MSCA RESERVE LIST 2021

[emancipatedcity]

Hi guys
Today the administrative person at my host institution told me that the last news regarding the MSCA reserve list is that the issues with the UK and potential more funds might be cleared up by July. At that time all MSCA fellows with an UK host should have already found another host, and if not, their grant will be cancelled and the funds released.

Just felt like letting you know.

[trina_80]

I echo that, personally, I would benefit from this messy delay of the association, but I really hope Boris Johnson is not doing something hasitly by quitting it completely. It will be a loss for both sides in the long future.

I completely understand how you feel. However, me must not lose sight of the fact that the budget for the the call was certainly smaller from the start because the formalization of the association was delayed and, consequently, UK has not contributed its share. So it would have most likely helped us if all this mess had been sorted out earlier. Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, if UK did end up associating with Horizon Europe before the June 14 deadline, the budget would have most likely increased, which, again, would have meant that more people from the reserve list would have been financed.
So we're not actually "benefiting" from this situation, but we're rather (at least for the time being) collateral damage.
As for the association itself, I am certain that any researcher (in their right mind) agrees with you - the complete withdrawal of UK from HE would be a huge loss for both sides.

[trina_80]

Hi guys
Today the administrative person at my host institution told me that the last news regarding the MSCA reserve list is that the issues with the UK and potential more funds might be cleared up by July. At that time all MSCA fellows with an UK host should have already found another host, and if not, their grant will be cancelled and the funds released.

Just felt like letting you know.

Hey! Thank you so much for sharing that! However, I find this a bit odd. MSCA fellows do not have the option to change hosts (at least not right now). Instead, they're applying for funding from UKRI. Maybe they confused it with ERC...
In principle, and from what my NCP told me, whoever does not sign the grant agreement by June 14 becomes ineligible. And right now fellows with UK hosts cannot sign it.

[emancipatedcity]

Hi guys
Today the administrative person at my host institution told me that the last news regarding the MSCA reserve list is that the issues with the UK and potential more funds might be cleared up by July. At that time all MSCA fellows with an UK host should have already found another host, and if not, their grant will be cancelled and the funds released.

Just felt like letting you know.

Hey! Thank you so much for sharing that! However, I find this a bit odd. MSCA fellows do not have the option to change hosts (at least not right now). Instead, they're applying for funding from UKRI. Maybe they confused it with ERC...
In principle, and from what my NCP told me, whoever does not sign the grant agreement by June 14 becomes ineligible. And right now fellows with UK hosts cannot sign it.

Indeed! I think she confused it with the ERC. In any case, reservists will be contacted soon.

[emancipatedcity]

Looks like the UK's plan B is taking into effect: "The UK is working on a “bigger, better” rival to the European Research Council (ERC) as part of an alternative to the Horizon Europe, in response to growing fears that the country will not associate to the framework programme." https://sciencebusiness.net/news/uk-pla ... zon-europe

[DagS]

I echo that, personally, I would benefit from this messy delay of the association, but I really hope Boris Johnson is not doing something hasitly by quitting it completely. It will be a loss for both sides in the long future.

I completely understand how you feel. However, me must not lose sight of the fact that the budget for the the call was certainly smaller from the start because the formalization of the association was delayed and, consequently, UK has not contributed its share. So it would have most likely helped us if all this mess had been sorted out earlier. Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, if UK did end up associating with Horizon Europe before the June 14 deadline, the budget would have most likely increased, which, again, would have meant that more people from the reserve list would have been financed.
So we're not actually "benefiting" from this situation, but we're rather (at least for the time being) collateral damage.
As for the association itself, I am certain that any researcher (in their right mind) agrees with you - the complete withdrawal of UK from HE would be a huge loss for both sides.

Hi Trina,

Thanks for your thoughts, but as I understood my host institution/my NCP, we do indeed directly benefit i. e. everyone here on the reserve list that does not have a host in the UK.

Means, it is irrelevant whether the budget was smaller from the start or not. In the end, 227 successful UK applicants received a grant offer (see the attached report by the MSCA German NCP). They cannot change host institutions (that is ERC) but change into the UKRI funding. If that is not done by June 14, they won't have funding. According to my host institution/NCP, those places will go to the reserve list directly. That means both: the grants of UK applicants, who for whatever reasons cannot change into the UKRI funding, and the grants that are transferred to the UKRI funding. So, yes, I have grappled quite a bit with the moral aspect of benefitting from this mess, but as the UKRI funding is available to all of them, that gives me relief. Besides being not so prestigious it gives every one of them the possibility to continue their project and be funded. So, yes, 227 is quite a big number and as we already established the reserve lists are bigger this year, as they will also have to go much deeper into the reserve list this year because of that.

Here is the report in German by the NCP (it was in the last German newsletter):
https://www.nks-msc.de/files/Auswertung ... 2022-05-31

[emancipatedcity]

I echo that, personally, I would benefit from this messy delay of the association, but I really hope Boris Johnson is not doing something hasitly by quitting it completely. It will be a loss for both sides in the long future.

I completely understand how you feel. However, me must not lose sight of the fact that the budget for the the call was certainly smaller from the start because the formalization of the association was delayed and, consequently, UK has not contributed its share. So it would have most likely helped us if all this mess had been sorted out earlier. Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, if UK did end up associating with Horizon Europe before the June 14 deadline, the budget would have most likely increased, which, again, would have meant that more people from the reserve list would have been financed.
So we're not actually "benefiting" from this situation, but we're rather (at least for the time being) collateral damage.
As for the association itself, I am certain that any researcher (in their right mind) agrees with you - the complete withdrawal of UK from HE would be a huge loss for both sides.

Hi Trina,

Thanks for your thoughts, but as I understood my host institution/my NCP, we do indeed directly benefit i. e. everyone here on the reserve list that does not have a host in the UK.

Means, it is irrelevant whether the budget was smaller from the start or not. In the end, 227 successful UK applicants received a grant offer (see the attached report by the MSCA German NCP). They cannot change host institutions (that is ERC) but change into the UKRI funding. If that is not done by June 14, they won't have funding. According to my host institution/NCP, those places will go to the reserve list directly. That means both: the grants of UK applicants, who for whatever reasons cannot change into the UKRI funding, and the grants that are transferred to the UKRI funding. So, yes, I have grappled quite a bit with the moral aspect of benefitting from this mess, but as the UKRI funding is available to all of them, that gives me relief. Besides being not so prestigious it gives every one of them the possibility to continue their project and be funded. So, yes, 227 is quite a big number and as we already established the reserve lists are bigger this year, as they will also have to go much deeper into the reserve list this year because of that.

Here is the report in German by the NCP (it was in the last German newsletter):
https://www.nks-msc.de/files/Auswertung ... 2022-05-31

Hi Dags
Thank you for the info. Is an English translation of the report available?

[DagS]

I am not sure, I assume that the respective NCP would do their own reports? So, maybe you can inquire in your country. It seems it is generated and authored by the NCPs and not Horizon Europe directly. But, I think the tables with the numbers are also understandable for non-German speakers, hopefully!

[trina_80]

I echo that, personally, I would benefit from this messy delay of the association, but I really hope Boris Johnson is not doing something hasitly by quitting it completely. It will be a loss for both sides in the long future.

I completely understand how you feel. However, me must not lose sight of the fact that the budget for the the call was certainly smaller from the start because the formalization of the association was delayed and, consequently, UK has not contributed its share. So it would have most likely helped us if all this mess had been sorted out earlier. Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, if UK did end up associating with Horizon Europe before the June 14 deadline, the budget would have most likely increased, which, again, would have meant that more people from the reserve list would have been financed.
So we're not actually "benefiting" from this situation, but we're rather (at least for the time being) collateral damage.
As for the association itself, I am certain that any researcher (in their right mind) agrees with you - the complete withdrawal of UK from HE would be a huge loss for both sides.

Hi Trina,

Thanks for your thoughts, but as I understood my host institution/my NCP, we do indeed directly benefit i. e. everyone here on the reserve list that does not have a host in the UK.

Means, it is irrelevant whether the budget was smaller from the start or not. In the end, 227 successful UK applicants received a grant offer (see the attached report by the MSCA German NCP). They cannot change host institutions (that is ERC) but change into the UKRI funding. If that is not done by June 14, they won't have funding. According to my host institution/NCP, those places will go to the reserve list directly. That means both: the grants of UK applicants, who for whatever reasons cannot change into the UKRI funding, and the grants that are transferred to the UKRI funding. So, yes, I have grappled quite a bit with the moral aspect of benefitting from this mess, but as the UKRI funding is available to all of them, that gives me relief. Besides being not so prestigious it gives every one of them the possibility to continue their project and be funded. So, yes, 227 is quite a big number and as we already established the reserve lists are bigger this year, as they will also have to go much deeper into the reserve list this year because of that.

Here is the report in German by the NCP (it was in the last German newsletter):
https://www.nks-msc.de/files/Auswertung ... 2022-05-31

Hey! Thank you for your message and info!
I disagree, though. Of course that the budget matters. If UK would have contributed its share (if the association was formalized) the EC would have been able to finance more projects in this call, hence many here would have already been financed, without any of those with UK hosts being affected.
It's not that straightforward, of course. We cannot know if the boost in budget would have covered all the 227 grants (it probably wouldn't have). That's why they apply corrections to the contributions. Nevertheless, UK's contribution (which, in the past years, was significant, to say the least, and which was expected to be at around £15 billion over 7 years of Horizon Europe) would have massively impacted the budget (€95.5 billion) and ultimately the number of grants.
So if you're quite down on the reserve list and you end up being funded as a result of UK's non-association, you could maybe say that you "benefited" from this mess, although, as you mentioned, fortunately those with UK hosts do get funded by UKRI, so at least you don't have that on your conscience. However, if you're higher on the reserve list, you probably would have ended up getting funded anyway, as a result of the boost in budget from UK's association.

[CristinaR]

Hi!
I agree with Trina. Taking in account that the adequation of the host institution in your project is also evaluated I cannot understand how would be possible to change it... I assume that we have to wait more information.

Hi guys
Today the administrative person at my host institution told me that the last news regarding the MSCA reserve list is that the issues with the UK and potential more funds might be cleared up by July. At that time all MSCA fellows with an UK host should have already found another host, and if not, their grant will be cancelled and the funds released.

Just felt like letting you know.

Hey! Thank you so much for sharing that! However, I find this a bit odd. MSCA fellows do not have the option to change hosts (at least not right now). Instead, they're applying for funding from UKRI. Maybe they confused it with ERC...
In principle, and from what my NCP told me, whoever does not sign the grant agreement by June 14 becomes ineligible. And right now fellows with UK hosts cannot sign it.