2018 Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018)

[AdinaBabesh]

I think it sounds logical to be helped to get it. Every PI wants a great young researcher in his/her lab, paid by EC money, and who can also bring some extra via the indirect costs. I have seen many research groups in different universities offering position for certain research subjects, for both post-doc/doc. Euraxess has plenty of these.

[sound]

I think it sounds logical to be helped to get it. Every PI wants a great young researcher in his/her lab, paid by EC money, and who can also bring some extra via the indirect costs. I have seen many research groups in different universities offering position for certain research subjects, for both post-doc/doc. Euraxess has plenty of these.

ofcourse a bit of hel or guidance is needed but it is unfair if a seasoned pi with multiple mc and erc is writing the project from idea to grant for their candidate.its is unfair to others who compete on their own and not a good idea of training if one is going to do all the work themselves.that said may be the reviewers will be able to identify from the way the app is written i guess.

[sound]

the bs that is the main app and science the padding material

Your procedure sounds as the ideal one, as it should be on average.

Anyway, every time I think about these things I start doubting my own proposal and thinking I will not get it.

At the end, the scientific/research part of the proposal is so little compared with the whole crap that has to be written to tick all the boxes that I always wonder whether the "science" is somehow important... I guess yes, as the proposal is evaluated in three different aspects. I should stop thinking!

[sound]

My 2 cents i believe it should be two steps and not a sing!e step process with an interview/presentation.that would help understand if the person wrote the app and is capable of responding.

[Bren]

That sounds great in theory but also not feasible what with the quantity of proposals.

My 2 cents i believe it should be two steps and not a sing!e step process with an interview/presentation.that would help understand if the person wrote the app and is capable of responding.

[lolome]

I guess this is the aim of the two step process, as it happens with the ERC grants.

Re another post - A bit of help shows the commitment of the host institution, which is great. Too much help makes the word "fellowship" to have no meaning. A fellowship is a personal grant. Full stop. And these specific MC fellowships aim a two-way transfer in which both the individual and the host institution exchange expertise an get benefitted. If group leaders and institutions play games and use this fellowship call to get free labor force and overheads is another story that corrupts the aim of the fellowship program. But that's life, I guess. The more I know, the more I realise that I should have started planning my career at the very beginning rather than being the idealistic idiot that thinks that ideas and working hard are enough

I am sorry I opened Pandora's box. It's is not healthy when waiting for the evaluations.

Fingers crossed!!!

That sounds great in theory but also not feasible what with the quantity of proposals.

My 2 cents i believe it should be two steps and not a sing!e step process with an interview/presentation.that would help understand if the person wrote the app and is capable of responding.

[Bren]

Now hang on, don't be too hard on yourself. I am also a bit of an idealist who believes hard work will get me where I want to be. I've not been in full time academia for long, but spent many years as apart time MA & PhD student working here and there on universities (along with my full time non academic job). I am a white straight male in social science, I am not left wing so I don't play all the pathetic games people play to get attention and climb the ladder, yet I cannot be ignored because I work very hard and my stuff is high quality. Don't get discouraged.

In other news, I only had 4 hours sleep last night after working for 14 hours, I couldn't sleep because I drank way too much coffee yesterday, and now I'm back at work exhausted and nodding over a cup of coffee...

I guess this is the aim of the two step process, as it happens with the ERC grants.

Re another post - A bit of help shows the commitment of the host institution, which is great. Too much help makes the word "fellowship" to have no meaning. A fellowship is a personal grant. Full stop. And these specific MC fellowships aim a two-way transfer in which both the individual and the host institution exchange expertise an get benefitted. If group leaders and institutions play games and use this fellowship call to get free labor force and overheads is another story that corrupts the aim of the fellowship program. But that's life, I guess. The more I know, the more I realise that I should have started planning my career at the very beginning rather than being the idealistic idiot that thinks that ideas and working hard are enough

I am sorry I opened Pandora's box. It's is not healthy when waiting for the evaluations.

Fingers crossed!!!

That sounds great in theory but also not feasible what with the quantity of proposals.

My 2 cents i believe it should be two steps and not a sing!e step process with an interview/presentation.that would help understand if the person wrote the app and is capable of responding.

[lolome]

I know... Sometimes I'm too dramatic. I agree with you... Except for the fact that left wing people play "all" the pathetic games, etc. There are black sheeps everywhere in the political spectrum. Perhaps social sciences are different, don't know.

Now hang on, don't be too hard on yourself. I am also a bit of an idealist who believes hard work will get me where I want to be. I've not been in full time academia for long, but spent many years as apart time MA & PhD student working here and there on universities (along with my full time non academic job). I am a white straight male in social science, I am not left wing so I don't play all the pathetic games people play to get attention and climb the ladder, yet I cannot be ignored because I work very hard and my stuff is high quality. Don't get discouraged.

In other news, I only had 4 hours sleep last night after working for 14 hours, I couldn't sleep because I drank way too much coffee yesterday, and now I'm back at work exhausted and nodding over a cup of coffee...

I guess this is the aim of the two step process, as it happens with the ERC grants.

Re another post - A bit of help shows the commitment of the host institution, which is great. Too much help makes the word "fellowship" to have no meaning. A fellowship is a personal grant. Full stop. And these specific MC fellowships aim a two-way transfer in which both the individual and the host institution exchange expertise an get benefitted. If group leaders and institutions play games and use this fellowship call to get free labor force and overheads is another story that corrupts the aim of the fellowship program. But that's life, I guess. The more I know, the more I realise that I should have started planning my career at the very beginning rather than being the idealistic idiot that thinks that ideas and working hard are enough

I am sorry I opened Pandora's box. It's is not healthy when waiting for the evaluations.

Fingers crossed!!!

That sounds great in theory but also not feasible what with the quantity of proposals.

[megasphaera]

Academia is rotten, not all of it, but the most part. When I started i thought Academia was the ideal world where everything is perfect, uncorrupt and based on a perfect system. Then I started to realise that it's not: peer-reviewed system does not work how it should, impact factor is bullshit, publishing is bullshit and last but not least, in my field, there is lots of reproducibility issues. Also, the stronger labs in USA can publish whatever they want, when they want, as they want, where they want, while for us (in Europe) is extremely hard.
But again, at least in my case, I have accepted it, for the pleasure of keep doing science.

All these fellowships are hard to get, and there is no perfect system (maybe a lottery for the people that passed a certain threshold, there is literature out there exploring this option). Most of the fellowship are based on your publication record and how important is your PI.

Marie Curie include other things (outreach and so on) and i will be careful with saying is bullshit, as these activities are ESSENTIAL for the correct development of a scientific project. I believe that science has to be open, and the citizens have to be involved, as they payed for it. In this context MSCA actions are doing a good job by including non scientific aspects.

In my case, i wrote everything with very little help from my host (both PI and institution) and after a year of preparation. For instance, i received a lot of help from my previous institution (presentations, one to one meetings with PI that got MSCA actions before, correction service) that has an office with a specialization only in MSCA actions. Of course, institution with money will have couple of people helping with these actions, because it's lots of money and prestige.

I can imagine there are PI or institutions that do all the work, because they are successful and they want to get the money. Considering the actual situation (low funding and high competitiveness), I don't blame them. I would not do like them, i would help the applicant, making sure she/he gets the fellowship.

At the end of the game, i will probably not get it. This is the 6th fellowship I am trying to get in the past year and a half (the previous 5 were unsuccessful, of course ) and I have other 3 submitted that i'll might not get. It is still worth to me, so i will keep trying until i get something, even if the system is not perfect or rotten!

Again, good luck to everyone!

[danGFSOC]

Well, it seems to me that are you are saying: "As a straight (and maybe right wing) male in social science I am a minority in a world of left wing women and gay people, and I deserve respect (and this fellowship) and attention"... it seems to me a very "left wing play", indeed. Maybe after many years in social science these pathetic people infected you






Now hang on, don't be too hard on yourself. I am also a bit of an idealist who believes hard work will get me where I want to be. I've not been in full time academia for long, but spent many years as apart time MA & PhD student working here and there on universities (along with my full time non academic job). I am a white straight male in social science, I am not left wing so I don't play all the pathetic games people play to get attention and climb the ladder, yet I cannot be ignored because I work very hard and my stuff is high quality. Don't get discouraged.

In other news, I only had 4 hours sleep last night after working for 14 hours, I couldn't sleep because I drank way too much coffee yesterday, and now I'm back at work exhausted and nodding over a cup of coffee...

I guess this is the aim of the two step process, as it happens with the ERC grants.

Re another post - A bit of help shows the commitment of the host institution, which is great. Too much help makes the word "fellowship" to have no meaning. A fellowship is a personal grant. Full stop. And these specific MC fellowships aim a two-way transfer in which both the individual and the host institution exchange expertise an get benefitted. If group leaders and institutions play games and use this fellowship call to get free labor force and overheads is another story that corrupts the aim of the fellowship program. But that's life, I guess. The more I know, the more I realise that I should have started planning my career at the very beginning rather than being the idealistic idiot that thinks that ideas and working hard are enough

I am sorry I opened Pandora's box. It's is not healthy when waiting for the evaluations.

Fingers crossed!!!

That sounds great in theory but also not feasible what with the quantity of proposals.

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