Duration and frame of the programme
In order to render the ESO Fellowship Programme more competitive, the duration of the fellowships is set to 3 years for Garching positions, and 4 years for Santiago positions. For the latter, the fourth year has very favourable research conditions to balance the functional work of the Fellows in Chile. This was acknowledged by former Fellows as an important ingredient of the attractiveness of the programme in Chile.
Garching Fellowship
During their fellowships, the Fellows conduct their own independent research for at least 75% of their time and participate in the scientific life of the organisation. Each Fellow names a staff astronomer to be their scientific mentor for the duration of their ESO Fellowship. The choice of their science mentor may be motivated (but not necessarily or exclusively) by common scientific interests. In all cases, Fellows are free to choose their mentor from within the ESO science staff, with the goal for such a link to be a mutual agreement. The science contact reports briefly (on the science contribution and activities of the Fellow) at the time of contract renewal. During the remaining 25% of their time, Fellows are trained in crucial areas of high-level technology and/or actively participate and contribute to ESO projects which they select from activities proposed by different Divisions/Offices/Directorates. The list of potential duty tasks is gathered by the Head of the Office for Science, should contain a broad variety of topics and tasks (with typically 2-3 times as many tasks as fellows), and validated with the Directors. Fellows in Garching may also select to conduct their functional activities in the Science Operations Department at the Paranal Observatory, with 4 stays of 2 weeks each per year, or partly (or fully) at the ALMA site.
All Fellows are evaluated by the Head of the Office for Science on an annual basis: the second and third year of the Fellowship are granted after a review of the Fellow’s performance that takes into consideration scientific and functional aspects. A one-to one discussion takes place between the Fellow and Head of the Office for Science to give feedback and discuss possible areas of improvement. Based on the recommendations of the Fellow’s science contacts and functional supervisors, and the one-to-one discussion, the Head of the Office for Science takes a decision regarding the Fellow’s contract extension.
The functional work, after being approved by the Head of the Office for Science, is a commitment and contribution to an ESO project or task. In Garching, the guideline is (a maximum of) 25% for each Fellow. Garching Fellows are welcome to spend more time on their functional work, although this should be carefully discussed with the Head of the Office and project manager in the context of the project itself, and more importantly regarding the career development of the Fellow. The nominal 25% is an average which can in principle also be spread over the full Fellowship if relevant. The detailed scheduling of the functional work should be agreed with the project manager and can be further discussed with the Head of the Office if relevant. Change of duty project for a specific Garching Fellow is allowed although any such change has to be approved by the Head of the Office for Science. The time fraction spent on science and duties is monitored via the ESO Timelog Tool within the Office for Science: this is done on a monthly basis by all ESO Fellows having a commitment with functional work. This is meant as a record of the time spent by the Fellow who contributes to an ESO project or task. The functional work in Garching provides extra resources for the ESO projects and operations. Assigning Garching Fellows to critical tasks for the organisation is thus done with great caution.
Chile Fellowships
During the first 3 years, the Fellows conduct their personal research at the Vitacura Office in Santiago for 50% of their time. They are encouraged to actively participate in the Vitacura science life by giving talks or lectures, organising workshops, topical meetings, or training sessions, participating in selection processes, and mentoring or co-supervising students. Fellows can voluntarily ask to have a mentoring contact among the ESO science staff. For the remaining 50% of their time, the Fellows are assigned either to the Paranal Science Operations Department (with 80 nights within a 12 months period at the Paranal Observatory) or to ALMA operations. ALMA operations include observing at the telescope, data processing, software testing, serving as technical experts in the ALMA proposal review process, or developing new capabilities for the array. At Paranal, Fellows act as support astronomers, doing service-mode observations or helping visiting astronomers to achieve their science goals. They are also expected to join an Instrument Operations Team; in the role of Instrument Fellow, they gain an in-depth knowledge of different aspects of a given instrument such as engineering and technological characteristics, specific operational aspects and data reduction. ESO Chile Fellows have the opportunity to develop useful skills in project management, team coordination, and communication in a multi-disciplinary environment. Exploiting this unique mix of technical knowledge and their close contact with the science carried out at the Observatories, they can build a solid research programme that can boost their future career.
Contracts are granted on a yearly basis by the Head of the Office for Science upon evaluation of the Fellow’s scientific performance and recommendation of the Fellow’s functional supervisor. During the fourth year several options are provided. Fellows may choose to spend the fourth year either at ESO's astronomy centre in Vitacura, at ESO Headquarters in Garching, or at any astronomy/astrophysics institute in an ESO member state, in ESO’s strategic partner Australia, or in Chile. There are no functional duties during the fourth year except in the case that the fourth year is spent at ESO Chile, where Fellows are expected to carry out functional work for up to 25% of their time. Fellows hosted by a Chilean institution will be eligible to apply for time on all telescopes in Chile through competition for Chilean observing time.
The fellow communicates his/her option for the 4th year during her/his 3rd year.