Odysseus programme

Requirements

The Odysseus programme is open to two types of candidates:

• Type I: Researchers who are internationally recognized as pioneers in their field and who have an appointment of minimum 80 % at a foreign institution. Research funding amounts to 400.000 euro to 700.000 euro per year (2.000.000 euro to 3.500.000 euro for 5 years).
• Type II: Postdoctoral researchers who have the potential to develop a leading international position and who have a minimum of three years (and max. 12 years) postdoctoral experience in a foreign institution. Research funding amounts to 100.000 euro to 200.000 euro per year (500.000 euro tot 1.000.000 euro for five years).

More information on eligibility can be found in the FWO regulations for the Odysseus programme.

Successful UGent candidates benefit from a ZAP-appointment at Ghent University:

• The first ten years, mandate holders type I are appointed as full professor or senior full professor, according to their seniority.
• The first five years, mandate holders type II take up a BOF Tenure Track-mandate. Afterwards, in case of positive evaluation, they take up a non-renewable BOF Associate Professor mandate.

Budget

• Odysseus candidates type I can request 400.000 to 700.000 EUR per budget year (including staff, consumables and equipment)
• Odysseus candidates type II can request 100.000 to 200.000 EUR per budget year (including staff, consumables and equipment)

Odysseus candidates and local co-supervisors are not allowed any renumeration under a research project funded by FWO. The university covers the salary cost of the Odysseus fellow. It is not allowed to mention this cost in the budget proposal.

Staff

•  If the name of the person who will fill the position is known, or if you want to hire someone with more seniority than in the table below, please contact the front officer of your department or vlaams-federaal@ugent.be for an estimation (based on seniority). Round the numbers to the next 500 or 1000.
•  If that is not the case, please use the numbers below.

Consumables

• The normal operating costs, necessary for the execution of the project.
• Costs for jo students, pollsters and expenses resulting from the invitation of a guest researcher in the research unit.
•  Small equipment of less than 20.000 EUR per unit, necessary for the project.
• Costs of study stays and participation in conferences abroad insofar as these are in line with the granted research project.
• Access to and dissemination of research results.

Equipment

•  Equipment can only be applied for in the first 3 budget years.
• All equipment from 20.000 EUR per unit

Internal selection procedure

The dean of your faculty must submit a dossier at vlaams-federaal@ugent.be no later than Friday 21 June 2024 (17:00). Only candidates nominated by the deans will be considered for selection. Please make sure to check the internal application deadline at your faculty’s Dean’s Office.
For each researcher (both type I and type II), the dossier (in English) consists of the following elements:

• Curriculum Vitae of the researcher; including a bibliography (the researcher should update this information in the FWO e-portal as well);
• A written confirmation in which the applicant states his/her intention to come over to Ghent University to continue his/her research career;
• A research plan (maximum of 12 pages, see FWO-template) and a detailed budget proposal for five years ;
• A binding declaration of commitment to appoint the candidate in case he/she is nominated by FWO, signed by the dean (see FWO guidelines). You can use this text template on a letter with faculty header.

Ghent University can nominate an unlimited number of candidates to FWO, but is expected to strive for a gender balance (= max. 2/3rd of the same gender).

The Research Coordination Office will send the candidates who may submit a full proposal, a unique web link to access the online application file. Besides this, they will receive the binding declaration of commitment, signed by the rector. The submission (in English) should also include two letters of recommendation. The deadline to submit at FWO is 30 September 2024 (5 PM Belgian time). The actual submission to the FWO is done by Team National Funding.
More information can be found on the FWO website.

Evaluation

• October 2024: Eligibility check by FWO administration
• October 2024-January 2025: International external peer review
  Each eligible application will be evaluated by in principle 4 referees. The evaluation is based on an evaluation grid designed especially for the Odysseus programme.
• End of February 2025: Pre-selection (optional)
  The available budget of 18.8million EURis expected to allow the funding of around 9 Odysseus projects. It was therefore decided to invite max. 40 candidates for an interview. If there are more than 20 eligible applications of either Type, a pre-selection, based on the 4 submitted
  recommendations from the external referees for each candidacy, will take place whereby an ad hoc multidisciplinary international jury (same jury members as in the next step) selects the candidates to be
  invited for an interview.
• 20-21 March 2025: Interview
  Eligible nominated candidates are interviewed by an ad hoc multidisciplinary international jury of experts. 10-minute oral presentation of the research, 20-minute interview and 10-minute evaluation (without the candidate). Based on the external referees’ reports and the interview, the high-level jury compiles a binding ranking based on excellence. Their evaluation is also based on the Odysseus evaluation grid.
• Beginning of April 2025: Ratification
  Official ratification (by the FWO Board of Trustees) of the binding ranking compiled by the high-level jury.

Result

• Official ratification (by the FWO Board of Trustees) of the binding ranking compiled by the high-level jury (beginning of April 2025).
• Appointed Odysseus researchers can start up to 1 year after the date of announcement of the results (from May 1 2025 until April 1 2026 the latest). The Odysseus project can only start on the first of each month.

Contact

Research Co-ordination Office – Team National Funding

• vlaams-federaal@ugent.be
• Sien Smits, 09 264 30 28