Duration: 4 years
Funding (incl. PI salary): €400,000
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Deadline: 12 November, 2013

The Geophysics Section of the School of Cosmic Physics, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, invites strong, early career stage researchers to apply to Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) for funding under SFI's Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG) Programme http://www.sfi.ie/funding/funding-calls/open-calls/sfi-starting-investigator-research-grant-(sirg)-programme-2013.html

The SIRG Programme provides an opportunity for excellent early career investigators to carry out independent research in sustainable energy. Under the SIRG funding scheme, scientists who are more than 3 years but less than 8 years since their PhD can receive funding for their salary, for a PhD student, and for research costs to a total maximum of €400,000 (plus Overhead) for a period of four years.

The SIRG Starting Investigator (SI) will be twinned with a Mentor in DIAS Geophysics who will be a co-applicant on the proposal. The Mentor's role is to give advice and provide laboratory space and related infrastructure to both the SI and the postgraduate student. The Mentor will also take the role of co-supervisor for the SIRG postgraduate student; however, it is the SI who will act as the primary supervisor.

DIAS Geophysics Section staff conducts studies of the Earth using electromagnetism, seismology, and potential fields, from the near-surface to deep within the mantle. More information can be found at: http://www.dias.ie/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=68

Three current sustainable energy research projects within the Section are two geothermal ones, IRETHERM (www.iretherm.ie) and SIM-CRUST (seismic imaging and monitoring of Ireland's crust), and a carbon sequestration one, IRECCSEM (www.ireccsem.ie). Collaborations and ties with all three of these are very welcome, as are entirely new activities.

Interested potential applicants are asked to first read all of the information on SFI's website about the SIRG programme, and in particular to ensure they meet the strict eligibility rules for SIRG grants. Then they should contact one of the following (attaching a full CV and an outline of the research proposal following the SIRG guidelines), depending on their research interests, for geothermal and other sustainable energy studies:

Professor Alan G. Jones, alan@cp.dias.ie - electromagnetism, EM inversion and joint inversion,
                                                                   petrological-geophysical modelling
Professor Sergei Lebedev, sergei@cp.dias.ie - broadband array seismology; passive-source imaging;
                                                                        earthquake and ambient-noise seismology
Professor Brian O'Reilly, bor@cp.dias.ie - marine geology & geophysics; controlled-source
                                                                seismology
Dr. Nicola Piana Agostinetti, piana@cp.dias.ie - passive seismics, shallow crustal exploration, local
                                                                          earthquake tomography

If deemed likely competitive, then together the SIRG SI applicant and the Mentor will develop a proposal that must be submitted to DIAS's Administrative Office well prior to 12^th November, 2013.