2021 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (HE-MSCA-PF-2021)

[Antani]

Excellence… the others the same or just a little bit improved
So for this reason this year I totally Changed only that part…
Let’s hope to win the lottery this year

Which section score was reduced?

It is difficult to know what the evaluators will pick up on. If they like the idea, they often ignore small issues with the project proposal. If they don't like the idea, they will list all sort of problems to reduce the mark. I had an application submitted twice: first it got 82.5 second time 80.2. The second application was far better in terms of organisation and presentation, but was awarded a lower score, and hardly any meaningful comments. I know the review process can be very unfair, but still looking forward to the comments for my new project proposal

Exactly the same for me. 83 the first year and 77 the second one where I just addressed all weakness of first review… and I understood that this fellowship is like winning a lottery…

[roro]

I am curious to hear about your experiences in moving to another country while having a partner and a kid/kids. Did the family stay in your home country in meanwhile? Or did they follow along? What about the situation for them?

[iteration]

First application in my case, I was received by 2 persons, watched the NCP mettings replays on YouTube and had access to a former successful proposal written in my lab. I wrote my proposal in the last moment, I began 1 month prior the deadline.

I agree with people saying that having the proposal reviewed extensively before submission is very useful, if not essential, considering the level of perfection needed to be competitive... But I wanted to add that reviews and suggestions have to be taken with a grain of salt. When I applied in 2018 I got my proposal reviewed by the NCP, and I had to completely disregard the revision because it was apparently based on an outdated template. Following the NCP's suggestions would have meant an automatic fail. The few suggestions received by my Girlfriend's supervisor this year were sometimes pure nonsense, contradictory, or outright impossible to implement. So in my experience getting many reviews could also be dangerous if you don't first understand how to write the msca proposal... so many reviews don't automatically mean a more competitive proposal

The same thing happened to me. Last year my host appointed one agent they paid to read my proposal; we had one meeting to discuss about what is to be expected and straight away I could sense that she was not exactly familiar with what is expected by this fellowship. But I just shrugged it off and felt that she wouldn't be hired if she didn't know what she was talking about. Then, I had to submit the proposal to her before the final submission to the system; and I noticed that she had made sizeable adjustment to the format. One adjustment that I think was one of the factors of my rejection is she separated the WP chart into different tables, and put two earlier in the proposal (like she put WP related to methodology in Section 1 of B1, in the Methods section. I was like, OK... but again, I thought she must know what she's doing. Then, when I got the review's comment, the reviewer said that my proposal is a mess and WP shouldn't be separated and should be put in the appointed Section. I was devastated.

Yes this can happen.
Also if you ask administratives or research support staff at uni often they only care about bureaucratic details and bs details about openness, equality and similar stuff and tell you to cut the scientific/methods part of the proposal.
I decided not to do that.

[Abz]

Impact and implementation were reduced slightly but same score for excellence part even though I improved that part so much.

Which section score was reduced?

It is difficult to know what the evaluators will pick up on. If they like the idea, they often ignore small issues with the project proposal. If they don't like the idea, they will list all sort of problems to reduce the mark. I had an application submitted twice: first it got 82.5 second time 80.2. The second application was far better in terms of organisation and presentation, but was awarded a lower score, and hardly any meaningful comments. I know the review process can be very unfair, but still looking forward to the comments for my new project proposal

Exactly the same for me. 83 the first year and 77 the second one where I just addressed all weakness of first review… and I understood that this fellowship is like winning a lottery…

[Antani]

I am curious to hear about your experiences in moving to another country while having a partner and a kid/kids. Did the family stay in your home country in meanwhile? Or did they follow along? What about the situation for them?

I applied for a GF in US (2 years) and 1 year of return phase in Italy. I have a wife and 7-month old baby.. in case of success I will move with them…

[liukank]

I am curious to hear about your experiences in moving to another country while having a partner and a kid/kids. Did the family stay in your home country in meanwhile? Or did they follow along? What about the situation for them?

I moved from Italy to Spain then Germany with my husband and (then) 6 months old baby. I had a German salary and a very good expat allowance, witch made living with just one salary very easy. But it was 2020, so, pandemics situation and with lockdown and all, it was definitely very hard. My kid is now almost 3 and struggling a bit with learning German (we are a bilingual family), but I think is the fault of his kindergarten.

[roro]

I am curious to hear about your experiences in moving to another country while having a partner and a kid/kids. Did the family stay in your home country in meanwhile? Or did they follow along? What about the situation for them?

I moved from Italy to Spain then Germany with my husband and (then) 6 months old baby. I had a German salary and a very good expat allowance, witch made living with just one salary very easy. But it was 2020, so, pandemics situation and with lockdown and all, it was definitely very hard. My kid is now almost 3 and struggling a bit with learning German (we are a bilingual family), but I think is the fault of his kindergarten.

Thank you for sharing. I know that kindergarten is very pricy in some cities and also that it may be difficult for the partner to get a job abroad. This together with a pricy rent would make it difficult to live on one salary.

[Cr@zyChem]

I am curious to hear about your experiences in moving to another country while having a partner and a kid/kids. Did the family stay in your home country in meanwhile? Or did they follow along? What about the situation for them?

I moved from Italy to Spain then Germany with my husband and (then) 6 months old baby. I had a German salary and a very good expat allowance, witch made living with just one salary very easy. But it was 2020, so, pandemics situation and with lockdown and all, it was definitely very hard. My kid is now almost 3 and struggling a bit with learning German (we are a bilingual family), but I think is the fault of his kindergarten.

Thank you for sharing. I know that kindergarten is very pricy in some cities and also that it may be difficult for the partner to get a job abroad. This together with a pricy rent would make it difficult to live on one salary.

I am also in a difficult situation. If I get the grant I must bring my mom with me, and they don't give you family allowance when you're are caretaker of your parents! I am worried about not only having to support two persons, with all the medical insurance I'll have to pay for her, as well as her adjustment to another country, since she never travelled abroad (actually she never travels to another state inside our country!). Everything worries me, language, weather, budget.... But then again, I am a worrier, I get stressed planned how to exit a bus I take every single day!

[michelef]

First application in my case, I was received by 2 persons, watched the NCP mettings replays on YouTube and had access to a former successful proposal written in my lab. I wrote my proposal in the last moment, I began 1 month prior the deadline.

I agree with people saying that having the proposal reviewed extensively before submission is very useful, if not essential, considering the level of perfection needed to be competitive... But I wanted to add that reviews and suggestions have to be taken with a grain of salt. When I applied in 2018 I got my proposal reviewed by the NCP, and I had to completely disregard the revision because it was apparently based on an outdated template. Following the NCP's suggestions would have meant an automatic fail. The few suggestions received by my Girlfriend's supervisor this year were sometimes pure nonsense, contradictory, or outright impossible to implement. So in my experience getting many reviews could also be dangerous if you don't first understand how to write the msca proposal... so many reviews don't automatically mean a more competitive proposal

The same thing happened to me. Last year my host appointed one agent they paid to read my proposal; we had one meeting to discuss about what is to be expected and straight away I could sense that she was not exactly familiar with what is expected by this fellowship. But I just shrugged it off and felt that she wouldn't be hired if she didn't know what she was talking about. Then, I had to submit the proposal to her before the final submission to the system; and I noticed that she had made sizeable adjustment to the format. One adjustment that I think was one of the factors of my rejection is she separated the WP chart into different tables, and put two earlier in the proposal (like she put WP related to methodology in Section 1 of B1, in the Methods section. I was like, OK... but again, I thought she must know what she's doing. Then, when I got the review's comment, the reviewer said that my proposal is a mess and WP shouldn't be separated and should be put in the appointed Section. I was devastated.

That's crazy, it's unbelievable that someone completely incompetent like that would even get paid... The msca proposal template is very peculiar and it's really bad that people improvise themselves as experts just to get paid

[msca_wait]

Do people think we'll start getting results on Monday morning? Or you think they'll come out later in the week?