Call for Micro General Assembly Grant 2024

PRESENTATION AND OBJECTIVES OF MCAA MICRO GENERAL ASSEMBLY GRANTS (MGAGs)

The MGAG application is now closed. Only MCAA members who have been confirmed as speakers are eligible to apply for the MicroGrant.

Every year, the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) offers financial support to its members to attend the Annual MCAA General Assembly (GA). 

The GA is the highest decision-making body of the MCAA, which convenes at least once per year. Among other responsibilities, the GA is in charge of the approval of the budget and the annual accounts, the appointment of Board members, the approval of the annual activity reports, etc. 

The Micro General Assembly Grants (MGAGs) aim to help members attend the GA by providing financial support to cover the travel and accommodation expenses. In addition to the GA, the scope of MGAGs can also be extended to cover the day(s) of the MCAA Annual Conference, which will take place just before the GA this year.

Upcoming GA & Annual Conference

The next MCAA GA will be held in Milan, Italy, on 16 March 2024 and will be preceded by the Annual Conference (15-16 March).

MICRO GENERAL ASSEMBLY GRANTS (MGAG) — RULES AND PROCEDURES

Content:

1. Goals and scope of MGAGs

• - Amount of MGAGs and eligible costs

2. Eligibility of applicants and applications

3. MGAGs — From application to reimbursement

- Summary of steps

- How to apply

- Evaluation and communication of results

- Reimbursement procedures and rules

- What happens if applicants cannot use the awarded MGAG?

1. Goals and scope of MGAGs

Covered by MGAGs	NOT covered by MGAGs
Onsite MCAA GA, or	Only MCAA Annual Conference (without attending the GA)
Onsite MCAA GA & Annual Conference	Any other event

Members awarded with a MGAG must attend the Annual GA(and the Annual  Conference, if they also apply to attend it) to be entitled to be reimbursed (see Reimbursement procedures and rules below for more details). 

Members awarded with a MGAG and attending the Annual Conference will be exempt from paying the registration fee (You will be provided a code to register at the appropriate time). There is no fee to attend the General Assembly.

Amount of MGAGs and eligible costs

The grant, if awarded, will be a reimbursement based on real costs incurred, and limited to a maximum as follows:

Travel distance	Maximum amount(*)
Less than 250 km	€ 250
Between 250 km and 1000 km	€ 500
Between 1000 km and 2250 km	€ 750
More than 2250 km (within Europe)	€ 1.000
More than 2250 km (Intercontinental travel)	€ 1.250

^*In our commitment to sustainability, we have decided to enhance the maximum reimbursement amount for all travel undertaken solely through eco-friendly means, such as trains, by an additional 10%. This initiative underscores our dedication to encouraging members to adopt sustainable transportation practices for all journeys related to the event, contributing to our collective commitment to environmental consciousness.

Eligible expenses

NOT eligible expenses

- Economy travel tickets (plane, train, bus, ferry, short distance public transport; bike rental)*; - Accommodation (hotel, AirBnb, etc.) **; - Visa proceeding fees ***. - Travel by car for distances shorter than 150 km (only fuel, € 0,50 per km) - Subsistence costs/meals (except for meals already provided by the MCAA during the Conference/GA

- Cancellation costs / Any cost incurred by beneficiaries that did NOT attend the event for which they received the grant ****; - Registration for the Gala dinner on Friday 14th, 2024 - Car rental; - Travel and health insurance; - Purchase of goods or services for personal use (e.g. telephone SIM card, cables, stationery products, pharmacy products, etc.); - Attendance to cultural or sports shows; - Any other costs not related to the participation in the event and that were not previously authorised.

* Members travelling by train to the GA host city (or by any other sustainable transport means) will be entitled to a 10% increase in the maximum amount for the MGAG (see maximum amounts in the table above)

** Reimbursement for accommodation only covers the days of the event, plus the night before the start of the event. Evaluation of the application will take into consideration the expected cost per night, hence presented estimates should be reasonable.

***Visa proceeding fees will be reimbursed as long as they are specifically requested to attend the MCAA GA. Cost of visa applications requested for a different purpose will not be reimbursed. 

**** Beneficiaries of MGAGs are strongly recommended to get travel insurance on their own so as to be reimbursed for travel and accommodation costs in case the travel or the GA is cancelled and the MGAG can’t be claimed. The cost of travel insurance is not an eligible cost for reimbursement.

2. Eligibility of applicants and applications

To be entitled to apply and get a MG, applicants must:

- Be a member of the MCAA;

- Have completed at least 90% of their online profile in the MCAA portal and have it updated by the time of the application, including a recent profile picture (To update the profile, members can click on their name on top of the screen (they must be logged in). Then click on the Action button on the right and click “Edit”)

- Not receive funding from any other European Commission source for the same activity. If funding arises after the submission of the application, the MCAA should be informed;

- Have a bank account in a country that is not affected by restrictive measures imposed by the European Union (Cuba, Iran, Korea Dem. People’s Rep, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Russia) affecting the transfer of money. Please note that, currently, the MCAA cannot reimburse any legal entities in Hungary (not applicable to individuals) due to the restriction imposed as part of Horizon Europe.

Furthermore, there are two additional rules:

- Current MSCA fellows, as of the date of the conference, should be able to use their MSCA funding for the MCAA GA. Before applying for an MGAG, members should contact their supervisors about this possibility.

- MGAGs cannot be attributed retrospectively.

3. MGAGs — From application to reimbursement

Summary of steps

Important note: The application per se does not give applicants the right to receive any or part of the funds requested. Applicants who depend on the financial support of the MGAG to attend the MCAA GA are strongly advised to refrain from making any expenditures before being informed of the results of their applications. The MCAA is not responsible for any expenses incurred by applicants before the joint concurrence of the following: (a) the evaluation process has been finalised, (b) the MCAA has communicated the results to applicants, and (c) the awarded applicants have confirmed the acceptance of the MGAGs. Likewise, the MCAA will not reimburse members for any travel or accommodation costs incurred if the MCAA GA is not attended (whatever the reasons).

Evaluation and communication of results

The MCAA Executive Committee will decide the approval or rejection of  MGAG applications with the support of the Operational Team, who will mostly take into consideration the information available in the submitted application and the profile on the MCAA web portal.

During the evaluation, the MCAA will give extra weight to:

- Unemployed members

- Members with no funding from their current work/projects

- Members with active volunteering to the MCAA

If one or more of the above conditions are met, this should be clearly indicated in the application form. 

The following timelines and rules will apply:

- Decisions concerning the award of MGAG will be communicated by email from January 26^th 2024. (The applicants will be contacted at the main email registered in their MCAA profile; therefore, keeping it up to date is essential.)

- Awarded applicants must confirm the acceptance of the MGAG by 10th of February 2024.

- If the application is valid, though not selected in the 1st round of decisions, it might be placed on a waiting list to be considered later. Waiting list applications will be notified by 17^th February 2024 as to whether they will receive a MGAG. In these cases, applicants must confirm the grant's acceptance and register to the GA by 20th of February 2024.

- The applications of awarded members who did not confirm the acceptance of the MGAG and/or did not register to the GA by the above-mentioned dates will be cancelled, and the funds will be allocated to other applicants. 

Reimbursement procedure and rules

In order to be reimbursed for the expenses covered by the MGAG, members must:

- Fill up the reimbursement form

- Attach all supporting documents (see details in the table below).

Payments of expenses will be made by the MCAA within 20 to 30 days from the date of reception of all documents required, and bank details.

Eligible costs:

Category	Supporting documents to submit
Travel costs(when applicable)	- Booking confirmation / Invoice (the price must be indicated) (not required when the travel date AND the price are indicated in the travel tickets). - Boarding passes / travel tickets.
Accommodation(when applicable)	Accommodation invoice (hotel, AirBnb, etc.).
Participation to event/activity(mandatory)	Signature of the “attendance form” onsite. Members must show either a valid European ID card or passport.

The following reimbursement rules apply:

- Reimbursement can only be paid after the end of the GA, and after verifying that the awarded attended the GA. Participants to the GA will have to sign an attendance form, for which it is mandatory to show a valid ID card or passport.  

- Members must submit the reimbursement form (including scanned copies of all supporting documents) up to 20 days following the end of the GA.

- Members are not required to submit the original (paper) receipts/invoices by the time they submit the reimbursement form. However, members are obliged to keep them for at least five (5) years, as the MCAA and/or the European Commission may, on any occasion, ask for them for auditing purposes. If the member does not wish to keep the originals for such a period, they can send them to the MCAA: Avenue des Arts 24, 1000 Brussels.

- The reimbursement will be calculated based on actual costs, that is, the sum of all eligible receipts/documents presented at the time of the reimbursement submission, and considering the maximum amount established for the MGAG and agreed upon by the member. Expenses for which members have not submitted a supported document will not be reimbursed.

- Members will not be reimbursed for any cost if they have not attended the GA, whatever the reason is, including reasons which are beyond the member's control (such as a visa denial or event cancellation). Members attending the MCAA Annual Conference but not the GA will not be reimbursed either.

- As members are not legal employees of the MCAA, but eventually contribute to the community on a volunteer basis, the MCAA will not pay any form of remuneration to members and provides no insurance cover for accidents that might happen while the member travels to and from the GA. For these reasons, members are advised to ensure that they have adequate insurance that would cover any delays, cancellations or accidents.

- Any banking fees charged for money transfers, or for currency exchanges, or for any other similar reason, shall be deducted from the sum to be paid to the members who receive the MGAG. The MCAA will not check the validity of bank details for countries outside of the EU; thus, any bank fees resulting from failed transactions will be charged to the member.

- Due to restrictive measures imposed by the EU, it is not possible to transfer payments to several countries, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russian Federation, Sudan, and Syria). Please note that, currently, the MCAA cannot reimburse any legal entities in Hungary due to the restriction imposed as part of Horizon Europe.

- Expenses done in a currency other than Euro will be converted into Euros using the office Commission exchange rate: https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/procedures-guidelines-tenders/information-contractors-and-beneficiaries/exchange-rate-inforeuro_en

What happens if applicants cannot use the MG awarded?

The MCAA has a limited budget for MGAGs, which means that only part of the applicants can benefit from this financial support.

Since these are funds provided by the European Commission, the money not used by the end of the Grant Agreement that the MCAA has with the Commission must be returned by October 2024.

When the MCAA awards an MGAG, the amount of the grant is earmarked and is part of the accounting and of the planning of all Microgrants.

Hence, members who were awarded an MGAG but that for some reason cannot use it, must inform the MCAA about the situation ASAP before the date of the GA so the MCAA can free those funds and allocate the money to other applicants.

Awardees who fail to timely inform the MCAA about the impossibility of using the MGAG  might be prevented from applying to other Microgrants for a period of 12 months.In case of any questions, please address the MCAA through [email protected].