Grants Transparency, Accountability and Control

Dear all,

I am relatively new here, but I have both a personal (ITN ESR 2015-2018) as well as affiliated experience from other ESRs of Marie-Curie ITNs and I am completely astonished with the way funds are handled by universities and institutions in relation to ESRs.

I have seen many cases of complete lack of transparency, accountability and control over the spending of the research budget of ESRs and as I am now in the position of writing proposals and leading projects instead of fighting for budget, I believe I owe this to the community of researchers who are struggling under the (very often totalitarian control) of their supervisors in relation to their research budget.

My knowledge from the discussions with the project officers of my own ITN was that the research budget is there to support the ESRs and cannot be arbitrarily controlled by their supervisors.
I am interested in understanding the institutional instruments for controlling the (currently uncontrolled) supervisors and to give support to ESRs to demand what is theirs.

Is there anyone else that has faced or is facing such issues?
Is anyone interested in pursuing this challenge with me?
I, personally, fell that I owe this to myself.

All best,
Angelos Chronis