WSL Fellowship Program. Relevance of Science for WSL Opportunities for Science at WSL The WSL...

WSL Fellowship Program

• Relevance of Science for WSL

• Opportunities for Science at WSL

• The WSL Fellowship Program

• Discussion

Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 2

Overview

• WSL is a research institute located away from universities in Zurich, but is actively involved in science teaching (>3000 h/year)

• A significant fraction of our activities is driven by national demands and national mandates (avalanche bulletin, forest inventory, forest protection, etc.)

• WSL has strong links to practice


Relevance of Science for WSL

• WSL therefore has to carefully balance its efforts in science with its efforts in outreach and extension towards the practice

• WSL has to maintain a sound balance, since both elements are mandated by the official decree of the Swiss parliament



• As a result of this dual mandate, and due to the fact that WSL has to cover many fields relevant to the terrestrial environment:– There are usually at best few, but often 1-2

scientists working in a specific science field– Many scientists have additional mandates for

outreach and knowledge transfer to practice– WSL has only few science fields that are

internationally strong and well supported



• Self-declared attribution of time across the 10 research units (2010-2014 mean)



ResearachTeachingOutreachMgmt & Admin

• On the other hand, WSL has to strive for an internationally recognized science capacity, and this for two reasons:– WSL is part of the ETH domain, and striving for

scientific excellence is expected from all members

– Irrespective of who the stakeholders are (practitioners, scientists), science always has to strive for excellence, otherwise its relevance deteriorates.



• In summary: – WSL has highest interests to keep a strong focus

on excellence in science– WSL is interested in attracting the best

scientists when filling open positions or as guests and partners for scientific collaboration



• WSL has tremendous offerings to science due to outstanding data archives and science platforms from its dedication to monitoring and to the National mandates

• Such data series often cover long time spans and are maintained at highest quality

• Data often fully cover all of Switzerland, thus they span large ecological gradients


Opportunities for Science at WSL

• Examples of data archives:– Forest Inventory with 4 measurement cycles,

now starting soon the fifth (LFI)– Snow, permafrost, glacier and avalanche

databases and measurement archives– Long-term forest monitoring network (LWF)

with access to an EU-wide network (ICP-Forest)– Many large-scale GIS, RS and field based

inventories and data sets– …



• Examples of science platforms:– National Forest Inventory: >5000 re-measured

plots with hundreds of variables, 4 inventories



• Examples of science platforms:– Long-term Forest Monitoring: 19 intensely

monitored plots, >20 years of data



• Examples of science platforms:– Avalanche test bed Vallée de la Sionne: artificial

avalanche release, instruments, bunker, etc.



• Examples of science platforms:– The new Plant Protection Lab, fully equipped

level 3 lab to study plant damaging organisms



• Examples of science platforms:– Many others exist, and are open to WSL and

guest scientists– These platforms and data sets form an

attractive basis for international collaboration– WSL is thus often partnering in international

research programs such as EU-projects, etc.



• In order to increase the international collaboration and to bring the best scientists to WSL the director and the directorate have launched the WSL Fellowship Program


The WSL Fellowship Program

• First, a fellowship program for senior scientists was launched (early 2015) and a first round of applications has been processed



• This fellowship is set up as follows:– It is competitive by nature– It provides support funding for travel and

subsidies for coming to WSL, but no salaries– It attracts seniors in WSL’s reserch fields and

covers 3 months to 1 year (e.g. sabbaticals)– It requires that a short proposal is written, and

links to WSL research(ers) is made.– It requires that RU leaders support the

application.Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL 19


• We have selected the first three candidates, and are now advertising the next round

• Currently, the fellowship program primarily addresses seniors, not early career scientists



• We believe that attracting highly skilled junior scientists can also be very attractive

• We therefore plan to extend the fellowship program to early career scientists as a second category of targeted scientists

• This has not been launched yet



• Early career fellowship ideas:– WSL covers only travel and subsidy support– WSL attempts to bring highly skilled early career

scientists to WSL for collaboration stays within their postdoc or early career position elsewhere

– Rules are similar to senior fellows (research plan, link to WSL science staff, ok from RU-leader)



• The fellowship programs are funded out of a directorate reserve (2+ million CHF), which has more than just this purpose, since it covers:– Large investments (full or complementary

funding)– Internal projects (applications 1x / year)– WSL Fellowships.




Thank you for your attention!

• How to best advertise the program?

• How much internal control is needed?

• Is extension to early career scientists meaningful?

• How can benefit for WSL be maximized with such programs?


Possible discussion points

WSL Fellowship Program. Relevance of Science for WSL Opportunities for Science at WSL The WSL...

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