In the last 5 years, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has built up the research base in Ireland, in the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) and BioSciences & BioEngineering (BIO) areas. Under the Strategy for Science, Technology & Innovation (SSTI, 2006-2013) significant further growth of the research base is proposed.

The Science Foundation Ireland Stokes Professorship and Lectureship Programme (briefly “The Stokes”) is designed to support the strategic planning for increasing the number of research active faculty members in the short term. The Programme is named after Sir George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903) the Irish mathematician and physicist who was born in Skreen, Co. Sligo. Stokes made several important contributions to fluid dynamics (c.f., Navier-Stokes equations), optics and maths physics (c.f., Stokes Theorem). Like Newton, Stokes was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a parliamentary representative for Cambridge University and a President of the Royal Society. Stokes made key contributions to the foundations of what we now call ICT and BIO.

Importantly, “The Stokes” should allow more flexible and proactive strategic recruiting by HEIs of key research personnel at junior and senior levels. It should allow Schools to strategically plan their staffing, to integrate quality research staff into the current base of permanent staff and to add to the School’s net pool of expertise.

For the purposes of this call, the term School can be used interchangeably with Department/Institute/Centre: whichever is the appropriate academic unit.

Funding

In this call (2007), it is expected that SFI will fund up to 40 Stokes Lectureships and 15 Stokes Professorships.  SFI will provide awards of €90,000 (Lectureships) and €180,000 (Professorships) per annum for the duration of the award.  Awards will be made for a maximum of five (5) years.

Downloads

The following documents describe the Stokes programme in detail:

• Call for Proposals
• Guide for Applicants
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Presentation from Information Meeting (March 30th)
• Expression of Interest Form
  

Note that Applicants will require Adobe Reader v7 (or later) or Adobe Acrobat v7 (or later) to complete the Expression of Interest form.  Please refer to the Guide for Applicants for more details.

Deadlines

Expression of Interest submission             14 May 2007 at 13.00
Full Proposal submission                          22 June 2007 at 13:00