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Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Roy Someshwar, MCAA Treasurer Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Snežana Krstić, MCAA Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Axelle Viré, MCAA Vice-Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Kiran Kumar Chereddy, MCAA Ordinary Board Member
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The MCAA German Chapter’s career seminar

Dr Cahill, could you please tell us about the German Chapter's recent activities?

The German Chapter was founded in January 2015. Only four people attended the kick-off meeting. For obvious reason, increasing membership was the first item on the agenda.

A general frustration in Germany for decades has been associated with the issues of taxation, salary and pensions for Marie Curie Fellows. It is difficult to “solve” these problems but we have tried to address them. A tax advisor made a well-received talk at the career seminar. I summarised the relevant issues for mobile researchers in Germany with regard to pensions. We have secured the agreement of the National Contact Point (NCP) to draft a joint document that explains these contentious tax/salary/pension issues in the English language. I have made contact with the team from http://www.findyourpension.eu/ and have asked them to present to our members on “pension literacy” in 2016.

We promote awareness of research funding in Germany and the EU through agencies, such as, KoWi, DFG, Humboldt Foundation and DAAD.

Our main activity was the organisation of our Career Choices Seminar at the Technische Universität (TU) Darmstadt on 10 June 2015.

How many members does the Chapter count right now?

Our current membership is 344. We have many members who live in Germany, but we also have members of German nationality living abroad. A larger membership means that we can organise larger events. It also opens more possibilities for networking among Chapter members. Having a larger membership also makes networking with other organisations easier. Other organisations want to know that by talking to us they can find several of our members, who they can help to found start-ups or write successful grant proposals for a research group. The large potential membership in Germany opens up many opportunities for the Chapter.

Which issues are considered priorities?

Initially we decided to set these issues as priorities:

  • growing the Chapter membership;
  • addressing the issues that our membership has with regards to tax/salary/pension in Germany;
  • organising a career event;
  • organising a science communication event.

You organised a career seminar, how did it go?

Career Seminar in Darmstadt We decided to focus on careers because a lot of the available information on making a career for yourself in Germany is only available in the German language. For example, almost all of the information on founding a start-up is only available in German and proposals for the most relevant start-up funding for young graduates must be written in German. We can provide information in English on such career topics to our members. This information can be specifically targeted to their interests. Many of our members come from parts of Europe that have suffered greatly in the recent financial crisis (I come from Ireland myself) and making a career in Germany is a definite career option. We focused on the choices facing Marie Curie Fellows at the end of their PhD or postdoctoral fellowship – should I continue in academia, find a job in industrial research or found my own start-up. We also had a lecture on publishing from the perspective of a journal editor, a presentation on constructive communication and an explanation of how the German tax system works by a tax accountant. The most enthusiastic response by far was for the tax accountant. She gained many customers. A little over 90 people registered and more than 70 attended the meeting. The majority were not previously members of MCAA. Many others joined MCAA but didn‘t attend the meeting. Early stage researchers made up two thirds of the audience.

Do you have any tips to share on how to organise and advertise such events?

Very often the first step of organising such an event is to look for sponsorship. This can delay the organisation greatly if a sponsor isn’t found quickly. I had time pressure from day one: My wife was expecting a child at the end of August and I preferred to set a date for the career event at least two months before the due date. I wanted that we first decide when and where the event would take place. The location is a balance between where local support is available and where the prospective audience/speakers are located – Darmstadt was by far the best location. Once the time and place are decided, book the room and get a quote for the catering. You are now working to a deadline.

Secondly you will need to find the topics and speakers. MCAA members have a wide spectrum of research interests – we tried to keep the topics as subject-neutral as possible. We defined particular topics we wanted to address and then tried to find speakers who were located close to Darmstadt (two hours by train). The name Marie Curie Alumni Association was welcomed with great respect by the potential speakers we contacted. We invited three local speakers, who didn’t need travelling expenses – a tax accountant, a host professor and a start-up advisor from the university’s technology transfer office. We invited speakers from German research organisations, who have their own budget for making business trips and don’t need travel expenses. We invited two speakers from within the alumni MCAA membership. Our own Alumni membership is definitely a resource for finding speakers. We have many good “role models” within our membership.

Thirdly we advertised the event with details of time, place and speakers. After initial advertising on the MCAA Web Portal, we received very little response. We then decided to advertise directly to hosts and current Fellows and particularly to those who were not yet MCAA members. We contacted as many people involved in Marie Curie fellowships in Germany as we could find. It is easier to find host-led fellows – Innovative Training Networks (ITN) and COFUND projects have their own websites. We found that advertising to hosts was particularly efficient. These events are of value to hosts because career development training is necessary for all Fellows. Advertising an event drives MCAA and Chapter Membership. Some of the hosts even joined MCAA.

The commitment of the local team is very important. They are responsible for a huge amount of work in the days and weeks before the event. Vignesh and Ehsanul, our two board members in Darmstadt, did tremendous work. In addition, they gained strong support from their host institute.

How did you finance the seminar?

The main issue we faced was that we had a Chapter budget of €1 000 for the year and the catering for the event was estimated as €1 300  for 70-100 people. We decided that we would ask each member to pay €20. We found out that charging a small amount did not adversely affect registration or attendance and covered catering expenses. Some participants paid the money from their own pockets. Other participants wanted to charge the fee to their project budget. Inova+ very helpfully looked after invoicing for us. Inova+ found out that our seminar in Germany was covered by Belgian law and that MCAA does not need to pay any Value Added Tax (VAT) on attendance fees. This is interesting information for any future MCAA training events across Europe.

In future we will be more active in looking for sponsorship. Approaching a company for sponsorship and allowing them to promote themselves as an attractive corporate employer is easily imaginable in Germany.

How can the MCAA support this kind of event?

The MCAA can define a strategy for organising training events. It could be an interesting business niche for MCAA: the issues are our core interests, hosts will support such events, mobile researchers want such courses in English (not the local language) and we have a large membership of mobile researchers. There are plenty of issues that are of particular relevance to the MCAA members: career development, innovation, start-ups, soft skills, science communication, dual careers and grant writing. Our career event used content from external speakers. We must develop our own speakers and content – that requires hard work. Every Marie Curie fellowship includes the need for Fellows to partake in career development training, outreach activities and Researchers’ Night, and for such activities to be detailed in proposals and in reports. MCAA Chapters can focus their energy on such activities and become the brand name for training and outreach. Participation of our Alumni members in MCAA can be a positive point for their own grant proposals. Host organisations are very open to hosting our events and paying for career development training.

Did you learn anything while organising this event that you would like to share with the other Members?

The networking of the Chapter was much strengthened. Most importantly, our own members appreciate real activity. Secondly, we improved the awareness of hosts and national agencies that the MCAA exists and is a serious organisation. Thirdly, the MCAA Executive and Contractors gave great support to our efforts. The MCAA contractors are professional administrators that work for us. That is really very valuable.

We learnt that MCAA Chapters can provide career development training for Marie Curie Fellows that host organisations are willing to pay for.

Our members were empowered to become active in MCAA. I was approached by many members on the day, who had great ideas for further events.

What is the German Chapter's strategy for the year ahead? What activities do you foresee?

In 2016 we are planning the following events:

  • career event for humanities and social sciences, Berlin;
  • second career event;
  • negotiating participation in Researchers’ Night proposal for 2016 and 2017;
  • Café Scientifique in Cologne.
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