Optimizing of the membership application process ICO PhD members

ICO’s Scientific Committee would like to inform our ICO members of an optimalization of the application procedure for ICO PhD membership.

The reason for the change is that the original funding application, such as the NWO Doctorate Grant for Teachers and the HBO Promotion Vouchers, often uses a strict maximum number of words. We conclude that parts of the application, such as the theoretical framework or methodology, contain insufficient information to assess the feasibility of the project.

It has recently become apparent that for too many of these applications, the granting of ICO membership has to be postponed due to the brevity of the plans. Clarification is first necessary to assess the feasibility of the project. This slows down the admissions process and often leads to disappointment for the PhD.

ICO has therefore decided that it is no longer possible to apply for ICO PhD membership by sending in the original grant application form supplemented with the ICO Education and Supervision Plan. Only fully completed ICO Project Proposal forms will be considered. Applications that do not meet ICO requirements will be returned immediately, without being assessed (desk rejection).

The application for membership for PhD members falls under the responsibility the supervisors of the PhDs. We ask all supervision teams to assist your PhD’s in writing the ICO project proposal. Copying the grant application is not sufficient. A good example of an ICO Project Proposal can be found on our website: https://ico-education.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/project-proposal-example.pdf.

We hope this will make the application process for ICO PhD students smoother and avoids disappointments.

Should you have any questions about this change, the Scientific Committee would be happy to hear from you.