---
# System prepended metadata

title: eScience Center Fellowship Information Session

---

# eScience Center Fellowship Information Session 

This Document is synchronized as you type, so that everyone viewing this page sees the same text. 
 
## 🗓️ Agenda
| | 22 February, 2022, 2pm | 
|-|-|
|14:00| **Welcome**
|14:05|**Introduction to the eScience Center** - Joris van Eijnatten, CEO
|| [slides](https://nlesc.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/instructors/EWjBOf76wERIrKCt5orXsSUBkWQX24UwgagFtSRFhwYK8Q?e=VUHc4v)
|14:10|**The eScience Center Fellowship Programme: What to expect?** - Lieke de Boer, Fellowship Coordinator
|14:20|**Lightning talks:** 
||**Shoaib Ahmed Sufi**
|| Community Lead at the Software Sustainability Institute 
|| Twitter: @shoaibsufi, [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shoaibsufi), [slides](https://zenodo.org/record/6225012)
||**Yo Yehudi**
|| Executive Director of [Open Life Science](https://openlifesci.org/) and 2018 SSI Fellow
|| Twitter: @yoyehudi and @openlifesci
||**Dave Horsfall** 
|| Research Software Engineer at Newcastle University and 2021 SSI Fellow
|| Twitter: @dave_horsfall, [personal website](https://horsfall.dev), [GitHub](https://github.com/davehorsfall)
|14:35| **What can we do for you?** Pablo Rodríguez-Sánchez
|| Twitter: @DonMostrenco, [personal website](https://pabrod.github.io/), [GitHub](https://github.com/PabRod), [slides](https://nlesc-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/p_rodriguez-sanchez_esciencecenter_nl/EZZDRLLONhNCqBxwOeTY9TsBqp39Ukl-CmByKj4f3uCkuQ?e=07odtW)
|14:45| **Q&A**

## :clipboard: Code of Conduct

Attendees are expected to follow those guidelines:
* Use welcoming and inclusive language.
* Be respectful of different viewpoints and experiences.
* Gracefully accept constructive criticism.
* Focus on what is best for the community.
* Show courtesy and respect towards other community members. 

## 👩‍💻🎓 Fellowship Coordination team

Carlos Martinez-Ortiz, Lieke de Boer
Contact us at fellowship@esciencecenter.nl

## Questions:question: 


### Consultancy

- **Could you tell more about the content of 36 hour eScience Center support? What doest it really involve?**
    - It means you can have up to 40 hours of support from eScience center staff (for example one of our RSEs or Community Managers can help you running a workshops) --- note from fellow aspiring Fellow: appendix B of the [full call pdf](https://www.esciencecenter.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Call-for-applications-eScience-Center-fellowship-2022.pdf) has a list of expertise within eScience center staff
- **Is is possible to connect to the SIGs or sections you mentioned outside the fellowship program?**
    - Yes and no -- some of the SIGs organise external events, some have invited speakers, and some even have external guests joining on a regular basis. If you are interested in any SIG specifically, you can email us at fellowship@esciencecenter.nl!
- **Can one exchange the money (or part of it) for more support hours?**
    - No, there is a limit on our RSEs' time that can be spent on this. 


### Eligibility

- **Is it possible to apply as a junior researcher?**
    - Yes! As long as you are affiliated with one of the institutes on our list of eligible organizations. [Check out appendix A](https://www.esciencecenter.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Call-for-applications-eScience-Center-fellowship-2022.pdf)
- **Does the fellow have to be employed at a university/research institute during the fellowship? what if the contract finishes during the time of the fellowship? +1**
    - As long as you are employed at a Dutch research organization at the start of the Fellowship, this is not a problem! 
- **It does seem mainly geared towards researchers, how about research support?**
    - As long as your proposal focuses on improving the awareness or use of research software, you are welcome to apply. 
- **Is it possible to apply as a team?**
    - No. But one of you can apply as a representative of the team.
- **If awarded, can a fellow still apply for other eScience Centre funding?**
    - Yes, this is a separate funding mechanism and does not conflict with our other calls.
- **Is there a maximum amount of applications an individual may submit? I have multiple strong ideas but I am not sure if we are allowed to submit more than one application.**
     - It’s really cool to hear you have so many ideas that are within the scope of the Fellowship! There is no limit to the number of applications you can submit, but we can only grant one Fellowship, for one project plan, per person.
 
### Project restrictions and funding restrictions

- **Are there any restrictions regarding on what can the money of the fellowship can be spend on?**
    - You cannot pay salaries from the budget, so it only covers expenses and consumables. If you have any specific example of something you'd like to spend it on, please let us know and we will let you know if it is possible.
- **Does no salaries also mean no student assistants? +2**
    - That's correct. 
- **I have some projects in mind that could fit, but I would like professional support from the eScience center as a consult (for instance) and a student-assistant to execute the work. Or rather, hire him/her to do some of my other tasks so that I can do this project. Is this possible?**
    - Unfortunately this is not possible. 
- **Does it matter if the budget covers expenses for someone else than the Fellow?**
    - If it is clear from your proposal that other people's expenses would need to be covered, this is not a problem.
- **What if you have a partial contract at your institution (e.g., 70%), can you use the money to work more hours (yourself) on creating educational materials or organizing workshops (which is not part of the tasks you are paid for)?**
    - Because of restrictions on the eScience Center, we cannot pay for your time. We can only give you money if you file an expense claim with us (I have spent x amount of euros on y for my project, can I please have x back, with a receipt). Alternatively, we can pay for a larger expense (say, flight ticket, membership, conference fee), if you request that kind of payment from us in advance. But we cannot simply transfer money to you. Unfortunately, if you are not creating educational materials within the context of a course or a workshop you funded from your fellowship budget, we simply cannot pay for your time doing this. 
 - **Can I apply to the fellowship for buying specific PCs or GPUs for implementing some opensource softwares/methods? Thanks.**
    - If this is part of a broader effort to improve the use of this software in a community, this could fall within your fellowship budget. 
- **Is a "product pitching video" (made with support from a company who knows what they're doing) for the website of our research software (to showcase what the software can be used for) something that could be covered?**
    - Yes!
- **Is it okay if I organize a set of meetups where software is ONE topic, but not the only one?**
    - As long as you can convince us that this set of meetups improves the state of research software, then yes. 
- **Could the project deal with scripts that are part of a software such as Matlab or should purely be written for Python or R etc?**
    - Software written in whatever language works. If Matlab software is very important within your community, a project that focuses on that could still improve the use of it.
- **What do you consider "software"? I mean, if we have some scripts which we think are useful to other researchers, and want to make them better/usable (together with good documentation + best practices), and do some training with them, does it count as "software"? +2**
    - Research software can be any piece of code, script, package, tool, library, or programme written for research. So scripts count! You do not have to develop very "professional" software to be eligible for this Programme. 
- **Is it possible to extend the fellowship by the time of my maternity leave?**
    - Yes! As in our large calls, the eScience Center applies NWO’s Talent Scheme [extension clause for parents](https://www.nwo.nl/extensieregeling). A request for extension, to be made directly to the eScience Center, must be approved before submission of the full proposal.
- **I have software (on GitHub) that I would like to work on and be a bit more professionalized, but I am not a programmer. It would be great if it were a bit more generic, so that it's easily implemented by others on other systems. For instance make a docker, and a proper manual. I could 'hire' a service from some of our IT department people that are expert to help and make it better. I could try to become a programmer and expert, or become an expert in knowing just the right person to ask. But asking is never for free... :-) Would that fit? +3**
    -  First of all, just to be clear: you cannot use the money to pay for people's time in wages or salaries. If your goal is to become an expert in asking the right people - this is in theory possible, but I think we would prefer a project to be more community focused. For example, you could set up a study group that together learns how to write good documentation, and as a working example creates good documentation for your software. Or, you could compile a database of experts that is shared with a wider community. This way, you are creating a community, or making your software available to a wider community. 
- **Following up on the previous question: does that follow into the kind of support that the eScience Center will give?**
    - The consultancy support from the eScience Center is meant to help you help others. So in terms of the example above, the eScience Center could help you in learning how to become better at writing documentation, and give you advice on how to teach others about proper documentation. Or, they could help you become better at using Docker, and point you to places that could help you set up Docker for your specific project. 
- **Could you give some examples, please, of how you expect the money to be used when there is no clear need for hardware or other material costs?**
    - You could spend it on training, flight tickets for speakers, flight tickets for yourself to attend conferences, conference fees, hiring fees for event spaces, memberships of communities, online community impact like web server hosting, or other kinds of dissemination
- **Is a university a community?**
    - Yes
- **What do you mean by dissemination?**
    - Anything that increases the visibility or ease of use of software by others. It does not have to be a workshop or a course, it could also be the accessibility, visibility or quality of documentation that accompanies your software that's shared with others.


### Duration of the project and time investment

- **Does the project I am planning to carry out need to last one whole year?**
    - No, it can be a project of any length, as long as the activity you are organizing falls within the timespan of the fellowship (June 2022-May 2023). Your fellowship is your affiliation with us, and your project can be shorter than that. We do expect you to participate in Fellowship activities organized by us during the entire year, which will probably come down to about a week of time in total during the entire year (that includes the kick-off day, a workshop, a project meeting and maybe other meetings at the eScience Center that are interesting to you).
- **I'm a PhD student with limited time to allocate to the fellowship. Is it possible to get an estimate of the workload? +1**
    - It really depends on what your plan is! Your fellowship plan could be very little additional work if you incorporate some actitivies you are already involved in. We do expect you to participate in Fellowship activities organized by us during the entire year, which will probably come down to about a week of time in total during the entire year (that includes the kick-off day, a workshop, a project meeting and maybe other meetings at the eScience Center that are interesting to you).
- **Can the fellowship project be something that is NOt so spread out over a longer time as well? Say you would develop a certain software/product, it might be more beneficient to work on this full time during a shorter period instead of something spread out. +1**
    - Your fellowship project could take 1 week or be spread over several months -- there are no restrictions in this sense.
- **It is clear that the fellowships starts at June 2022 and runs for 12 months till May 2023. What I could not deduce from the application form and extensive application text is what the weekly time investment should be in these projects? E.g. are applications expected to work on the project only part of their weeks (eg 5 hours), or are applications expected to work on their projects on a full-time basis? One can imagine this has major consequences for the scope of the project, and also whether or not an application can keep on working within his current function/position.**
     - Your Fellowship project should have impact and be feasible, and that’s what matters. There is no minimum amount of time that you have to spend on your project. If your project would be to organize an activity that lasts around one week, in the beginning of the Fellowship year, that would still fall within the scope of the Fellowship, as long as you convince us that you are improving research software with your activity. We do expect you to participate in Fellowship activities organized by us during the entire year, which will probably come down to about a week of time in total during the entire year (that includes the kick-off day, a workshop, a project meeting and maybe other meetings at the eScience Center that are interesting to you).

### Awarding process
- **How many fellows will you be able to support?** 
    - We expect to award 20 fellows, irrespective of the type of support

### IP and copyright
- **It was a bit hard to find the (most up-to-date) Publishing, Licensing and IP document from the application form. Also: in simple terms, what are the main points regarding, for example, IP if I am making my own research software and want to use the funding to, for example, generate awareness for this software?** 
    - https://www.esciencecenter.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ip_rules_for_nlesc_projects_202116.pdf 
    - Hopefully the above link can answer your questions!
        - Thank you, very clear. Everything open source/science, love it!
            - that's what we're all about! :slightly_smiling_face: 


### Other
- **What's the relationship between the eScience Center and the Software Sustainability Institute? Why are we hearing from SSI Fellows?**
    - The eScience Center and SSI have friendly ties. The SSI has run their own fellowship for years now. This is the first edition of the eScience Center Fellowship, but it has been inspired by the SSI Fellowship. Ideally, we'd like to hear from previous fellows during an information event, but since this is the first time the eScience Center runs it, we invited SSI Fellows to give an impression of what it's like to be a Fellow in a similar context. Hopefully they can serve as an inspiration to people interested to become an eScience Center Fellow.
- **Could you please consider adding some deterents to the call for those who are not evidently into research software development to keep this only for the relevant and under represented community of RSEs in the netherlands? Apologies for being blunt but there are so many other opportunities for all other things that have nothing to do with software. I already feel like the tough competeition will be about so many people only trying to get the money who may not be necessarily into or even interested in research software.**
    - We hope to have made clear with the call text and the information session that research software is the focus of this call. One of the most important considerations for review of project plans is the impact the project plan will have on research software. 
    - If you want to be part of a movement that recognizes the efforts and standing of RSEs, you can consider joing NL-RSE (www.nl-rse.org), or applying for the fellowship with this specific goal. 

### Questions for Joris van Eijnatten

- **How do other organizations (e.g., DCCs) that promote/support research software relate to the Fellowship program of the eScience Center?** 
    - the Fellowship Programme can be seen as complementary to the DCCs; we share the same objectives in many ways, although we focus more on the researchers' side of DCCs than the support side. But the goals are very much aligned.
- **If I understand correctly, it is important to improve digital literacy and computational skills among our peers. Does this conflict with an ambition to make research tools more accessible/usable without advanced technical knowledge? In other words, if we can make and advocate tools that do not require advanced programming, is this still considered a good thing?**
    - good question! Of course, we should strive for both the one and the other. Not everyone will want or be able to develop advanced skills, which is ok. Others will be able to do this, and this depends in part on the discipline in which they work. But in all cases my vision is that all researchers need better digital skills than on average they possess now. And of course, advanced digital skills will remain important for a long time still: research questions and methodologies are becoming increasingly complex, and technologies advance very rapidly. >> Thank you, couldn't agree more! :)
- **Do you have a set of concrete basic digital skills that you think would be valuable to each researcher? Like able to code is of course a good example, but there is many ways to interpret that.** 
    - This depends in part on the discipline in which one works. I'm a strong supporter of teaching basic "algorithmic thinking" in the BA curriculum in all studies. But basic digital skills would involve an understanding of data, an understanding of code, knowledge of the jargon, basic engineering skills and, at some point, the ability to think through digital methodologies on an abstract, conceptual level. And all this without necessarily becoming a professional research software engineer. 


### Questions for Shoaib Sufi
Shoaib's slides - https://zenodo.org/record/6225012

- **Do you have any example on what people spend the financial support on? +1 (I found the bios of current/former fellows but no project summaries on the SSI website)**
    - If you go to any Fellow profile you can see a link at the bottom of their page to see links to their blogs and you can see the types of activities people did.For in person events these can be things like catering, travel, speaker fees for online it can be things like better peripherals and subscriptions to online services e.g. zoom/menti to improve those events - There isa playlist here of Fellowship appications of successful Fellows - 2018 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpX1jXuNTXGo2MYcFn68MI40Y6Kb2tWud, 2020 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?,list=PLpX1jXuNTXGrcqyC8Aq_kZUMC4VJPMZTc 2021 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpX1jXuNTXGqyQTOxiHDlbBzLe6Xe8Ruq these will show some of the ideas and plans - SSI do a video based application vs a paper one for the Netherlands eScience Center - Ultimately I would reach out to Lieke and Carlos to ask if somethig is in or out cost wise.
---

### Questions for Dave Horsfall

- **When are the results of your survey/study are expected to be publicly available? This is an important and very interested initiative.**
  - I'm expecting the results to be publicly published later in the summer. Aiming for the RSE Society conference in September. Will publish results and analysis in Github, so results can empower everyone to drive change in their own organisations. 

### Questions for Pablo Rodríguez-Sánchez

Get in touch via [pabrod.github.io](https://pabrod.github.io)

- **Just out of curiosity: why did eScience stoped with the introductory courses to Python and R?**
    - We are currently setting up a national network with research support staff at research organizations in the Netherlands. We'd like to be able to instruct everyone in that network to teach introductory programming courses. Hopefully, in that way, we can empower universities and research institutes to provide this training themselves, and reach more people. The eScience Center can then focus on more advanced courses. 
    - If you are interested in becoming part of the Carpentries for introductory programming lessons (for example as a part of your fellowship), you could check out what they are doing here: https://carpentries.org/. The eScience Center Training Programme mostly used their lessons and training material (data carpentry and software carpentry) when introductory courses were still a part of the Programme. Another way of getting involved would be to email training@esciencecenter.nl to see how you could contribute to teaching digital skills in the Netherlands. 

## 🖥 Fellowship website

[link](<https://www.esciencecenter.nl/fellowship-programme/>)

## 📚 Resources and links
[Mentimeter survey](https://www.menti.com/zeaxz1itn8)
[Zoom link](https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88958503487?pwd=dDBpcWVvcUVFQ3dGa1Zac0ZScTBIZz09)
[Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship](https://www.software.ac.uk/programmes-and-events/fellowship-programme)
[Open Life Science](https://openlifesci.org/)
[eScience Center blog](https://blog.esciencecenter.nl/)

## ⚖️ License

All content is publicly available under the Creative Commons Attribution License: [creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

## Mentimeter responses
![](https://i.imgur.com/rNHH43G.jpg)
![](https://i.imgur.com/1LLMqjJ.jpg)
