NBB Trainee programme for young researchers

In 2013, the National Bank of Belgium is launching a new trainee programme, within the scope of which young researchers will be requested to carry out, during a three to six months’ period, a research programme within the National Bank.

11-1-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — The project aims at offering researchers being active in the National Bank’s specialised areas the opportunity to get acquainted with the Bank’s research activities as well as with its activities as to preparing decision-making. This experience should make it possible for them to gain new insights and should provide them with an additional incentive to engage in research activities within the public interest. This programme also offers the National Bank’s researchers the opportunity to get acquainted with the latest developments in the scientific research at the universities.

In this respect the National Bank has appealed to all candidates wanting to submit a research project in its various specialised areas: microeconomics and macroeconomics, monetary economy, financial economy and financial stability, econometrics and modelling, statistics, economic legislation, etc. The objective was to call on young researchers already having gained a minimum experience in the aforementioned areas and thus giving them the opportunity to round it out thanks to practical training in the National Bank.

These projects cover a three to six month’s period. The candidates are requested to write a research report. This paper will have to be presented at an internal seminar at the National Bank and may possibly be published in the Working Papers series of the National Bank. The candidates are expected to carry out their project autonomously, but are encouraged to do so in close co-operation with the National Bank’s collaborators.

The trainee programme is set up in the form of a flexible contract which can be concluded with the researcher himself, with his faculty or with his university service. This contract provides a fee in return for the transfer of the copyright on the research report to the National Bank, the amount of which in principle ranging from 4,500 to 9,000 euro. The researcher will not be offered an employment contract and is himself in charge of the administrative, social and tax aspects of his position. The candidates are expected to be regularly present at the National Bank during their traineeship. They have access to the generic facilities provided by the National Bank in the area of informatics, to the public statistics and to the scientific library. The possible access to non-public statistics may be assessed and settled case by case.

The deadline for submission of applications is 22 March. Once the candidates have been selected, they will be able to arrange the dates of their traineeship in the Bank, in collaboration with the relevant department (during the course of 2013).

Any requests for further information may be addressed to Raf Wouters,
tel. +322 221 54 41, fax +322 221 31 62, e-mail: rafael.wouters@nbb.be

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