Call for PIANOFORTE travel grants for early career radiation protection professionals

General description
The European Partnership PIANOFORTE, funded by HE EURATOM programme, offers 20,000 € per year for travel awards to junior radiation protection professionals. Support can be given for participation in a conference, in a course or for an exchange visit to a radiation protection facility.


Who is eligible?
Early career radiation protection professionals (e.g. first responders, occupational health physicians, radiation protection officers and experts, medical physics experts, regulators and industry professionals) who are max 7 years after starting their career. An eligible person must be affiliated to an institution within the European Union or an associated country as governed by Article 7 of the HE Regulation.


When should you apply?
Applications may be submitted at any time. However, there are 4 application deadlines per year:

• 31^st March,
• 30^th June,
• 30^th September,
• 31^st December.

After each deadline a maximum sum of 5000€ will be paid out to the top applicants. The maximal level of support per applicant is 1000€.


The support is only granted:

• To early career professionals who are max 7 years after starting their career.
• For travel outside the country of residence.
• To cover travel expenses, lodging and conference fees. A budget must be included in an application.
• Once to a person per year, meaning that a person cannot receive support twice within the same calendar year.
• For a trip that will take place within max 9 months after the application deadline.

An application is made in two steps:

1. Send an on-line form to be found here and filled in here.
2. Sending additional documents neccessary for correct evaluation of your application. The documents needed are:

• A motivation letter and a CV.
• A signed letter of support from the head of the unit.
• An abstract if the applicant is applying for a conference travel support. Notice that no support will be given for passive conference attendance.
• An invitation letter from the host institution with motivation if the applicant is applying for travel support to carry out an exchange visit.
• A course programme and letter of acceptance if the applicant is applying for travel support to participate in a course.
• A budget covering all expected costs.

The application documents should be sent to Anne von Euler at pianoet.mbw@su.se after submitting the on-line form.

Evaluation procedure
The applications will be evaluated by the Education and Training Committee (ETC) consisting of the members of task 4.3. The decision about support will be made within 15 days after the nearest application deadline. The time of application in relation to the deadline has no influence on the evaluation outcome.

The following evaluation criteria and ranking will be applied:

• Relevance to radiation protection research: 1 (least) – 10 (most),
• Scientific quality of the abstract or plan of visit: 1 (least) – 10 (most),
• Added value of the activity to the professional development of the candidate: 1 (least) – 10 (most).

Successful applicants will be required to submit a report on their visit of their activity on completion of the travel. Also, they are encouraged to share their experience with the PIANOFORTE community, e.g. on PIANOFORTE website and available social media channels. All publications resulting from the mobility activities shall acknowledge the PIANOFORTE Mobility Programme by using the following sentence:
This work has been partially supported by the PIANOFORTE project that has received funding from the H2020-EURATOM research and innovation program under the 101061037 grant agreement.

Considering the European Green Deal
When planning the travel please consider the possibility of reducing the carbon footprint. Actions to be considered include preferential choice of train transportation and minimizing printing of any paper material.