Doctoral candidate positions MSCA Doctoral Network ColoMARK

Working conditions

DCs will receive a fully funded working contract for three years including health insurance and social benefits.

Salaries will comply with MSCA and local institution regulations. This quantity describes the living allowance for the DCs, including all costs related to the contract, including social security and insurance, where appropriate. A flat rate Mobility allowance will also be included in the contract. Additional allowances (family, long-term and special needs) will be added if applicable.

Recruited DCs must work exclusively for the action

Eligibility criteria for all DC positions under MSCA

• The applicants MUST not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date (unless as part of a compulsory national service or a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention).
• Applicants MUST NOT be in possession of a PhD

• Additional eligibility criteria may be described for each position.

Recruitment process

Vacancies will be advertised and published internationally, to guarantee openness of the call. The call for applicants will be open until 15th May 2023.

Shall any conflict of interest arise during the procedure, this shall be notified to the ColoMARK project manager at: colomark@gmail.com.

DC recruitment will be a two stage process. On stage 1, applicants will be evaluated firstly on eligibility, and then according to their CV: academic and professional qualifications, prior research experience and skills, publications, teaching activities, level of independence, knowledge transfer and dissemination output, mobility experience, and letter of motivation describing their purpose and goal in participating in ColoMARK. Career breaks or variations in the order of CVs will not be penalised. The CVs will be evaluated by the supervisor and co- supervisor for each position, and additional input may be provided by other ColoMARK members if required.

The top applicants or those attaining a minimum score will then proceed to stage 2. Applicants will be notified of this decision by May. For this stage, the letters of support will be evaluated together with an interview by a Selection Committee consisting of the two supervisors and additional local team members. Please note that all interviews will be recorded, and that by applying to any of these positions, you accept these conditions.

Recordings will be kept privately for use exclusively within the ColoMARK consortium. Interviews will happen during May 2023.

Due to the mobility rule, a basic level of written and oral English will be required from the applicants in order to guarantee appropriate communication upon incorporation at the host groups.

Results from the selection process and the list of selected DCs will be published at the latest by early June 2023. The applicants must start their employment under ColoMARK by 30^th July 2023.

Application procedure

Aspirants should apply for each DC position according to the specific descriptions provided below. The following information must be included for all applications:

ロ Academic qualifications, including official certificates with marks and credits (for BSc and MSc)

ロ Narrative CV (1,000 words max)

ロ Motivation letter describing their interest in the selected DC project(s)

ロ Abstract (500 words max) description of MSc thesis (and copy of derived publications, if appropriate)

ロ 2 letters of support (including e-mail and telephone contact information)

Applications to more than one DC project within ColoMARK is permitted, but this information should be clearly disclosed in the motivation letters to each of the positions,and ranked in order of preference.

Requirements and obligations

• The DC must be enrolled in the local PhD programmes of the hosting institutions, which will contribute greatly to providing specialised education on both core scientific topics, as well as transversal skills.

• In addition, the DC must participate in training activities provided by the ColoMARK including network-wide training, clinical rotations, workshops, summer/winter schools, or e- training. This reinforces the doctoral candidates´s exposure to a varied choice of training activities outside of the host lab, and will be focused on enhancing the personal, team-wide and network-wide capabilities of the DCs.
• One of the strongholds of MSCA Doctoral Network actions is the flexibility of DC work amongst the different teams, and this mobility enhances and improves the participant interrelations. Therefore, all ColoMARK DCs will perform a minimum 5 months of secondments at other ColoMARK teams, including at least 3 weeks in the non-academic sector (according to internal regulations that restrict interactions with for-profit organisations).

• ColoMARK is greatly committed to patient and public involvement in research (PPI). DCs will therefore team up and work alongside patients in order to produce better research and researchers.