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

CGN
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:11 am

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

Post by CGN » Fri Jan 27, 2023 8:22 pm

Why panicking? I was talking about my own proposal, which is highly interdisciplinary, not to the degree required and valued by the MSCA guidelines, but it's more a mix of disciplines which require expertise by multiple people with different backgrounds. I know from experience that reviewers from those fields may have opposite views of a topic.
The paper is showing that when reviewers disagree the overall score is lower, and I expect this to happen (as I constantly see this happening). I am in the social science domain, where different people might follow opposite theories.

The study cites a paper published in Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/nature18315 and the authors argue that one of the possible explanation of disagreement might be interdisciplinarity. "Disagreement could also arise from inherent characteristics of the proposals, with a recent study showing that interdisciplinary proposals tend to score lower (Bromham et al., 2016)". That's seemed very relevant to my proposal. It doesn't mean that this applies to yours as well, I don't even know in what field you are 😅

Fred_Keningau
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2023 7:26 pm

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

Post by Fred_Keningau » Fri Jan 27, 2023 8:41 pm

CGN wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 8:22 pm
Why panicking? I was talking about my own proposal, which is highly interdisciplinary, not to the degree required and valued by the MSCA guidelines, but it's more a mix of disciplines which require expertise by multiple people with different backgrounds. I know from experience that reviewers from those fields may have opposite views of a topic.
The paper is showing that when reviewers disagree the overall score is lower, and I expect this to happen (as I constantly see this happening). I am in the social science domain, where different people might follow opposite theories.

The study cites a paper published in Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/nature18315 and the authors argue that one of the possible explanation of disagreement might be interdisciplinarity. "Disagreement could also arise from inherent characteristics of the proposals, with a recent study showing that interdisciplinary proposals tend to score lower (Bromham et al., 2016)". That's seemed very relevant to my proposal. It doesn't mean that this applies to yours as well, I don't even know in what field you are 😅
I totally agree with your view. Based on the past year's forum, it is indeed very important to choose the right free keywords as required in section A. These keywords will determine the research background of the three reviewers for your proposal. Sadly, I only know about this after the submission. Otherwise I would have been more careful to pick the perfect keywords for my proposal. I saw the list of proposal reviewers from past years with the keywords of their research expertise. It was published on the EU website. How I wish I dig this info before the submission :cry:

CGN
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:11 am

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

Post by CGN » Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:11 pm

Yes, but the problem was that the field s that we had to choose were very general and they didn't even have my specific sub-fields. I had to choose one that was not really a good fit. One topic was extremely broad (I don't remember exactly, maybe even "sociological studies"). You know, it is impossible to know for example if the reviewer will be a follower of a constructivist school, or one in critical studies. One other was part of philosophy, again very broad, the reviewers might not be expert on my specific topics :(

I tried to put relevant keywords, but as I said my proposal is too interdisciplinary.

Once I got a rejection from conference reviewers because they did not understand the relevance of one of the topic from discipline A (their own) in discipline B (my main field). Reviewers from my field agreed with me, so there was no consensus. I expect this to happen again.

Fish
Posts: 35
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:12 am

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

Post by Fish » Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:17 am

teddyberry wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:22 pm
KathyHappy wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 2:31 pm
teddyberry wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 2:27 pm
We are in the same boat!! I can not wait for the next two weeks and focus on anything lol :). I can read from the Website, on 14th Feb the results will come up. Is that true?

Same here. I spent half of the year preparing the proposal with my potential host. I received the news that I was not selected as another fellowship (backup plan) recipient this week. This means, if I fail to get MSCA, I have to find another professor, and worst scenario, it will take at least half a year to find a postdoc position. :| :| I fear for my future now.
I totally relate bro. I'm basically in the same situation here, have been waiting like more than one year or even two to find a postdoc position, and still no good news. It's so frustrating
Most professors recommend applying for an external research grant (which is good for our academic career) but that's not guaranteed. I believe everyone here stays in academia because of their passion for science, but is it going to be worth it? I start to question myself now but the truth is, at this stage, I don't have any other option.

Helaine75
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:37 am

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

Post by Helaine75 » Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:51 am

Just joined! Evaluation status here as well, First Time submission, fingers crossed everyone!

Kaepirinha
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2022 6:36 pm

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

Post by Kaepirinha » Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:44 pm

I ws thinking about the real stats to get the fellowship..

My feeling is that all people that prepare the MSCA-PF works a lot to prepare it..or you think that some people submit it without a lot of work?

teddyberry
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2023 5:46 am

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

Post by teddyberry » Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:29 pm

Kaepirinha wrote:
Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:44 pm
I ws thinking about the real stats to get the fellowship..

My feeling is that all people that prepare the MSCA-PF works a lot to prepare it..or you think that some people submit it without a lot of work?
Preparing that proposal requires lots of work. But maybe some people have the privilege of having experienced (read: big shot) hosts, help from co-workers or friends, and access to previous winners' proposals. That would be really helpful in preparing a decent proposal.

Kaepirinha
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2022 6:36 pm

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

Post by Kaepirinha » Sat Jan 28, 2023 5:15 pm

teddyberry wrote:
Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:29 pm
Kaepirinha wrote:
Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:44 pm
I ws thinking about the real stats to get the fellowship..

My feeling is that all people that prepare the MSCA-PF works a lot to prepare it..or you think that some people submit it without a lot of work?
Preparing that proposal requires lots of work. But maybe some people have the privilege of having experienced (read: big shot) hosts, help from co-workers or friends, and access to previous winners' proposals. That would be really helpful in preparing a decent proposal.
So you think that everyone who submits it, has invested a lot of time?

I want to think that some fellas have submitted it with just a few hours...putting the proposal easier for the rest...hahaha

CGN
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:11 am

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

Post by CGN » Sat Jan 28, 2023 5:55 pm

Kaepirinha wrote:
Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:44 pm
I ws thinking about the real stats to get the fellowship..

My feeling is that all people that prepare the MSCA-PF works a lot to prepare it..or you think that some people submit it without a lot of work?
I know 2 guys, one in astrophysics and the other in the humanities, who only worked on the proposal 3 or 4 weeks 24/h. They were lucky enough to get funded, the latter applied a second time to the GF and got the seal of excellence. My advisor was one of the first people to get it and she also spent about a month writing it. On the other hand, another researcher in the field of Foreign Languages spent months and months in writing and got funded with the lowest score possible. Most of them had something like 5 or 6 past successful proposals as a reference, a lot of support from their host institution, and an external company to review their proposal.

I spent about a year in writing and discussing with two professors + two researchers from my host institution, one successful past applicant from my same country, two grant office people, and my proposal was also reviewed by an external company. I only had one past successful proposal in a similar field as a reference and a couple of gantt charts from different fields. I am experienced in project writing as I both submitted many Horizon 2020 collaborative proposals and I have worked as a support staff for other researchers applying to different funders.

I still think that this is not sufficient for my proposal to be successful, for exemple I recognize that the implementation part was too dense if compared to successful proposals. My CV is also not competitive as I spent a few years on maternity leave and some other years in industry, and I work in a completely different field from my PhD (as I said, my project is way too interdisciplinary), therefore I had very few publications at the time of the deadline. Also, my host institution is in my home country, as I am trying to come back home, and this is often not the best for MSCA, it could be regarded as a lack of mobility.

The good aspects of my proposal, on the other hand are that 1) my supervisors are very famous in the field (I dare to say they are the most famous around the globe) 2) my host department has a record of successful MSCA fellows 3) I developed the ethical part very well, addressing what could have been considered potential shortcomings in the metodological part 4) the subject is somehow trendy in the EU agenda and recently some EU agencies published reports on the topic.

Helaine7575
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:37 am

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

Post by Helaine7575 » Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:49 pm

I spent a couple of months working on the proposal, and almost 24/7 in the two weeks before submission, checked some successful proposals of previous years, huge support from the host Institution and its project manager, senior academics checking the proposal, and a Top supervisor. As many said, luck Is also a factor here...actually very pessimistic (by nature and Is also my First Time) but never Say never

Post Reply