Application and visiting scholar policies
Varieties of appointment: A Visiting Scholar may be associated with SCANOR in either of two ways.
(1) As a SCANCOR Scholar. SCANCOR Scholars have access to the weekly SCANCOR seminars and the research community. They are provided with basic office support. Each Scholar is given a dedicated desk in shared office facilities.
(2) As an Affiliated Scholar (PhD students). Affiliated Scholars have access to the weekly SCANCOR seminars and the research community. They are given access to basic office support but do not receive dedicated or shared desks.
Both SCANCOR Scholars and Affiliated Scholars are expected to participate in the weekly (Monday and Friday) research seminars at SCANCOR.
Application procedure: Persons wishing to apply for an appointment must submit an application through SCANCOR’s web-based submission system, according to the following deadlines.
For visits beginning January to May, 2013 Application deadline: April 1, 2012. Decisions in early May 2012.
For visits beginning June - August 2013* Application deadline: September 1, 2012. Decisions in early October 2012.
For visits beginning September to December, 2013 Application deadline: December 1, 2012. Decisions in early January 2013.
*Decisions made early October for the June - August time period will be restricted to scholars who apply specifically for the summer period and is not for scholars applying for the following academic year and arriving during the summer. Those scholars will be part of the September - December applicant pool and the decisions will be made in early January.
Graduate-student applicants are strongly encouraged to establish contact with one or more Stanford faculty in their fields of interest in advance of application. They also are advised to plan their arrivals in advance of the start of a Stanford academic quarter and not at mid-term. Courses, seminars, and workshops are very difficult to enter once they have begun. Consult the Stanford web site for the appropriate academic calendars.
http://registrar.stanford.edu/academic_calendar/
Principles of selection: Appointments are made by the SCANCOR Director upon the advice the SCANCOR Board of Directors. Applications from institutions in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden always are reviewed by the board member from the respective country.
Selection is based on a judgment of the likely contribution that a stay at SCANCOR will make to the production of high-quality research. This judgment is based primarily on the quality and relevance of the research abilities of the applicant. In general, preference is given to established researchers over those starting out; we urge junior scholars to consider an application to SCANCOR only when their research questions are well developed. We are particularly interested in applications from scholars who have made plans to pursue research topics or collaborations that could not be pursued in their home countries.
We ask the following questions when considering applications:
Does the applicant have on-going or planned collaborations with Stanford faculty?
Is there a program of study that draws on Stanford courses and seminars?
How strong are Stanford resources in the scholar's area of expertise?
Has the applicant already spent time at SCANCOR? In general, first-time visitors are given priority.
We strive for parity in regard to nationality and always seek a viable mix in terms of academic rank and gender. We also consider whether the proposed research draws on the surrounding Silicon Valley and its economic and technological strengths. These factors help us select scholars who will be able to make the best use of Stanford and its region for their research.
We always favor applicants who have done their homework in advance and identified classes, seminars, professors, and/or organizations and companies in the San Francisco Bay Area with whom they would anticipate being in contact.
If you are planning to collect data on living human subjects while you are in residence at Stanford, you will be expected to comply with University rules regarding what in the USA is referred to as “human-subjects research,” including an institutional review board (IRB) evaluation of your proposed inquiry. Stanford’s IRB process is efficient and sensible. See http://humansubjects.stanford.edu/research/nonmedical/nonmedical.html for further information.
