RESEARCHERS – BIOS²

BIOS² academic membership

Any permanent researcher from a Canadian academic institution is welcome to become an academic member of the training program and access its resources, including funding, training activities and material. Researchers from an associated institution (Université de Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal, Université Laval, UQAM, UQAR, Concordia University, University McGill, University of Alberta and University of British Columbia) can access funding through one of the co-PIs. Researchers that do not work at one of the 9 associated institutions will need to invite one of the co-PIs to co-advise the Fellow. In all cases, we require that one of the co-PIs be a member of the Fellow’s advisory committee.

Academic Membership comes with several responsibilities:

All Members are expected to contribute to the development or maintenance of at least one training package or workshop and/or participate in the summer schools.
Members should work to consolidate partnerships with collaborating organizations.
Members must make sure their students participate actively in the program, including conducting internships.
Members must provide the information required to report the activities and the productivity of the program to NSERC.

Academic membership is reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that members are active in the program.

To become a BIOS² Academic Member, interested researchers have to send a motivation letter to the direction team (info.bios2@usherbrooke.ca, cc. dominique.gravel@usherbrooke.ca) describing their interest in the program objectives, their commitment to improving the collaborative training experience, and a description of how they could be involved in both our training activities and administrative tasks.

Funding for academic members

BIOS² Graduate Fellowship Program

See all the information here: https://bios2.usherbrooke.ca/get-involved/graduate-students/

Open PhD projects for NSE and Non-NSE students

Each year, BIOS² is supporting two open PhD projects propose by academic members :

1 PhD Project in biodiversity science
1 PhD Project in education, social sciences, economics, or political science (Non-Natural Sciences and Engineering).

The goal of this call is to fund projects, not students. Once the project is awarded, students are selected by the academic member. Selected students become BIOS² fellows.

Funding and resources :

Selected PhD fellows will have access to all training activities and financial support, including scholarships, travel grants and workshops.
PhD fellows are eligible for up to three years of funding equivalent to 50% of their stipend ($10500 per year). They have access to travel / communication grants up to the value of $2000.
BIOS² support NSERC’s policies about family and medical leaves. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need more information.

Application process :

The application is conducted by an academic member or collaborator under the supervision of a BIOS² co-applicant
The call for proposals opens each spring
Students will be selected by the academic member once the project is awarded and will become a BIOS² Fellow
The project should start within 6 months after application.

The selection is based on the above objectives and applications must respect the program rules for diversity and equity.

Fully funded PhD Project proposed by a Partner

The objective of this grant is to support a PhD project proposed by a non-academic partner to BIOS² in order to improve their capacity in biodiversity assessments. The overall theme of the call is “improving biodiversity assessments with new computing technologies”. The organization could be private, governmental or non-profit based. The organization will be involved in the development and realization of the project and is expected to host the student for part of his studies.

The contact person must be a biodiversity specialist but is not required to be a researcher. A strong emphasis is given to problems that are of strategic importance to partners and with concrete applications of research outputs.

The goal of this call is to fund projects, not students. Once the project is awarded, a student is selected by the academic member and becomes a BIOS² fellow.