Inria MSCA-PF 2022 hosting offer Grenoble-Lyon #19

Research description

• Keywords:
  Cultural evolution, knowledge, belief, evolutionary epistemology, behaviour, society, communication
• Research interests:
  A social science perspective on cultural knowledge evolution -- We are investigating the cultural evolution of knowledge and beliefs on a computational basis. We seek to cooperate with scientists trained in social sciences and the humanities offering their specific perspective on this work. Given the transverse position of cultural evolution in all SSH, this may be relevant to various fields. The research may concern social aspects of cultural evolution (sociology, epistemology) or focus on the motivation and individual knowledge and behaviour of agents (cognitive science, psychology) or taking an intermediary position linking knowledge and society (anthropology). Similarly we are open to experimental, observational or theoretical profiles. More details on https://moex.inria.fr/training/2021-PD-ssh-cke.html
• Inria team:
  MOEX: https://moex.inria.fr/
• Team description:
  Cultural evolution is the application of evolution theory to culture. It is now widely acknowledged in social sciences and the humanities. mOeX adopts a computational approach to the study of the cultural evolution of knowledge, determining, in silico, properties of knowledge that artificial agents may obtain. Our ambition is to understand and develop general mechanisms by which a society evolves its knowledge. We consider societies of independent agents representing knowledge and adapting it through interacting with each other. We study the global properties of this local adaptation both experimentally, through multi-agent simulations, and theoretically, through logical models.
• Supervisor:
  Jérôme Euzenat: https://moex.inria.fr/~euzenat/
• Contact details:
  Jérôme Euzenat: Jerome.Euzenat@inria.fr
  MSCA training organisers: msca-postdoc-prep@inria.fr
  Centre's Europe office contact: matthieu.py@inria.fr

What are the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships?

MSCA Postdoctoral fellowships support the career development of researchers for enhancing their individual competence diversification in terms of skills at multidisciplinary level and intersectoral experience. The MSCA-PF grant provides a competitive salary plus mobility and family allowances if applicable, as well as research, training and networking costs. This call to interest concerns the European Postdoctoral Fellowships (12 to 24 months of duration in Europe + optional placement in private sector in Europe of 6 months).

For more information: MSCA-PF

What are the eligibility criteria?

• Candidates must hold a PhD at the call deadline (14 Sept. 2022) and have 8 years maximum of full-time research experience after the PhD.
• “Mobility rule”: candidates must NOT have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline (exceptions exist for European nationals).
• Candidates can be from any nationality.
• Although not an eligibility criterion, a good track record is recommended.
• An additional layer is at Inria institutional level regarding security procedures in recruitment, which must be approved by our Defence Security Officer.

What is needed to apply?

The MSCA PF programme requires candidates to write their own research project, in synergy with a supervisor at a European host institution. The proposal is a ten pages document describing the scientific idea, its expected impacts and implementation pathway, with an additional 5 pages for the candidate’s CV. At Inria, we provide extensive support to good quality candidates in the form of preliminary meetings, group training to better understand the programme and the grant proposal requirements, and one-to-one review sessions by specialised staff in the late stage.

I’m interested. What should I do?

1. Check our list of hosting offers, when a domain fits your profile or seems complimentary to your expertise, go to the research team webpage and look for more info.
2. Once you think you have an interesting research project idea that fits the domains described in one of our hosting offers, write it down in 4-5 lines and email the indicated contact persons (even better if you can add a CV or a link to your profile).
3. That’s it for now! Based on the info you provided we will get back to you regarding the next steps.

When should I do that?

The earlier the better! If we had to give an indication, early spring to late May.

What’s in it for me?

Selected candidates will have access to privileged grant writing training sessions and one-to-one proposal review sessions in the last phase with our experienced European Officers. The sessions will take place on the following dates (all times CEST):

• An online event on 6 April will further detail the info given hereafter; you may register for the event here: https://www.inria.fr/en/fund-your-european-postdoc-inria.

1. 26 April 11:00 – 12:30
   Introduction to scheme, general considerations & invitation to discuss projects with supervisors
2. 31 May 9:00 – 12:30
   Grant writing guide (with exercises)
3. 26 July 10:00 – 12:30
   Grant writing: details & advice on polishing