Call for projects Training 2023 ExposUM Institute Doctoral Nexus

[Call for projects] - Published on March 1, 2023 in Doctoral and HDR training, Flagship projects, University

ExposUM is an initiative of the University of Montpellier and its partners¹ aimed at establishing an open, off-campus institute of reference for the study, training, and interaction between science and society on the environmental determinants of human health. Winner of the ExcellenceS (PIA4) call for projects and supported by the Occitanie Region, ExposUM is funded to the tune of €46.4 million over the period 2022-2030.

Background and objective

The training component of the ExposUM Institute aims to:

1. Break down barriers in education (interdisciplinarity).
2. Contribute to improving skills.
3. Further integrate the link with countries in the South.

To this end, several initiatives will be organized, including the funding of doctoral contracts as part of a program that structures them into interdisciplinary networks, hereinafter referred to as Doctoral Nexus.

The Doctoral Nexus are networks of 3 to 4² doctoral researchers from different disciplines (e.g., social sciences, mathematical modeling, biology) and affiliated with at least two different research units. They will be funded on the basis of:

• a joint research project, established by the principal investigator in collaboration with the thesis supervisors involved, encompassing all disciplines, and aimed at studying one or more aspects of the exposome as defined above,
• an individual, disciplinarythesis topic for each doctoral student involved.

Each thesis will be funded from the outset for a period of four years. This additional year is justified by the implementation of specific training activities and the time allocated to interdisciplinarity. Exchanges between laboratories will be particularly encouraged.

Doctoral programs at the ExposUM Institute will be strengthened by the implementation of an additional joint educational program focused on methodology and skills acquisition, particularly in interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, run within the framework of the ExposUM Institute, without replacing the training organized within the framework of doctoral schools. In this context, doctoral students in a network will be tasked withorganizing a one-dayconference (both scientifically and logistically) during their third year
. They will receive a grant from the Institute to do so.

The Institute will therefore organize an annual Doctoral Nexus call for projects (AAP) with UM doctoral schools, funded by ANR and the Occitanie Region.

For the 2023 campaign, the Institute is offering a maximum of 15 grants
(for example, 5 Nexus projects consisting of 3 theses each).

This funding covers doctoral students' salaries (approximately €167,000 over four years) and environmental costs. These include the costs of additional training provided by the Institute, such as organizing seminars and operating expenses. The operating budget is allocated in full to the project leader, who coordinates its distribution within the Nexus, for example approximately €60,000 for a Nexus of three doctoral students or €80,000 for a Nexus of four doctoral students (approximately €20,000 per doctoral student).

Eligibility criteria

• The principal investigator must be affiliated with a UR, UMR, or UMI.³ that are part of the ExposUM Institute consortium. UARs, UExp, UPS, US⁴, in particular, cannot apply for this call for proposals (
  ).⁵.
• The project must involve collaboration between at least two different research units.
• The proposed theses must be of a duration of 4 years.
• Doctoral students must be enrolled at the University of Montpellier, requiring prior affiliation of thesis supervisors to one of the UM doctoral schools mentioned in this call.⁶.
• The project should aim to generate knowledge about the exposome —i.e., any environmental determinant of human health in the broadest sense.

Selection criteria (for information purposes only)

• Original and relevant interdisciplinarity for the subject: as such, the involvement of different doctoral schools within a network will be valued.
• Methodological qualities,
• Potential impacts (both fundamental and applied),
• Feasibility (scientific and financial environment already secured, ensuring the successful completion of the thesis),
• Coordination of individual projects,
• Relevance in light of the strategic priorities of the ExposUM Institute (initiation of new partnerships, One Health approach, Global Health and the South, promotion of the involvement of the Humanities and Social Sciences).

Submission guidelines

The project must be written in French or English based on the simplified file (see below), following the instructions provided therein.

Submission of applications by the principal investigator on the website: https://exposumnexus.sciencesconf.org/
Secure email submission with [AAP Doctoral Nexus] in the subject line.
Before May 7, 2023, 4 p.m. CET.

Support system for the integration of humanities and social sciences

If candidates wishing to form a Nexus would like support in
integrating the humanities and social sciences into their Nexus, Axis 2 of
the ExposUM Institute and its director Aurélie Binot offer support/
incubation.

You can request this support by sending an email (subject line: [Nexus SHS]).

Selection procedure

As the implementation of a Nexus is conditional on the identification of a doctoral student for each thesis topic comprising it, the selection of students will be conducted in parallel with the evaluation of the scientific quality of the projects.
In accordance with the HRS4R label of the University of Montpellier, the selection of doctoral students will be carried out by the doctoral schools, with the proposed topics being published in advance. In all cases, we recommend that teams that have identified potential doctoral students on topics relevant to the Nexus encourage them
to apply through the corresponding doctoral schools.

The selection procedures for doctoral students by doctoral schools, as well as their respective schedules, will be specified once they have been internally validated by the doctoral schools on the AAP website, on the page "Procedures specific to doctoral schools." Depending on the doctoral school, selection may be made either through the doctoral school's joint competitive examination, particularly if the planned schedule is compatible with this call for proposals, or through a dedicated procedure.

The primary carrier is therefore requested to:

• Submit an application ( see Submission Guidelines) to the ExposUM Institute to apply for the Nexus program.
• Submit each individual thesis topic to the relevant doctoral school, briefly indicating the possibility that the thesis may be part of the Nexus program.

The Nexus project evaluation committee will be made up of representatives from COSS, the ExposUM Institute, and the EDs, who will evaluate the scientific quality of the projects as a whole (see Selection Criteria). This evaluation will be carried out in a single stage based on the application previously submitted to the ExposUM Institute.

Secondly, provided that candidates are ranked by the EDs on at least two thesis topics from a Nexus project, the final selection for funding will then be made by the COSS, taking into account the Institute's strategic orientations, the completeness of the Nexus, and the qualities of the selected doctoral students.

Commitments

The project leaders undertake to organize regular meetings (at least three times a year) with the thesis supervisors and doctoral researchers Nexus, and to provide a report on the activities carried out each year at the Institute.

The leaders of the selected projects undertake to include the France 2030, University of Montpellier, and Occitanie Region logos in all communications relating to the project, and to comply with the University of Montpellier's publication signature charter.

Research structures belonging to the ExposUM Institute consortium⁷

ABSYS, AGAP, AIDA, ALYENA, AMAP, ANALYSES, ART-Dev, ASTRE, BC2M, BCM, BioWooEB, BPMP, CBGP, CBS, CDE, CEE-M, CEFE, CEMIPAI, CEPEL, CERCOP, ChimEco, CRBM, CREAM, DEFE, DGIMI, DIADE, DIASCOPE, DMEM, ECO&SOLS, ECOTRON, EDSM, EDPFM, ESPACE-DEV, EuroMov DHM, Forêts et Sociétés, G-EAU, GECO, Génopolys, GM, HortSys, HSM, IATE, IBMM, ICGM, ICSM, IDEDH, IDESP, IEM, IES, IGF, IGH, IGMM, IHD, IHPE, IMAG, IMAGINE, INM, INNOVATION, INTERTRYP, IRCM, IRIM, IRMB, ISDM, ISEM,
ITAP, L2C, LBE, LBN, LDP, LEPSE, LICeM, LIRDEF, LIRMM, LISAH, LMGC, LPHI, LSTM, LUPM, MARBEC, MISTEA, MIVEGEC, MMDN, MOISA, MRE, MRM, MSH Sud, OREME, PCCEI, Pech Rouge, PHIM, PhyMedExp, QualiSud, Recyclage et Risque, SantESiH, SELMET, SENS, SPO, Sys2Diag, TETIS, TransVIHMI, Vassal, VBIC

Contacts

For any information regarding this call for projects, please send an email (subject line: [Contact Nexus]).

Governance of the ExposUM Institute

• Executive Committee (CoDir): Éric Delaporte (chair), Aurélie Binot, Charlotte Boullé, Mircea Sofonea.
• Project manager: Élodie Suttling
• Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board (COSS): Jacques Mercier (chair), Amaria Baghdadli, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Pascal Demoly, Delphine Destoumieux-Garzon, Didier Fontenille, Sylvain Gandon, Julie Pannequin, Denis Pesche, Éric Servat, Coumba Toure Kane, Muriel Vayssier-Taussat, Laurent Visier.
• Research Orientation and Evaluation Council Research COER): Charlotte Boullé, Anca Mirela Chiriac, Constance Delaby, Jacques Gardon, Alexandre Hobeika, Clément Jonquet, Antonio Maraver, Mircea Sofonea, Annelise Tran.

Results

Winners of the Nexus 2023 Call for Proposals:

1. CIRAD, CNRS, IFREMER, INRAE, INRIA, INSERM, IRD, ENSCM, Institut Agro, Montpellier University Hospital, ICM, Occitanie Region. ↩︎
2. As an exception for this first edition of the AAP, and in cases where it is duly justified by the particularly innovative nature of a collaboration, the network may consist of only two thesis topics. ↩︎
3. Research Unit, Joint Research Unit, International Joint Unit. ↩︎
4. Research Support Unit, Experimental Unit, Internal Service Unit, Service Unit. ↩︎
5. The research structures [UR, UMR, UMI, UAR, UExp, UPS, and US] of the ExposUM Institute consortium are listed on page 5 of this document. ↩︎
6. U ED 166 Information Structures Systems [I2S], ED 168 Chemical and Biological Sciences for Health [CBS2], ED 231 Economics and Management [EDEG], ED 459 Balard Chemical Sciences [SCB], ED 461 Law and Political Science [DSP], ED 463 Human Movement Sciences [SMH], ED 584 GAIA (Biodiversity, Agriculture, Food, Environment, Earth, Water). ↩︎
7. As a reminder, only UR, UMR, and UMI may apply for this call for proposals.
   UAR, UExp, US, and UPS are not eligible. ↩︎

Keywords: call for proposals, Doctorate, Training, I-SITE, Research