AIMOS top-up scholarships for PhD and Masters students

2022 SCHOLARSHIP AWARDEES

In 2022, AIMOS received 44 applications from students based in 12 countries. There were 22 who identified as a man, 19 who identified as a woman, 2 who identified as non-binary and 1 who preferred not to reveal their gender. Of the applications received, 31 were deemed eligible by the AIMOS awards committee, and of these, the following four were randomly selected as winners:

Elliot Gould

Affiliation: University of Melbourne, Australia

Thesis title: Investigating the reproducibility and transparency of model-based research in ecology and conservation

Thesis summary: Initial meta-research in ecology has revealed that the discipline is at risk of a "reproducibility crisis". Most meta-research and reproducibility literature is is focused almost exclusively on Null Hypothesis Significance Testing research, however in applied ecology and conservation science, non-hypothesis testing approaches utilising model-based methods are common. Models underpin conservation decision-making, thus reproducible and transparently documented models are crucial for successful biodiversity conservation and management. This thesis investigates the reproducibility and transparency of models within applied ecological research, expanding the scope of current reproducibility research beyond the hypothetico-deductive model of science, and advancing initial meta-research in ecology and conservation.

Savannah C Lewis

Affiliation: University of Alabama, United States

Thesis title: Why big team science: The expectation of researchers in open science collaboration

Thesis summary: Big team science (BTS) organizations are on the rise, however, research has not focused on who and why collaborators are joining BTS organizations. My projects will examine the conduct of BTS collaboration by assessing why people are doing BTS as well as to address current problems and solutions to make our organization more diverse and effective in their collaborations. Participants will be asked what were their expectations for their first collaboration (i.e. publications, job enhancement, learning opportunities, etc.) and if they gained those aspects to assess how well BTS collaborations are meeting expectations.

Robin Guelimi

Affiliation: Epidemiology in Dermatology and Evaluation of Therapeutics (EpiDermE) - EA 7379, Université Paris Est Créteil (UPEC), Créteil, France

Thesis title: Overview of the redundancy and variability of the overlapping systematic reviews with network meta-analysis evaluating the efficacy and safety of systemic treatments in moderate-to-severe psoriasis

Thesis summary: Recently, there has been, in many research fields, an increase in the number of redundant systematic reviews with network meta-analysis (NMA), sometimes with conflicting results, to the detriment of the credibility of this type of study. The objectives of this thesis are to determine the number of redundant NMA evaluating systemic treatments in psoriasis and to compare their methods and results, to evaluate the influence of funding on NMA results and spin and to assess the reproducibility and robustness of their results by re-analyzing several NMAs and simulating the variability of the results using the principle of 'vibration of effect’.

Ben Meghreblian

Affiliation: Cardiff University, United Kingdom

Thesis title: Encouraging Registered Reports – Metascience and Tool Development

Thesis summary: The aim of the PhD is to design, build, and evaluate a collection of tools to support the adoption of the ‘Registered Reports’ publishing format by journals and authors. The PhD will monitor the community’s experience of Registered Reports peer review, with a view to better understanding its implementation across journals. The Registered Reports publishing format is thought to reduce bias in, and increase quality of, the scientific literature. We want to build on the uptake of this format and accelerate its use across the scientific community.

2022 APPLICATION DETAILS

AIMOS will award up to four top-up scholarships per year to PhD or Masters students working on a meta-research project. Scholarships will be offered as a AUD2500 award (given as a one-off payment). The winners will be selected at random from all eligible applicants. All eligible applicants will receive free annual membership of AIMOS. AIMOS particularly encourages applications from students from historically marginalised or underrepresented groups (e.g. women, racial or ethnic minorities, people with disabilities or caring responsibilities). AIMOS welcomes and will consider applications from all countries. It might be difficult for us to transfer funds to some countries, but we will explore all practical and legal options to allow any winners in these locations to receive their scholarship.

Eligibility

To be eligible, students must:

  • Be currently enrolled in a PhD or Masters degree, either full-time or part-time, with or without an existing scholarship

  • Be working on a meta-research project, that is, studying any element of the research process (e.g. design, conduct, analysis, reporting) in any field and where improvements to it can be made. Projects can be empirical, theoretical or computational.

  • Have at least 6 months left before the completion of their degree (from the time of the application closing date).

Successful applicants will not be eligible to apply in future rounds.

The application

We will only accept self-nominations from students. To apply, please complete an application form, which includes:

  • Your name, institution and email address

  • Your gender, for stratification purposes (see below)

  • The country you are currently based in, for stratification purposes (see below)

  • Your primary supervisor’s name and email address

  • A description of your work

    • A brief summary of your PhD/Masters project (max. 100 words)

    • Your progress to date on your PhD/Masters project (max. 100 words)

You will also need to provide proof of current enrolment (e.g. image of student ID card, enrolment confirmation letter). All information included in the nomination form will be stored on the AIMOS Google Drive.

Applications for the 2022 round closed at 17:00 AEDT on 7 November 2022.

The selection process

Applications will be reviewed independently by at least two AIMOS Board members and judged as either eligible or not, with any disagreements resolved by discussion among the reviewers. Reviewers will be assigned so that they will not assess any nominations they may have a conflict of interest with (e.g. current or former students, recent collaborators). Reviewers might consult additional publicly available material (e.g. university website) to confirm eligibility. All applicants judged as eligible will be entered into a draw with the four winners chosen at random (stratified so winners are not all the same gender and do not all come from the same country).

All applicants judged as eligible will be given free membership of AIMOS, including those who did not win the scholarship.

Award winners will be notified via email the outcome of their application on 21 November 2022 and their names and affiliations will be posted on the AIMOS website.

Expectations of the winning students

The winners must agree to have their name, supervisory team, project title and a summary paragraph about their research placed on the AIMOS website. Students will be expected to deliver a short presentation on their project at a conference or webinar organised by AIMOS held the following year.

2022 AWARDS COMMITTEE

Matt Page, Adrian Barnett, Jennifer Byrne, Daniel Hamilton, Malgorzata (Losia) Lagisz