Information about Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship

Information for those who are going to apply for Stipendium Hungaricum (SH) scholarship for PhD studies under the supervision by Ákos Bede-Fazekas

Deadlines

There are two main deadlines during the SH application process:

• 15th January: a formal acceptance letter written by me is needed for the SH application form
• ~April-May: I make an informal and final decision whether I accept supervising your PhD studies

By writing the formal acceptance letter I approve that (1) we found the intersection of your research interest and my expertise, and that (2) your skills and previous experiences are promising regarding your future PhD work under my supervision. By the informal final decision I approve that (3) conducting research in the selected topic fits your skills and personality, and that (4) we can work together in a harmonic way. Please accept that the worst-case scenario is if you start the PhD work under my supervision without the fulfillment of the four abovementioned criteria. Therefore, below I list the main requirements to get a thoughtful decision.

Requirements of the formal acceptance letter

Before writing the formal acceptance letter, I need several things:

• a curriculum vitae containing your main skills and qualifications;
• a detailed description of your skills and experience in the following topics: ecology, geoinformatics (GIS), programming, climate change/climatic data;
• collection of scripts you wrote (in R, Python, GEE or any other language);
• information about your research interest and the list of proposed research topics that are in the intersection of your research interest and my research expertise (i.e. predictive distribution modeling, potential natural vegetation, impact of climate change on vegetation, geoinformatics in ecology);
• (after a research topic is found through an iterative process and is accepted by me) a well-written research proposal indicating experience in literature review and scientific writing;
• an online interview.

Please note that I accept research topics that are partly fit the scope of my expertise only

• as a co-supervisor;
• if you have and informal acceptance by another professor from a Hungarian university who is expert of the research field.

Requirements of the informal decision

Before the final informal decision:

• some level of programming skills are needed for all my possible research topics. Mainly in R, but Python or GEE is also also accepted. We'll establish a learning plan together based on the selected research topic, and I will examine whether you reached the required level before the final informal decision;
• we start working together in small pilot projects which is needed for me to get information about your research and communication skills and your personality.

As you can see, it is a lot of work both for you and me, all before the start of the PhD in September. If you find in unacceptable, please search for another supervisor. Also please note that all of these need time... Please contact me in time (preferably one year before starting the PhD, i.e. around September). If you contact me too late, I will suggest a one-year postponement.