UCD TOPMed10 Fellowship Programme
Application Templates and Guidance for Call 2 (2016)
All applications for the UCD TOPMed10 Fellowships must be submitted using the online application
system on the Programme website.
This document presents the templates of documents that are required to be submitted as part of an
application.
A. Online application registration
B. Personal Details
C. Online proposal details
D. Ethics Questionnaire
E. Ethics Statement 
F. Research proposal
G. Academic CV
Please note that sections A, B, C and D (‘Online application registration’, ‘Personal Details’, ‘Online
proposal details’ and ‘Ethics Questionnaire’) will be completed as part of the online form, while the
remaining documents (E, F & G) shall be submitted in pdf format as an attachment.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie
grant agreement No. 666010.
A. ONLINE APPLICATION REGISTRATION
Before submitting an application all applicants are required to register with the online application
system. The required registration details are presented in the table below.
First Name
Last Name
Email
Website
Mobile number
Phone number
Password
Security Question
Security Answer
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B. PERSONAL DETAILS
On logging on to the application system, you will be prompted to complete the following details
Person details
Title
First Name
Last Name
Gender
Contact Details
Mobile Number
Phone Number
Email Address
Personal Website
Citizenship Details
Country of Citizenship
Address
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Address Line 3
Postcode
County
Country
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C. PROPOSAL DETAILS
Proposal Title
Research Area
Proposal summary
Fellowship Type (choose one)
Proposed UCD Principal Investigator
(PI)
A short summaryof the proposal of up to
2000 characters
• Incoming Fellowship Level 1
• Incoming Fellowship Level 2
Applicants are strongly encouraged to
contact potential PIs in UCD with whom they
wish to collaborate on the development of
their application prior to the submission of
their application
Proposed Secondment (optional)
Proposed Secondment Principal
Investigator (PI) (optional)
Key words (maximum five)
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D. ETHICS
The following research areas are excluded from funding:
-
Research activities aiming at human cloning for reproductive purposes
Research activities intended to modify the genetic heritages or human beings which could make
such changes heritable
Research activities intended to create human embryos solely for the purposes of research or for
the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer
Research activities involving human stem cells (both adult and embryonic)
All questions marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory. If you answer YES to any mandatory
question, please answer the follow up questions in that section and please provide further
information on how these issues will be addressed in your research in the Ethics Statement (section
E).
Please consult the 2013 People Programme Guide for Applicants for Marie Curie Actions on Ethics
for further information. The Guide is available on the TOPMed10 programme website.
1. Humans
Does your research involve human participants?*
Are they volunteers for human sciences research?
Are they persons unable to give informed consent?
Are they vulnerable individuals or groups?
Are they children or minors?
Are they patients?
Are they healthy volunteers for medical studies?
Does your research involve physical interventions on the study participants?
Does it involve invasive techniques?
Does it involve collection of biological samples?
2. Human cells/tissues
Does your research involve human cells or tissues?*
Are they available commercially?
Are they obtained within this project?
Are they obtained within another project?
Are they deposited in a biobank?
3. Personal data
Does your research involve personal data collection and/or processing?*
Does it involve the collection and/or processing of sensitive personal data (e.g.: health,
sexual lifestyle, ethnicity, political opinion, religious or philosophical conviction)?
Does it involve processing of genetic information?
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Does it involve tracking or observation of participants?
Does your research involve further processing of previously collected personal data
(secondary use)?
4. Animals
Does you research involve animals?*
Are they vertebrates?
Are they non-human primates?
Are they genetically modified?
Are they cloned farm animals?
Are they endangered species?
If yes please indicate the species involved (Maximum number of characters allowed:
1000)
5. Third countries
Does your research involve non-EU countries?*
If Yes specify the countries involved (Maximum number of characters allowed: 1000)
Do you plan to use local resources (e.g. animal and/or human tissue samples, genetic
material, live animals, human remains, materials of historical value, endangered fauna or
flora samples, etc.)?
Do you plan to import any material from non-EU countries into the EU?
If yes specify material and countries involved (Maximum number of characters allowed:
1000)
Do you plan to export any material from the EU to non-EU countries?
If yes specify material and countries involved: (Maximum number of characters allowed:
1000)
If your research involves low and/or lower middle income countries, are benefits-sharing
measures foreseen?
Could the situation in the country put the individuals taking part in the research at risk?
6. Environment & Health and Safety
Does your research involve the use of elements that may cause harm to the
environment, animals or plants?*
Does your research deal with endangered fauna, flora, or protected areas?*
Does your research involve the use of elements that may cause harm to humans,
including research staff?*
7. Dual use
Does your research have the potential for military applications?*
8. Misuse
Does your research have the potential for malevolent, criminal or terrorist abuse?*
9. Other ethics issues
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Are there any other ethics issues that should be taken into consideration?*
I confirm that I have taken into account all ethics issues described above and
that, if any ethics issues apply these have been fully addressed in my
application.*
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E. Ethics Statement
If you answer YES to any questions in the Ethics Questionnaire (section D), please provide further
information on how these issues will be addressed in your research in the form of an Ethics
Statement, which should be a maximum of two pages long and appended to your Research Proposal
(section F).
The statement should demonstrate how you will address any of the issues raised in the
questionnaire, conforming to institutional, national and international ethical and regulatory
requirements.
Applicants should seek advice from their proposed Principal Investigator on completing this section
and should refer to the EU Horizon 2020 Ethics Self Assessment Guide (below) which covers the
majority of ethics issues that normally arise in research projects and gives advice on how to deal
with classic cases.
Further information:
EU Horizon 2020 Ethics Self Assessment Guide
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/ethics/h2020_hi_ethic
s-self-assess_en.pdf
Further reference documents are available from the European Commission website at the bottom of
this webpage:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/cross-cuttingissues/ethics_en.htm
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F. RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The maximum number of pages for the research proposal document is 12. Font size to be used is 11
for main text and 10 for tables.
Literature should be listed in a references list at the end of your proposal. The reference list will not
count towards the page limit.
The applicants should use the structure outlined in the table below for the research proposal.
Indicative word counts/page counts and comments on content are provided in each section (grey
text) below to serve as a guide on structuring the proposal. These are guidance notes and do not
have to be strictly adhered to.
Headings
COVER SHEET (~1 page)
Name of the Applicant
Title of the project
Summary (~200 words)
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION (~6 pages)
1.1 Introduction
Comments on the content

Provide a short summary of the proposal. This should be
an overview of the entire research proposal text. Many
authors postpone writing the summary until the rest of
the document is finished.

State the research problem (often referred to as the
purpose of the study).
Provide the context and set the scene for your research
project in such a way as to show its necessity and
importance.
Present the rationale of your proposed project and
clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
Briefly describe the major issues to be addressed by
your research.
Proceed with a concise research statement, which can
take the form of a hypothesis, a research question, a
goal statement - followed by a clarification of the extent
to which you expect your project outcomes to represent
an advance in the current knowledge domain.
All relevant references pertaining to the major issues
described should be cited.
Outline what is currently the most important research in
the field relevant to your proposed project
Demonstrate that you have built a solid knowledge of
the field where the research is taking place, that you are
familiar with the main issues at stake, and that you have
critically identified and evaluated the key literature.
Credit/cite authors who laid the groundwork for your
research.
State the research aims and objectives of your project
bearing in mind the background/state of the art.





1.2 State of the art



1.3 Aims and objectives of the
project

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1.4 Research methodology and
approach
1.5 Originality and innovative
aspects
2. CAREER TRAINING AND
DEVELOPMENT PLAN (~1 page)
3. SECONDMENT/TRANSFER OF
KNOWLEDGE (if applicable) (~ 0.5
page)
4. SUPERVISION AND HOSTING
ARRANGEMENT (0.5 page)

This is the ‘how to’ component of the proposal and
should provide an overview of the research activities and
methodological approaches you have in mind to face the
key research challenges of your project.
 It should be detailed enough to let the reader decide
whether the methods you intend to use are adequate for
the research at hand and are the best available
approaches for the proposed project.
 Include ethical considerations if relevant.
 Explain the contribution that the project is expected to
make to advancements within the project field.
 Emphasise innovative elements in comparison with
previous or on-going research i.e. any novel concepts,
approaches or methods that will be employed.
 Outline your immediate and long-term goals for your
career.
 Provide a description of your plans for the acquisition of
new knowledge and skills during the period of this
Fellowship in the context of the long-term goals.
 Explain your reasons for choosing this Fellowship and
how this Fellowship programme will contribute to
reaching these goals.
 Detail how the Fellowship will enable you to gain skills
relevant to employment outside the traditional
academic sector.
 Detail how the Fellowship will enable you to acquire
competencies that improve the prospects of reaching
and/or reinforcing a position of professional maturity,
diversity and independence.
 Discuss how you will gain new knowledge from the
secondment organisation during the Fellowship.
 Explain how both hosting organisations may benefit
from the proposed secondment and describe how you
intend to share your knowledge with the host
organisations.
 Outline qualifications and experience of the UCD
Principal Investigator (PI) and the Secondment PI, if
proposed, including experience on the research topic of
the proposal, track record and other relevant
information.
 Explain why you have chosen to carry out research at
UCD and how UCD can support you and your research.
Relevant information is available on the TOPMed10
website under ‘working environment’ and ‘support
services for fellows’. In particular you can ascertain
information on the following through these pages:
- The UCD postdoctoral career development
framework
- Professional development services/courses
available to postdoctoral researchers through UCD
- Central UCD supports for research funded staff
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-
5. IMPACT (~1 page)
6. IMPLEMENTATION (~2 pages)
Access to state-of-the-art core technologies
Access to clinical research centre (including
associated courses/services)
 Briefly summarise the impact of the Fellowship on your
career path referring back to the section 2. Career
Training and Development plan.
 Briefly summarise how the potential project outcomes
advance science and technology referring back to
section 1.5 Originality and innovative aspects.
 Explain how the potential project outcomes will address
the present and future social/economic needs (such as
industry needs, clinical needs, healthcare needs,
training and education needs etc.)
 Outline the measures you propose to employ in order to
communicate and disseminate the results. The most
common dissemination methods adopted by research
projects include Institution newsletters, Project web
site, Social media, Journal articles, Conference
presentations, Conference posters, Workshops,
Demonstrations, Online discussion forum/blogs/lists,
Press releases, Flyers/brochures, Projects / cluster
meetings, Case Studies, Reports and other documents.
The choice of dissemination method is dependent on
the target audience. Details of UCD’s open access policy
and research repository are available the TOPMed10
website under ‘support services for fellows’.
 Present your Work Plan, including Work Packages,
deliverables, and milestones.
 Outline the allocation of tasks over time (using a Gantt
Chart) and the allocation of resources.
 Describe the potential risks associated with project
implementation and propose contingency plans.
Templates for each of the above is available as part of the
resources on the TOPMed10 website under ‘Application
Process’
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G. ACADEMIC CV TEMPLATE
All applicants should use the following CV format.
Font: Arial, Font size: 11
Personal Information
First name
Last name
Address
Postal code
City
Country
E-mail
Phone
Education
University level
Degree
University name
Dates (start – finish)
Grades
Other
Course
Name of the institution
Dates (start – finish)
Grades
Employment
Dates (start – end)
Position
Teaching experience
Organisation/school
Employer
Responsibilities, tasks and skills
Subject
Leave of absence (e.g. sickness, family- parental leave or military service)
Dates (from – to)
Type of leave of absence
Prizes and awards
Date
Prize/award
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Description
Conferences
Date
Title and involvement (paper, presentation, poster, chair, organisation, etc.)
Memberships of professional organisations, committees and other community roles
Organisation
Status (member, fellow, reviewer, advisor etc.)
Language skills*
Language
Reading
Writing
Verbal
*Please use the following scale for describing your language skills: native, very good, good, fair and
poor.
List of publications
Please list all relevant publications including journals, books, book chapters, and reports using
Harvard Referencing style (http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/Guide69.pdf).
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