Further to the ministerial announcement on 6 July, the Irish Research Council, in collaboration with the Health Research Board (HRB) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and co-funded by the European Union, is working towards the forthcoming launch of the DOROTHY COFUND programme. The programme will break down barriers between different academic disciplines by driving collaboration between researchers through funding research which will shed light on public health crises from wide-ranging perspectives. 25 fellows will be recruited through 36-month fellowships with all nationalities welcome, including all researchers based in Ireland.

Scope and Focus
Public health crises are too complex to be tackled in silos. Responding to the need to equip European societies with experts who are specially trained to address these challenges in a cooperative fashion, we have designed DOROTHY COFUND to recruit, train and launch the careers of 25 excellent fellows through 36-month fellowships.

Fellowships will have an international outgoing phase of 18 months, followed by a return phase to Ireland of 18 months. Fellows will be encouraged to include a non-academic secondment. Two recruitment calls will be run. The programme will assist fellows in accelerating their careers through excellent training and networking opportunities in the Irish and EU innovation ecosystem.

Eligibility

DOROTHY is open to applicants from all nationalities, provided they haven’t resided in the outgoing phase country for more than 12 months in the three years immediately before the call deadline and to all disciplines, provided that their research topic relates to public health crises. Applicants must be an Experienced Researcher (ER). The definition of ER in the H2020 MSCA programme will be applied: ERs must, at the call deadline, be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience.

Process and Timetable
Submissions will be via SmartSimple submission portal. Applications should be completed in English and include the applicant’s details, project description, ethics self-assessment form, applicant CV, IRC privacy notice.

The call is due to open in Q4 2021.

Further Information
Further information will be provided in the call specification which will be available when the call is launched.