International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA): Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP)

IIASA offers a summer program for PhD students to undertake a scientific project on a topic related to the IIASA research agenda

Recognizing that a researcher’s postdoctoral engagement – typically stretching from being awarded a PhD degree until entering a permanent position – is a particularly precious period during which the researcher gradually becomes independent whilst still developing his or her scientific competences and professional skills, the IIASA Postdoctoral Program and its bilateral extensions with IIASA NMO countries strive to generate win-win situations through which postdoctoral fellows and IIASA create mutual benefits in a spirit of co-design, cooperation, and good mentorship. To maximize opportunities for intensive collaborative experiences, IIASA has established the following guidelines for postdoctoral engagements.

Hosting and mentorship:

To give postdoctoral fellows access to a broad and interdisciplinary range of scientific expertise, models and methods, networking opportunities, and research perspectives, more than one of IIASA’s research programs may be designated as their hosts; the involved programs will agree on how to share the resultant mentorship responsibilities.

Core research agenda:

The main focus of the postdoctoral engagement is the core research agenda as described in the postdoctoral fellow’s employment contract. This task description should be co-developed and reflect the postdoctoral fellow’s interests and skills and the hosting programs’ research agendas, supervisory capacities, and strategic priorities. Key objectives of this core research agenda are a profound integration of the postdoctoral fellow into the hosting programs’ activities and the optimal utilization of IIASA-specific opportunities for capacity development and academic training. As deemed appropriate in each case, the initial core research agenda is co-designed in more specific or more general terms, building on and reconciling information in the postdoctoral fellow’s application and inputs from the hosting programs. During the course of a postdoctoral engagement, the initial core research agenda can be modified through mutual agreement. To accomplish the aforementioned win-win situations creating mutual benefits for the postdoctoral fellow and for IIASA, it is anticipated that the work undertaken will contribute to the following outcomes: develop or integrate an innovative approach in a methodology or analysis, enhance the network of individuals or organizations collaborating with IIASA, and complete and submit one or more peer-reviewed research papers per year.

Half-yearly discussions between postdoctoral fellows and the mentors in their hosting programs ensure that achievements are documented and evaluated, next steps and potential adaptations of the core research agenda are agreed upon, options for YSSP supervision and grant applications are identified and implemented, collaborative opportunities are assessed and realized, and growth prospects and wider career-development goals and discussed and pursued. After one year of employment at IIASA, postdoctoral fellows will prepare a self-assessment report, for informing the aforementioned discussions and for providing the basis for a potential endorsement by hosting programs to offer their support for an additional year of postdoctoral engagement at IIASA. Postdoctoral fellows commit themselves to be interviewed by the Capacity Development and Academic Training (CDAT) unit about their experience before leaving IIASA at the end of the contract. Postdoctoral fellows are also encouraged to support the CDAT and communication units in the development of materials promoting IIASA’s postdoctoral activities (such as videos, sound bites, blog posts, etc.)

After the selection process is completed, successful applicants will be contacted by their hosting programs to agree on a task descriptions summarizing the planned core research agenda. The associated communication is to be completed as swiftly as possible and will be mentioned in the subsequent official notification and contract offer.