2022 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (HE-MSCA-PF-2022)

[Ruboku]

My experience so far...

Last year, I got seal of excellence (87,8): 4.5, 4,2 and 4,4.

I tried to improve the weak parts with the team of my university, and I think we did well. But I have not received any news yet.

Finger crossed

[liukank]

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Hi all,

Here is my MSCA experience hoping that maybe some future applicants find it helpful. I lurked a bit this forum last week, so I want to give something to the community.

I tried for first time in 2022 getting 3,8/3,8/4,4 (EF SOC) - I dedicated some weeks to the proposal with decent help from my host. I started in June, devoted little time in July and August and worked hard for 3-4 weeks before the deadline if I well remember. I got feedback from the reviewers and found it moderate at first glance, not as detailed as I expected.

I wasn't sure about if I wished to retry, I was busy until late June this year. Anyway, I decided to retry trying to follow the reviewers' comments and put as supervisor a more established scholar from the same institute (to address the comment that my initial supervisor had little experience with postdocs). I worked for 2 weeks in July 2022 and for 2-3 weeks before the deadline (10-15 hours a week; I'm freelancing, so it was tough to be fully on that). I made mostly technical changes clarifying the methodology, adding details on the skills section and polished the implementation section. The idea, institution, international collaborations, milestones and timeline were the same. I highlighted a bit 1-2 catchy points (according to my sense of trendiness anyway).
I wasn't very optimistic cause I scored low in my first try but got 4,7/4,8/4,8, earned the grant and still can't believe it.

My impression:
1) The reviewers’ feedback was valuable (maybe I was lucky, I have seen many applicants complaining about the quality of the comments).
2) The process isn’t exactly a lottery (I don’t think that someone can get this grant with a sloppy proposal) but luck plays a role with reviewers - in the 2023 ESR the reviewers loved the research idea while in 2022 they only recognized some originality in the topic [the idea was the same; I changed almost nothing in section 1.1]
3) It's hard to make a competitive application without continuous support from the host. I earned a couple of competitive grants in the past (so I wasn’t a novice), but felt that MSCA requires emphasis on some key points which don't exist in most applications and it's tough to know where to focus without good guidance. I received comments from two profs and two grant advisors. If the host doesn't help you continuously, look for another host.

This was my story in brief. Congrats to winners. Those of you who didn't win this time be strong and stay confident. Grant writing is tough. It's a pity that projects with excellent scores, even above 90/100 still don't earn funding, research makes this world more livable and interesting and EU should invest more on that.

Thank you for your story and huge congratulations! May I ask your total score? I'm in GF SOC and got 4,7/4,2/5 and am in reserve list with quite low chances to ever being called.

[Pradeep89]

EF-LIF with 86.6 in the reserve list. I am not sure if that even makes any sense. Why would EC put low scores like mine in the reserve list? Any thoughts?

[Didi]

Currently there are ~120 guests... please register and share your experience!

Hi Liukank,
I am GF-SOC as well and on the reserve list. Can I ask you your total score?

Thank you for your story and huge congratulations! May I ask your total score? I'm in GF SOC and got 4,7/4,2/5 and am in reserve list with quite low chances to ever being called.

[liukank]

Hi Liukank,
I am GF-SOC as well and on the reserve list. Can I ask you your total score?

Thank you for your story and huge congratulations! May I ask your total score? I'm in GF SOC and got 4,7/4,2/5 and am in reserve list with quite low chances to ever being called.

92.2

[Rajaji]

EF-LIF with 86.6 in the reserve list. I am not sure if that even makes any sense. Why would EC put low scores like mine in the reserve list? Any thoughts?

I don't know what could be actual reason. I have one thinking. i will tell you. Will it have possibility that, there are some scores (between the limit of cut off threshold and most lowest reserve list), no body got it. For instance, they want to keep next 50 scores as reserve list.

[Abz]

EF-LIF with 86.6 in the reserve list. I am not sure if that even makes any sense. Why would EC put low scores like mine in the reserve list? Any thoughts?

If the UK doesn't associate with Horizon Europe then all the UK based applicants will get funded from UK and their space will be filled by another applicant.

[michelef]

Someone I know got the rejection letter something like 20 minutes ago

[triad_Mon]

Hello,

It's time to post my reply.

I got accepted the first time applied to the MSCA a few years ago.

The proposal was good, and I spent about one month on it + preparation reading, but I had no idea what I was writing about. It was all the idea of my supervisor.

Then towards its end I re-applied with a fresh idea that I really believed in, but was very immature as a proposal, that I had only spent one week on. I got a seal of excellence and 85%. I was very happy.

I re-submitted this year and I followed ALL THE RECOMMENTATIONS ONE BY ONE. I spent three+ months full time, I changed to a professor who was expert in the field, a TOP university, did an awesome work in explaining all the details I didn't explain before, gave for proof-reading, and corrected according to recommendations. In my head I really achieved 100%.

I just saw I got 64.80%.

It was such a waste of time, and I wish I had applied for the ERC, like I had started before I got a reply from this supervisor for the MSCA.

Good luck to all.

[pav]

Another rejection in PHY-EF
Last year 75%, this year after all the comments taken into account, I got 73%.