Call OUH PhD Fund

February 2024

Call	Application deadline	Assessment meeting
28 February 2024	17 April 2024 (11.59 p.m.)	6 June 2024 (expected)
4 September (expected)	24 October 2024 (11.59 p.m.) (expected)	5 December 2024 (expected)

Proposals for PhD scholarships are invited. In 2024 two calls are expected, see above.

Apart from the OUH PhD Fund, the PhD Fund of the Region of Southern Denmark is open for applications. Deadlines and other information are available at the website of the Region of Southern Denmark  (in Danish).

Objective

“Patient first” is the underlying principle of OUH’s ambition in creating value for our patients. To offer the best treatment, retain and attract the best qualified staff to the benefit of patients, it is OUH’s ambition to strengthen research at the hospital. As one of several initiatives to reach this objective, OUH has set aside funding for PhD scholarships.

A maximum of 12 stipends may be granted from the PhD Fund in 2024.

Requirements for applicants

All disciplines of research may apply, including clinical patient related research, research of epidemiology, experimental laboratory research and Health Services research. 

The application must be submitted by the PhD student applying for an OUH PhD Fund stipend. The PhD student must have a clear and independent role in the proposed project. The OUH PhD Fund can be applied a maximum of three times.

Only students, who have obtained approval of a PhD protocol at the University of Southern Denmark prior to the application deadline, are eligible. Please notice that OUH does not support PhD projects not registrered at the PhD school (§15, part. 2, The act of PhD education at the universities, in Danish), and in the event of this situation the funding for the PhD will be withdrawn.

The significant part of the PhD study must take place at OUH or the main supervisor must be employed at OUH, and the PhD project must have a distinct clinical perspective relevant to OUH.

OUH wants to stress the importance of internationalisation, and applicants should complete a research stay abroad. If a research stay has no bearing on a particular project, it should be argued why in the application.

Budget

It is expected that external means consitute part of funding of a PhD stipend. The expected funding of the entire PhD project must be stated in the application.

Please note that it is now possible to obtain a grant from the OUH PhD Fund if the PhD student has received a one-year stipend from: 

• the PhD Fund of Region of Southern Denmark
• other research Funds at OUH or the Region of Southern Denmark
• the joint Research Fund between OUH and Rigshospitalet
• the joint Research Fund between the Region of Southern Denmark and the Region of Zealand

Eligible costs

• Own salary (stipends) for one year including study fees. A maximum amount of DKK 628,000 for one year only is available from the PhD Fund for each applicant.

Please note that

• the amount may not cover all expenses depending on the level of salary of the applicant
• that a possible grant will be paid out in thousands for budgetary purposes (not. e.g. DKK 627,357, but DKK 627,000)
• no additional appropriations for a possible grant can be expected from the OUH PhD Fund at a later stage.

Non eligible costs

• Salary for other researchers (SCS in English and VIP in Danish)
• Employment or co-financing of non-scientific staff (NSS in English, TAP in Danish) for research projects (e.g. biomedical laboratory technician, research nurses, etc.)
• Purchase of apparatus or other material for research projects
• Other research-promoting purposes
• Overhead due to the fact that the PhD Fund is a local fund
• Open Access publication.

The OUH Research Support offers instructions on how to draw up a budget. If you request assistance, please contact reg.forskerservice@rsyd.dk. 

Assessment criteria

Applications are being assessed according to following criteria:

• Qualifications of the applicant
• Academic setting of supervision
• Scientific quality of the project
• How internationalisation is part of the project, e.g. research stay abroad
• Strategic considerations related to the Research strategy 2021 – 2025 of Odense University Hospital and the Department of Clinical Research of SDU, in particular:
  • Research at a high international level with the potential of altering treatment of patients 
  • Research and implementation of evidence-based treatment including individualised medicine
  • Systematic review of one of the research questions of the PhD project
  • Focus on the course of the patient’s treatment course across professions, departments, hospitals and sectors
  • How patients and relatives are or may be involved in drawing up the research project, see "Considerations" below.

How to submit an application

Applications must be submitted via the electronic application system efond. Please read and comply with the instructions given in efond and enter and upload the required information: 

Appendices

Please upload the following mandatory appendices in PDF format:

• Approval of PhD protocol from the PhD School at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU)
• Approval from both Head of Department and Head of Research at OUH stating that the project can be carried out at OUH
• Short CV including publications list of a maximum of 2 pages in total for the applicant (PhD student) (including PubMed No for each publication or a reprint of the published work if not indexed in PubMed and publications submitted for publication)
• Diploma from the applicant's (PhD student) Master’s degree programme. If you have not yet finished your Master’s degree programme, please upload your most recent transcript of records
• CV including publication list of a maximum of 2 pages for main supervisor and co-supervisors (2 pages in total for each supervisor). CV should include:
  • Number of former and current PhD students
  • Teaching portfolio
• Confirmation of research stay abroad from the foreign research institution.

The following appendices may be uploaded:

• A statement from your supervisor
• Figures to support your project description
• Authorisations, e.g. The National Committee on Health Research Ethics (Videnskabsetisk Komité), The Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet), Danish Medicines Agency (Lægemiddelstyrelsen) or other.

Please avoid abbreviations in the application apart from the most commonly used.

In the budget section in efond (step 3), please state which year a possible grant from the OUH PhD Fund is applied for:

• Year 1 = 2024
• Year 2 = 2025
• Year 3 = 2026
• Year 4 = 2027
• Year 5 = 2028

If a possible grant is to be divided between two years, please indicate number of months  and amount for each year, e.g.:

• Year 1 = 6 months; DKK 314,000
• Year 2 = 6 months, DKK 314,000

In addition, in the budget section in efond (step 3), please enter the full budget of the entire PhD project including already obtained or expected funding and any other budget headings.

A confirmation by email will be sent from “efond” if the application is submitted correctly (please check your spam filter if you do not receive an email).

Language

The application must be written in English. Please note that the layman’s summary must be written in Danish.

Please note that an application may be rejected on an administrative basis if it does not comply with the above requirements. Consequently, please make sure that the required information is entered in efond and that required appendices are attached.

Assessment procedure

Submitted applications will be reviewed and prioritised by the PhD Stipend Committee at Odense University Hospital prior to the assessment meeting.

The PhD Stipend Committee will invite the applicants who have received the highest review score for an interview.

Please note that invitations will be sent with short notice, approximately one week before the assessment meeting where the interviews will take place. See the expected date for the meeting at the top of this call.

If you are invited for an interview, you will be asked to present your project to the committee (5 minutes) followed by questions from the committee (5 minutes). The presentation will be in English while the questions may be in Danish. Physical presence at the committee meeting is preferred. However, you may give an online presentation if you have urgent activities elsewhere (please contact ouh.forskning@rsyd.dk )

Please note that only the applicants with the highest score in the assessment prior to the meeting will be invited for an interview, and that stipends will be awarded among applicants invited for an interview. Consequently, if you do not receive an invitation for interview approximately one week before the assessment meeting, you will most likely not receive a stipend at this particular application round.

We aim to give all applicants feedback no later than 3 weeks after the assessment meeting, including applicants who are not invited for an interview.

Considerations

It is important that you apply for or have already received external funding in addition to applying for funding from OUH. In the budget section in efond, you must give information about how your PhD project is funded and if you are applying for funding from other sources.

Patients are members of the assessment committee and will be reviewing the applications with other members of the committee. The primary focus of the patients is on the layman’s description and description of patient involvement, why these parts must be understandable to a non-specialist.

It is important to describe considerations about patient and relative involvement in the application. The involvement can take place throughout the entire research process – from the planning of the project to dissemination of the results that are generated. The main purpose of health research is obtaining results that will be beneficial for patients.

Involving patients and relatives in the research process can help to ensure that the research focuses on those topics and issues that are most important from a patient perspective. Involvement by patients and relatives should be enhanced where it contributes the most value for the individual project and thus the value of the project to patients and society as a whole.

Examples of how and when patients and relatives can be involved:

• Clarification of research questions, outcome goals
• Reading the application – especially Danish sections (layman’s description, descriptions to Ethical Committee of Science)
• Dissemination of research results

Please find more inspiration at the OUH Center for Forskning Sammen med Patienter og Pårørende (ForSa-P; in Danish),  VIBIS (in Danish) or NIHS in the UK.

Questions and contact information

Please forward questions to ouh.forskning@rsyd.dk