Leave for Research or Thematic Conversions (CRCT) exempts research lecturers from teaching and administrative tasks for a given period in order to deepen, begin, or finalize research projects.
Traditionally reserved for research lecturers with civil servant status, EMSBS, with the agreement of the University, offers this option annually to contract research lecturers, who can benefit from a six-month leave every five years. Leave is first and foremost granted to research lecturers proposing a scientific project of excellence with an invitation from a university abroad.
In order to be granted this type of leave, faculty must submit a complete application*, which includes a detailed note presenting the project and the host organization, their résumé, their list of publications, and the desired dates.
The application is then reviewed at EMSBS by the Faculty Management Committee (reduced to College A representatives and the faculty dean), which will either accept or refuse the application. If accepted, the application is sent to the Vice President of Human Resources of the University of Strasbourg for approval.
The CRCT timeline follows that of civil servants: the call for applications is open from October to January, and official responses are given in March/April. Up to two applications may be selected per year.
The internationalization of research is a primary objective for the School. We would therefore like to strongly encourage our research lecturers to apply in order to take advantage of this great opportunity to boost their work and develop lasting international collaborations. Many universities are very keen on hosting researchers at their research centers.
Although the research project and the choice of a host university fall to research lecturers, EMSBS can point them toward universities with which it would be interesting to develop key partnerships.
Several EMSBS faculty members have already benefited from this type of leave, and two new applications are currently being reviewed. Richard Huaman-Ramirez, member of HuManiS, has just started his CRCT at a university in the United States.
Here is what he has to say:
“Since the end of January, I have been at the University of Southern California for a seven-month research stay.
I am housed 10 minutes away from the Mind & Society Center where I have an office to work in and where I can exchange with other researchers like Prof. Norbert Schwarz and Prof. Daphna Oyserman on topics related to social and consumer psychology.
My status as a visiting researcher also allows me to participate in seminars within the research centers of the Marshall School of Business (among the top 20 business schools in the world) on the themes of psychology and social economics.
I chose to do this stay abroad with the following goals in mind:
- To work with internationally renowned researchers in order to learn how to conduct high-level research using rigorous methodology
- To network and thus find a team of people with whom I can pursue my research interests in the long run
- To learn from the best practices of clusters at top US universities in order to publish in top-ranked academic journals specialized in marketing
- To create links between schools by inviting, in the near future, Prof. Norbert Schwarz and other researchers to participate in EMSBS research events.
I hope that my experience will motivate fellow faculty members to embark on the same adventure in the years to come.”
(*The memorandum detailing the procedure is available in the documents section of the intranet)