The PhD instrument in SDU Climate Cluster (SCC) aims to attract or retain research talents to/at SDU and to contribute to new interdisciplinary research collaborations that support SCC's mission to contribute to climate neutrality by 2050.
A cross-faculty research team (at least two researchers from different SDU faculties) with a research project related to climate solutions can apply for the instrument, where a PhD student can contribute to/be responsible for the research. Potential PhD students cannot apply for the PhD instrument, only SDU researchers can apply.
In order to comply with the demand for interdisciplinarity, the PhD student will be associated with a principal supervisor at one faculty and a co-supervisor at another faculty. The PhD student will be employed at the principal supervisor’s faculty.
Common funding of the PhD instrument
A SCC PhD instrument comprises of half a PhD salary and a fixed education grant of 100,000 DKK. The applicant team itself must raise the financing of the other half of the PhD project. This can either be other internal SDU instruments or external funding. In relation to external funding, the applicant team must be aware of the SDU project fee of 10 per cent that is added on an equal footing as other external funding.
You can apply for the PhD instrument before the remaining financing of the PhD project is in place. The PhD instrument will be transferred to the applicant team, when the other project funding is in place which must take place by the end of the year in which the PhD instrument has been applied for and granted.
Application process
There is one annual application round for the PhD instrument. The deadline for the next application round is 1 March 2024.
The application must outline the research team’s innovative climate research project and how a PhD student can work with it.
The application must be written in English and comply with the requirements specified in the application template. All applications for the PhD instruments must be sent to SCC by e-mail to scc@sdu.dk. We will acknowledge receipt of the application.
SCC’s Strategic Grants Council assesses which applications SCC must finance.
Evaluation criteria
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Impact: Evaluation of the impact potential of the project according to SCC’s
mission of contributing to climate neutrality by 2050
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The research idea: Evaluation of the innovation and excellence of the project
- Scaling and potential for the subsequent research process. Evaluation of the growth potential of the research idea
We will not allocate a fixed number of PhD instruments per application round. The number of annual grants depend on the quality and potential of the applications. However, SCC aims at distributing instruments for approx. 4-5 PhD projects per application round. Therefore, as a rule the instruments will be available up to 2026.
Allocation of instruments
SCC´s Strategic Grants Council’s decisions on rejections and approvals will be given in writing. The applicants are welcome to resend the application in the next application round.
An approval will be followed up by an orientation meeting regarding formalities on finances, reporting and cooperation with SCC.
Reporting
The applicant team must annually work out a brief written report on the progress and results of the PhD project.
At the termination of the project, the applicant team must prepare a brief evaluation (approx. one page) repeating the project idea and describing the results of the project, publications, if any, presentations and how to proceed with the results of the project and the continued financing of it.
Cooperation with SDU Climate Cluster
A brief description of the PhD project will be worked out in a cooperation between SCC and the applicant team. The description will be published on SCC’s website together with contact information on the applicant team and the PhD student.
During the project period of the PhD project, the SCC secretariat will have a dialogue with the applicant team and the PhD student about potential communicative activities.
The PhD student will be affiliated to SCC and is expected to participate in a series of SCC-activities and to actively use the SCC affiliation in connection with e.g. publications and presentations.