Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships: Call For Applicants

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF) provide funding opportunities for excellent researchers of any nationality and any research field. They aim to enhance the creative and innovative potential of a researcher wishing to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility.

The research centre Plural (The multidisciplinary research centre for languages and cultures, Language Unit, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University) welcomes applicants to co-develop successful applications for the MSCA-PF program.

Plural is multilingual and multidisciplinary and hosts several research groups and researchers specialising in linguistics, translation studies, and literary and cultural scholarship. What unites Plural researchers is an interest in the role of language and culture in societal change.

This overarching aim of the group spans a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from questions of participation in multilingual and multicultural societies to environmental issues, vulnerable communities, accessible communication and culture, and guarding the linguistic rights of all.

 

WHO CAN APPLY

Eligibility criteria (Horizon Europe MSCA-PF):

  • Applicant has a doctoral degree by the time of the call deadline.
  • The applicant must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Finland for more than for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.

Check here for more details.

Areas and topics: We welcome applicants in the fields of Translation Studies, Linguistics and Literary and Cultural Scholarship, or relevant other areas whose research work engages with one or more of Plural’s topical research areas, namely:

  • Multilingual practices and multimodality in interaction
  • Accessibility, usability, and well-being
  • Spatial and mobile societies

 

WHAT WE OFFER

We offer a holistic program for supporting candidates in developing winning proposals through their Masterclass webinars and personal coaching by TAU grant-writers.

1) Applicants will prepare a competitive MSCA-PF proposal together with their supervisors. Plural and TAU will offer thorough support during the proposal writing and application.

Possible mentors for applicants include the following professors:

  • Associate Professor Daria Dayter – daria.dayter@tuni.fi

[Google Scholar][Video]
Key topics: Digital discourse; persuasion; corpus-assisted discourse analysis

[Google Scholar][Video]
Key topics: Accessibility (of culture or communication), interactive meaning constitution, interactive (team) cognition
Research group: “MULTI – Multimodality in Translation and Interpreting

  • Professor Niina Lilja – niina.lilja@tuni.fi

[Google Scholar]
Key topics: Embodiment, interaction, social action, multimodality
Research group: “Multimodal Interaction

  • University Instructor Mary Nurminen, PhD – mary.nurminen@tuni.fi

(With Professor Kaisa Koskinen)

[Google Scholar]
Key topics: Machine translation, machine translation users, non-translator users of machine translation
Research group: “Changing translatorial landscape

  • Professor Johannes Riquet – johannes.riquet@tuni.fi

[Researchgate]
Key topics: Spatial and environmental challenges, watery, oceanic and archipelagic imaginaries, gendered spaces
Research group: “Spatial Studies and Environmental Humanities

  • Assistant Professor Mattia Thibault – mattia.thibault@tuni.fi

[Google Scholar][Video]
Key topics: Semiotics; Technology, games and communication; Speculative research

If you are unsure of who you would want to supervise you, or you did not find your topic, you can also send general applications to Plural, and we will let you know if there is a suitable mentor for you.

 

2) The webinar course series called MSCA PF Masterclass 2023 will be organised for the sixth time during April-August 2023. All potential researchers applying for MSCA PF funding to TAU will be invited to the course. In addition, all the researchers at TAU applying for the Global or European Fellowship funding abroad are welcome to join the course. This Teams based Masterclass is highly recommended for all MSCA PF applicants. The aim of the Masterclass is to provide coaching on competitive proposal writing and developing the research idea together with the supervisor.

See Tampere University’s general information brochure here.

 

If successful, gross salary for a MSCA-PF candidate will vary between 5300-5800 € per month depending on several factors (specified in the MSCA-PF program and during the orientation period).

Tampere University is one of the most multidisciplinary universities in Finland. Almost all internationally recognised fields of study are represented at our university.

Tampere University was created in January 2019 by the merger of the University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology. TAU is Finland’s second-largest university with 20.000 students and 330 professors. TAU is a partner in the ECIU University, one of the first 17 Erasmus+ European Universities alliances that will become the universities of the future, promoting European values and identity, and revolutionising the quality and competitiveness of European higher education.

At the new University, technology and social sciences come together in a unique way. Our research groups and projects conduct multidisciplinary research across institutional boundaries. The Languages Unit at Tampere University is part of the ITC faculty, which also hosts information and computing sciences, electrical engineering and communication sciences. This makes Plural a unique research environment whose researchers contribute to the technological and digital shifts in current societies.

 

HOW TO PROCEED

If you are interested in applying for a MSCA-PF grant and work at the Language Unit of  Tampere University, please:

1) Make sure that you fulfil all the programme eligibility criteria.

2) Send an Expression of Interest as soon as possible (preferably no later than 15th of April), by email to: preaward@tuni.fi, to Plural’s steering board [plural-info@lists.tuni.fi] and to the preferred supervisor with the following reference: “MSCA PF “firstname_lastname“. Please indicate your preferred supervisor(s).

You can also make inquiries to Plural’s steering board [plural-info@lists.tuni.fi] or contact the supervisors beforehand about the research group and possible research topics.

 

The expression of Interest must be in PDF-format and consist of the following:

  • CV
  • Description of tentative research plan to be proposed to the MSCA-PF program
  • Declaration of eligibility

You will be informed whether you have matched with a supervisor for the MSCA PF 2023 call by the 30th of April. At that time you will also receive the schedule of the MSCA PF Masterclass 2023.

All applicants that match with a supervisor and fulfil the general eligibility criteria will be invited to our Teams-based Masterclass course by the 29th of April. The TAU MSCA PF Masterclass 2023 will help you prepare a competitive proposal and will be starting on the 10th of May from 14:00-15:00. 17.5.2023 14:00-15:30 (Finnish time).

 

TIMELINE

  • Masterclass: May-June 2023
  • Full research plan proposal submitted to European Union (tentative) deadline: 13 September 2023