<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class="">Dear Colleagues,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><br class=""></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class="">Last year the ILL, ESRF and e-DREAM, together with EMBL, submitted a proposal entitled “NEXTSTEP" to the <a href="https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/cofund" style="color: rgb(175, 18, 114);" class="">Horizon Europe MSCA-COFUND</a> call. This proposal was recently accepted and will support 36 fully-funded PhD studentships, each involving an academic partner and (optionally) an industrial partner. ILL will host 15 of these PhD studentships.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><br class=""></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class="">There will be two recruitment waves with 8 students and 7 students, respectively, who will start in September/October 2025 and September/October 2026. This means that 8 students will be contractually hired by ILL in 2025.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b class="">Herewith, we open a call for interested academic and industrial partners to submit PhD projects with a deadline of 31 October 2024.<o:p class=""></o:p></b></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><b class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><br class=""></font></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class="">PhD projects funded by NEXTSTEP must focus on high-impact, challenge-driven research that is aligned with the Horizon Europe Pillar 2 clusters: “Health”, “Digital, Industry & Space,” Climate, Energy & Mobility”, and “Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment”. The underlying concept is to empower future researchers to exploit advanced research infrastructure's analytical techniques in the pursuit of applied research that delivers tangible societal benefits. In view of this, students will be expected to engage in cutting-edge studies across materials science, chemistry, biology, physics, engineering or environmental sciences, leveraging advanced research infrastructure techniques.<o:p class=""></o:p></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><br class=""></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class="">Whilst not mandatory, projects are encouraged to make combined use of neutron and/or electron and/or synchrotron X-ray techniques where possible to maximise both training impact and research potential. Similarly, involvement of industrial partners is encouraged in order to deliver one of the goals of “NEXTSTEP” which is to create links with Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe (Innovative Europe) which concentrates on nurturing future innovators and enhancing collaborations amongst industry, educational institutions and research facilities. </font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""> </font></span></p><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;" class="">Examples of research projects expected in NEXTSTEP, provided for illustration only:</span></i><i class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-image: none; background-size: auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: padding-box; background-clip: border-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;"><font face="Helvetica" class=""></font></p></div></body></html>