Talk Academia

Krishchem wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:28 am

I am new to this forum and submitted MSCA proposal for the first time. I have recently joined as postdoc fellow at USA. If I get the fellowship, I plan to move to France. Curiously waiting for the results..

Good Luck Mate.

MSCA_CHEM_2019 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:06 am

Now, the funding and tenders portal:
"Funding&Tenders Portal, eGrants and eExperts systems are currently experiencing technical issues. Our technical team is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

Yeah everything is down (probably for everybody, not just me). As suggested already here, they will update/change the status etc. today or this week.

megasphaera wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:52 am

I am also curious about people opinions on the following: let's say you are doing a postdoc in a lab you like and your msca fellowship is in another one. Would you drop your current position to accept the msca? I imagine if is to go back to your country you will accept anyway.

That's an interesting question and well suited to my case. As I said, I recently started a postdoc position at USA and I am happy about the progress of my research work at the current lab. I feel It would be unwise to leave the current position as I am in the first half of contract. The financial support is not so bad and at per to the standard of USA university labs (I am also getting benefit of tax treaty here). On the other hand, MSCA is by itself a career building fellowship for future academic jobs. MOST IMPORTANTLY, MSCA is meant provide significant freedom to work and grow as independent researcher, which is very important for success in an academic job. These issues are creating huge dilemma to me and I am still not sure what is best option here.

BTW, I have a stable job at my home country (But I am not fully satisfied with it and have plans to change it after a good postdoctoral period). I have taken study leave to work as postdoc.

Kranthi Maniam wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:27 am

Krishchem wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:28 am

I am new to this forum and submitted MSCA proposal for the first time. I have recently joined as postdoc fellow at USA. If I get the fellowship, I plan to move to France. Curiously waiting for the results..

Good Luck Mate.

Thanks..Wish you the same.

megasphaera wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:52 am

I am also curious about people opinions on the following: let's say you are doing a postdoc in a lab you like and your msca fellowship is in another one. Would you drop your current position to accept the msca? I imagine if is to go back to your country you will accept anyway.

You can postpone your incorporation, as far as I know, for a while, not mere months. Given that you have a reasonable, well documented, justification. Another thing you can do is take the MSCA fellowship "part time", meaning that you can be working on your MSCA project and part time in the other project. Your salary would accordingly be reduced. The NCPs are the go-to people for confirming these points. They know all to well the "bureaucracy" that can help you with this.
Hope this helps!

Krishchem wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:47 am

megasphaera wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:52 am

I am also curious about people opinions on the following: let's say you are doing a postdoc in a lab you like and your msca fellowship is in another one. Would you drop your current position to accept the msca? I imagine if is to go back to your country you will accept anyway.

That's an interesting question and well suited to my case. As I said, I recently started a postdoc position at USA and I am happy about the progress of my research work at the current lab. I feel It would be unwise to leave the current position as I am in the first half of contract. The financial support is not so bad and at per to the standard of USA university labs (I am also getting benefit of tax treaty here). On the other hand, MSCA is by itself a career building fellowship for future academic jobs. MOST IMPORTANTLY, MSCA is meant provide significant freedom to work and grow as independent researcher, which is very important for success in an academic job. These issues are creating huge dilemma to me and I am still not sure what is best option here.

BTW, I have a stable job at my home country (But I am not fully satisfied with it and have plans to change it after a good postdoctoral period). I have taken study leave to work as postdoc.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed, your case is a tough one, but you have few options to choose between. I would say that this fellowship is a huge step towards independence; someone told me that usually people that have gotten a msca IF have more chances to get a erc starting grant. I'm not sure whether is true or not, but make sense since you know how to write in "EU language". In my case I got another fellowship with another lab; project is OK but I am not too excited about. However, my PI seems interested in my professional growth and I am also in the med school which allows me to continue to study a part time degree in medicine (I am in third year). The msca is based with one of the most important clinic and institution for a specific field; also they offered me some sort of stability after it. So I also don't know what to do.

MSCA-newbie wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:55 am

megasphaera wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:52 am

I am also curious about people opinions on the following: let's say you are doing a postdoc in a lab you like and your msca fellowship is in another one. Would you drop your current position to accept the msca? I imagine if is to go back to your country you will accept anyway.

You can postpone your incorporation, as far as I know, for a while, not mere months. Given that you have a reasonable, well documented, justification. Another thing you can do is take the MSCA fellowship "part time", meaning that you can be working on your MSCA project and part time in the other project. Your salary would accordingly be reduced. The NCPs are the go-to people for confirming these points. They know all to well the "bureaucracy" that can help you with this.
Hope this helps!

Did not know about the part time thing, thanks for that. Does that mean that they extend the fellowship for more that 2 years since is part time???

megasphaera wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:58 am

MSCA-newbie wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:55 am

megasphaera wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:52 am

I am also curious about people opinions on the following: let's say you are doing a postdoc in a lab you like and your msca fellowship is in another one. Would you drop your current position to accept the msca? I imagine if is to go back to your country you will accept anyway.

You can postpone your incorporation, as far as I know, for a while, not mere months. Given that you have a reasonable, well documented, justification. Another thing you can do is take the MSCA fellowship "part time", meaning that you can be working on your MSCA project and part time in the other project. Your salary would accordingly be reduced. The NCPs are the go-to people for confirming these points. They know all to well the "bureaucracy" that can help you with this.
Hope this helps!

Did not know about the part time thing, thanks for that. Does that mean that they extend the fellowship for more that 2 years since is part time???

I'm almost sure of it, but NCPs will know all the tiny details.

I was working in 3 different institutions in 3 different countries since I applied (yes I like to travel )
Hope to discover Spain if I get this fellowship!

megasphaera wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:00 am

I am curious to know what people are doing: Are you already in host institution? Are you working in a different lab waiting for the results and move on?

I am currently under another fellowship working in a different lab in host country.

It looks like everyone is in a similar position.

I'm just under 2 years into my first postdoc, in a different EU country than my host institute. And am seriously considering leaving academia if I don't get the MSCA IF. Will probably apply again this year, but maybe not even that. Don't know if I can survive this life of desperately craving for a temporary position (only 2 years!) for which we need to move countries. Not to mention that my wife would need to search for jobs each time, even though she has a permanent (non-academic) job.



Anyway, for those who are currently in good position that they won't want to leave, you need not worry. The latest starting date is 1st September 2021 (that's not a typo. Really, 2021). Gives you plenty of time.

As for the part time thing, by default all grants are full time. You need to apply for "permission" to do it part time. However, by my understanding, this should be quite straightforward. It's only a matter of the paper-work and the agreement between you and your host institute. The only exception is that the outgoing phase of a GF has to be full time.