Irish Research Council 2014/2015

Cearbhall88

Hi Guys,

I was one of the lucky ones in terms of being given a conditional offer of an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship award. It says a formal letter will soon arrive with details of how to accept the award. It speaks about documentation and transcripts. Can any one else shed light on the process of accepting the award and how much more bureaucracy is involved?

I am very grateful for the award but just wish to get my house in order.

Any help would be appreciated.

candle_wax

Cearbhall88 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I was one of the lucky ones in terms of being given a conditional offer of an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship award. It says a formal letter will soon arrive with details of how to accept the award. It speaks about documentation and transcripts. Can any one else shed light on the process of accepting the award and how much more bureaucracy is involved?

I am very grateful for the award but just wish to get my house in order.

Any help would be appreciated.

I don't know for sure, but I think it's just undergrad/masters result transcripts, and presumably signing some acceptance forms, terms and conditions, etc?
My expectation is a lot of bureaucracy is involved.

mikehayes83

Hi all, a little bit away from the IRC I was just wondering did anyone know of other decent sources of funding. Or is it just too late to try and secure other funding for the coming academic year??

Manco

mikehayes83 wrote: »

Hi all, a little bit away from the IRC I was just wondering did anyone know of other decent sources of funding. Or is it just too late to try and secure other funding for the coming academic year??

There should be internal funding schemes, depending on your college, but they're probably closed at this stage, check to see. SUSI still contribute towards course fees for postgraduates if your income is below a certain amount, but they no longer give maintenance grants to postgrads unfortunately.

mikehayes83

Manco wrote: »

There should be internal funding schemes, depending on your college, but they're probably closed at this stage, check to see. SUSI still contribute towards course fees for postgraduates if your income is below a certain amount, but they no longer give maintenance grants to postgrads unfortunately.

Thanks for that ya i checked a couple in my college and ya closed unfortunately. Just really had my mind set on doing a postgrad. Very much a feeling of all my eggs in one basket as i only went for the IRC

JervisOak

Another day gone by without any news on the postdocs. Happy in a way as I don't want to receive the result, if disappointing, during my holidays.

santano

Marathon Man wrote: »

What are the odds of getting a scholarship if placed on the reserved list?

Hope is dangerous than despair...

Eryafeng

santano wrote: »

Hope is dangerous than despair...

Hew a stone of hope out of the mountain of despair and your life a splendid one !

sayitisntso

JervisOak wrote: »

Another day gone by without any news on the postdocs. Happy in a way as I don't want to receive the result, if disappointing, during my holidays.

In my mind 'early June' (when the claimed the result would be out in their acknowledgement of application email) ends on June 15th, at the most generous. So I'm really hoping they are out this week - for better or for worse. That said, I have a bit more perspective on the outcome now - the advantage of it taking an age is that it's given me some time to think about what else I might want to do.

Who Knows?

It will all be fine.......

Who Knows?

Looks like it MAY be tomorrow before we get any results?? It would be a shame to get bad news on the day of the World Cup opening anyway!!

FRIDAY 13th............unlucky for some :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

funkee

Do we have any reason for thinking it may be before the weekend?

aidoh

Best of luck, postdocs.
I don't envy being in that position in a few years myself!

JervisOak

funkee wrote: »

Do we have any reason for thinking it may be before the weekend?

None that I'm aware of...

fifty grand

We will receive an email tomorrow or this evening telling us that smartsimple will be inaccessible for a bit while they update status -same as PGs..(I rang them and they were very helpful)

So we should have results early next week I reckon (person I spoke to didn't say this, that's just my estimate). So enjoy the World Cup while you still you can...

sayitisntso

Great - suspect I'll be all the more grateful after all this waiting that I spent today writing (yet another) job app. My hopes are not high. Good luck everyone.

funkee

My PhD supervisor just mailed me saying:

"Understand that the post-doc fellowship will be announced next week."

sayitisntso

Just got the email... wouldn't it be nice if we found out before the weekend?

funkee

Now, I presume the five days includes Sat and Sun...


Dear Applicant,

We would like to notify you that from 10.00am Friday 13th June 2014 you will be unable to view your submitted application to the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland and ELEVATE International Career Development Postdoctoral Fellowship Schemes on the online application system. This is to enable the status update of all applications following the recent assessment process. This update will be completed within a maximum of five working days, at which time you will be notified by email and will be able to view the outcome of your application. We greatly appreciate your patience during this period.

The status of your application will be updated to one of the following:

• Conditional Award: The application has been recommended for funding. The award offer is conditional on fulfilment of the scheme terms and conditions (all terms and conditions can be found on the website including receipt by the Council of all required supporting materials and documentation (e.g. transcripts of academic record) from the applicant. The award is wholly subject to receipt of funding by the Council from the Department of Education and Skills and European Commission (where relevant). A formal letter of offer to the applicant outlining all the necessary steps for accepting of the award will follow in due course.

• Reserve: While unfortunately we cannot offer the applicant a conditional award at this time, the Assessment Panel indicated that the application was of a high standard. On that basis your application has been placed on a reserve list. Should candidates who have been offered an award decline the offer, we will then (and only then) offer awards to candidates placed on the reserve list in ranked order. It is not Council policy to give information on the number or ranking of reserves.

• Application unsuccessful: We regret to inform you that the application has not been recommended for funding on this occasion. The Council acknowledges that this outcome will be a disappointment given the substantial work involved in the preparation of the proposal, and we will supply further information on application scoring in due course.

Irish Research Council

funkee

I notice that when the postgrads got their email a while back saying that the system would be shut down for five days on May 28th the results were actually available at 5pm on the 30th i.e. two days later.

And there was 1,150 postgrad apps.

Only 500 postdocs...

So two days?

fookedfam

damn. got reserve. is there anyway to find out what number you are on the reserve list? any idea when we might find out if reserves get an award?

fox65

Unsuccessful! Congrats to any of you who got it!

Who Knows?

No joy either - not overly bother. At least I can rule it out and move on.

Who is playing tonight in the World Cup

fox65

In my house, Spain are represented by Estrella and Netherlands are represented by Grolsch are facing off and I am going to demolish both of them!!!!

Does anyone know when we will find out about the breakdowns, I assume a month or two

sayitisntso

Unsuccessful - had hoped it would be third time lucky with the IRC for me. To end on a positive note - I got turned down for PhD funding, but got offered other fully funded places both in Ireland and in the UK, and I got turned down with my last postdoc application a few years back, but ultimately went on to got another (non-IRC) postdoc. So there are other options out there and life will go on (as I tell myself).

Still disappointed tho!

[edit to add - this is not supposed to sound smug or self-congratulatory - but just to perhaps give some comfort and encouragement all around that there is life beyond the IRC!)

fox65

sayitisntso wrote: »

and I got turned down with my last postdoc application a few years back.

How long did it take to get a breakdown?

Good advice, I managed to secure some funding elsewhere. Still gutted!

sayitisntso

Few years back - it actually all arrived together with the rejection (assessor's report etc). No idea what it is like now.

Duckee

fookedfam wrote: »

damn. got reserve. is there anyway to find out what number you are on the reserve list? any idea when we might find out if reserves get an award?

I'd be interested to know this too. My application status is also Reserve. Anyone have an idea of whether or not it's common for reserves to get a later reward?

Who Knows?

Not sure when the breakdown will be sent to us but I imagine it will only frustrate us (unsuccessful) applicants? I know you are judged on the overall application, the host university (imagine??), your career goals, your own background etc.... bit ridiculous but sure ya gotta jump through the hoops?

I didn't wait for the results and managed to get a senior post-doc position in my area. This was only a Plan B (I was also working on a Plan C).

Loads of other options out there so chin up. Try to use your application in some other way. Recycle it for job applications (i.e. propose this research to support another department in your field). Use it as part of your job application for other universities/industry - "this is what I can lead in your organisation..." etc.

stinkle

Got conditional. I'm fairly stunned to be honest, and as my Plan B came through there's a good chance I might have to decline. Gonna talk to my mentor later on about it.