spans and are maintained at highest quality
• Data often fully cover all of Switzerland, thus they span large ecological gradients
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 9
Opportunities for Science at WSL
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 10
Opportunities for Science at WSL
• Examples of data archives:– Forest Inventory with 4 measurement cycles,
now starting soon the fifth (LFI)– Snow, permafrost, glacier and avalanche
databases and measurement archives– Long-term forest monitoring network (LWF)
with access to an EU-wide network (ICP-Forest)– Many large-scale GIS, RS and field based
inventories and data sets– …
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 11
Opportunities for Science at WSL
• Examples of science platforms:– National Forest Inventory: >5000 re-measured
plots with hundreds of variables, 4 inventories
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 12
Opportunities for Science at WSL
• Examples of science platforms:– Long-term Forest Monitoring: 19 intensely
monitored plots, >20 years of data
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 13
Opportunities for Science at WSL
• Examples of science platforms:– Avalanche test bed Vallée de la Sionne: artificial
avalanche release, instruments, bunker, etc.
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 14
Opportunities for Science at WSL
• Examples of science platforms:– The new Plant Protection Lab, fully equipped
level 3 lab to study plant damaging organisms
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Opportunities for Science at WSL
• Examples of science platforms:– Many others exist, and are open to WSL and
guest scientists– These platforms and data sets form an
attractive basis for international collaboration– WSL is thus often partnering in international
research programs such as EU-projects, etc.
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Opportunities for Science at WSL
• In order to increase the international collaboration and to bring the best scientists to WSL the director and the directorate have launched the WSL Fellowship Program
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 17
The WSL Fellowship Program
• First, a fellowship program for senior scientists was launched (early 2015) and a first round of applications has been processed
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 18
The WSL Fellowship Program
• This fellowship is set up as follows:– It is competitive by nature– It provides support funding for travel and
subsidies for coming to WSL, but no salaries– It attracts seniors in WSL’s reserch fields and
covers 3 months to 1 year (e.g. sabbaticals)– It requires that a short proposal is written, and
links to WSL research(ers) is made.– It requires that RU leaders support the
application.Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 19
The WSL Fellowship Program
• We have selected the first three candidates, and are now advertising the next round
• Currently, the fellowship program primarily addresses seniors, not early career scientists
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 20
The WSL Fellowship Program
• We believe that attracting highly skilled junior scientists can also be very attractive
• We therefore plan to extend the fellowship program to early career scientists as a second category of targeted scientists
• This has not been launched yet
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The WSL Fellowship Program
• Early career fellowship ideas:– WSL covers only travel and subsidy support– WSL attempts to bring highly skilled early career
scientists to WSL for collaboration stays within their postdoc or early career position elsewhere
– Rules are similar to senior fellows (research plan, link to WSL science staff, ok from RU-leader)
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The WSL Fellowship Program
• The fellowship programs are funded out of a directorate reserve (2+ million CHF), which has more than just this purpose, since it covers:– Large investments (full or complementary
funding)– Internal projects (applications 1x / year)– WSL Fellowships.
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 23
The WSL Fellowship Program
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 24
Thank you for your attention!
• How to best advertise the program?
• How much internal control is needed?
• Is extension to early career scientists meaningful?
• How can benefit for WSL be maximized with such programs?
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Possible discussion points