The best way to motivate structural changes and enhance the personal network in Paleontology is an engagement of the paleontological community in joint scientific projects.

We will therefore establish repeated synthesis workshops that assemble international scientists across the subject and related disciplines to work on research questions that arise from a joint discussion of the paleontological community. These cooperative science workshops and the associated projects will provide a place of inherent horizon scanning and bring together existing but disparate data, tools, and theories in new and perhaps unexpected ways. 

Science workshops will be held at FAU in the newly established educational center. An open call for proposals will be announced every year. A scientific advisory board will select the most promising workshop topics based on scientific and societal impact and the potential to overcome structural problems in the field.

Duration should be 3-5 days (note dates of fairs: Home | NürnbergMesse (nuernbergmesse.de) so there is no overlap), preceded by intensive online preparation.

Consecutive workshops are possible. If consecutive workshops are planned, this should be already indicated in the proposal. Renewal applications from successful workshops are also possible.

Next call is in April 2024

Applications

Proposals should have a length of max. 5 pages and be submitted by two principal investigators. Please consider that we strongly encourage diversity (i.e., among applicants and participants, gender and career stage). Download and use the template.

Submit your proposal as a single file sending it to pal-synthesis@fau.de (also for questions regarding your proposal).

What to include in your proposal?

• Information on the applicants
• Workshop title and acronym
• Brief summary and extended workshop description; include a suggested schedule
• Objectives
• Deliverables
• Data management plan
• Budget
• Integration of the PaleoSynthesis PostDoc (↪ Elizabeth Dowding)
• List of up to 12 workshop participants (excluding the PI’s); include a confirmatory statement (*)
• Please also see the template for more specific information

Evaluation of the proposals

Our scientific advisory board will evaluate all proposals on the following criteria

(1) Quality of the proposal, (2) Potential to develop Paleontology as a discipline, (3) Potential for high-impact publications or prospect to evolve to a larger project, and (4) Gender balance.

Support

Financial support – Full reimbursement of travel and lodging which includes workshop applicants and participants.

Scientific support – The corresponding PaleoSynthesis PostDoc will assist you throughout the workshop phase, e.g., preparation of online meetings, publications, general support with scientific logistics.

(*) Please note: since the beginning of 2024, the university must receive a German taxID for reimbursements. All those who do not have such a taxID must apply for one (we will help). The process is short and quick and in no way affects how taxes are paid in the home country. Also, no taxes have to be paid in Germany. The procedure is part of an internationalization of the tax system to combat corruption and tax evasion. If you have any questions please get in contact: pal-synthesis@fau.de