We are seeking 22 Ph.D. candidates, called early-stage researchers (ESRs) to work under the project titled A2M2TECH (Doctoral Programme in Advanced Materials & Advanced Manufacturing Technologies). The aim of A2M2TECH is to deliver an interdisciplinary, inter-sectorial and international excellence doctoral training programme in all aspects of advanced manufacturing and advanced materials, with a major focus on additive manufacturing and related technologies. The programme brings together various strong laboratories and research centers in order to run a collaborative Ph.D. programme in the fields of Advanced Materials and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies.
The programme is led by Gazi University (GU) in Turkey and coordinated through the Additive Manufacturing Technologies Application and Research Center (EKTAM), a National Center of Excellence for Additive Manufacturing. In addition to GU, there are 3 other reputable Turkish universities as Partner Organizations namely; Middle East Technical University (METU), Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and Izmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH). All universities as part of the programme have cutting-edge technologies and have modern working environment with a view to enhancing the performance of the ESRs. Recruited ESR fellows under A2M2TECH will be primarily supervised and assessed by the Ph.D. supervisors at their host institutions, who will be responsible for the assessment of their duties with respect to the planned activities. The programme, cofounded by European Commission and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), provides excellent career perspectives in the area of additive manufacturing through the integration of multidisciplinary research and training in academia and industry. Recruited 22 ESRs will be provided with the opportunity to carry out research activities under secondments in several national & international host institutions with a particular focus on the inter-sectoral University-Industry collaboration. All candidates will have secondment experience in international institutions as follows: FIT Additive Manufacturing Group (GERMANY), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) (SPAIN), University of Southern Denmark (SDU) (DENMARK), Tusaş Aerospace Industries (TAI) (TURKEY), Ermaksan Innovative Technologies (ERMAKSAN) (TURKEY) and TeknoHAB (TURKEY). ESRs will be participating to summer school training activities each year at different organizations in different countries as part of secondments.
Through this programme, the potential ESRs will have the opportunity to grow academically and also built their career in industry at the same time. Once the potential ESRs are selected and qualified as ESRs, they will also be part of a wide range of scientific networking of the hosting top research organizations/universities and research centers.
ESRs have the chance to complete their Ph.D. in top research Universities in Turkey. In addition to that, they will also be working in organizations and techno-parks equipped with cutting edge technology in the field of advanced materials and advanced manufacturing. Moreover, the programme is designed to enhance their experience by including summer schools in and outside Turkey and also hands-on activities in real world/industry.
Eligibility criteria
Potential ESRs may not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Turkey for more than 12 months in the three years immediately before the date of recruitment. In other words, if the potential ESRs who have been in Turkey 12 months and more over the past 3 years before applying to the programme, will be considered as ineligible. This will be checked during the application stage based on the applicants’ passports (if you have used more than one passports over the past three years you are required to share the relevant pages). Also at the date of recruitment, researchers must be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers. That is to say, applicants will be in the first four years after their completion of the Master’s degree, might have started a Ph.D. programme but not yet have been awarded a Ph.D. (the gap between the date of obtaining the Master degree and the date to apply to the programme can be maximum 4 years). Also, time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention1, compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.
Applicants can apply to more than one research topic (up to three research topics offered by hosting universities) and will be assigned to one of those based on her/his priority and scoring/ranking.
Documents for the Application, General and Special Eligibility Requirements are available at the official web page of the project, which is: https://www.a2m2tech.org.tr/Home/Eligibility
Selection process
The selection process will be carried out in four different steps:
- Eligibility Check: This will be conducted by the PMT.
- External Evaluation: This will be done by Scientific Evaluation Committee (SEC) which will be composed of fifty experts in the field. They will be in charge of evaluating the CVs and other supporting documents. At this stage merit based evaluation will be conducted as explained in Guide for Evaluators.
- Interviews: 44 best ranked candidates will be remotely interviewed by six experts, three of which will be independent external experts from outside the partnership with no conflict of interest. The rest of the three members will be from: one representative of the beneficiary GU/EKTAM, two representatives from other hosting universities (GU, METU, ITU, IZTECH).
- Final Scoring and Ranking: PMT will produce the final ranking.
After the final ranking list is produced, those ranked as ESRs will be asked to sign an acceptance letter within a period of 15 days to secure their fellowship. It is ensured that there will be no discrimination against researchers on the basis of gender. Therefore, women are encouraged to apply. It is ensured that equality and non-discrimination principles, gender, age, nationality, race or any other ethical-related issues will be utmost considered during the application and selection process.
For more details please see : https://www.a2m2tech.org.tr/Home/GuideForEvaluators
Additional comments
HOW TO APPLY
- To apply please follow this link https://vacanciesinturkey.com/jobs
- To help us track our recruitment effort, please indicate in your cover/motivation letter how (vacanciesinturkey.com) you heard about this position.
Commencement of the Ph.D. Programme
Unique Approach to Obtain Ph.D. Degree: Once the potential ESRs have been selected and qualified as ESRs they will;
be registered at one of the top research Universities in Turkey; Gazi University (GU) in Ankara, Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in Istanbul, Izmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH) in Izmir, which offer a number of compulsory & optional activities depending on which doctoral programme they are registered at. As a pre-requisite in the Turkish Ph.D. system, all prospective Ph.D. researchers must complete at least 8 compulsory graduate lectures plus one seminar over two semesters as part of their training. Once this stage is completed, they can move onto the research project, after completing the qualifying exam.
After ESRs have completed at least 8 compulsory graduate lectures plus one seminar and courses over two semesters and passed the qualifying exam at their hosing university (they are required to complete this period in 1 year), all 22 ESRs will start working on their research in EKTAM for 3 years based in Ankara. In other words, apart from 13 ESRs studying at Gazi university, the rest of ESRs will move from Izmir or Istanbul to Ankara after two semesters as explained above.
Each ESR will be informed of other compulsory training activities upon starting the contract and will be encouraged to attend as many optional activities as possible. Some of these activities may include: attendance to seminars, lectures and conferences by experts in the different areas of research; preparation of a research paper and submission to a high-impact indexed research journal in the field; participation in national and/or international conferences through poster/oral communication.
Additional Support
ESR fellows will have access to all the facilities and services at the host institutions, and they will receive the support of the management team, the local administration and the doctoral school to complete the necessary paperwork in order to be registered for Ph.D. studies. The campuses of Gazi University, Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University and Izmir Institute of Technology offer a full range of services and facilities, including accommodation, information service, libraries, shops, restaurants and catering services, health services and support, language courses, physical activities and many more.