National Contact Points in France
Hi everyone,
This is a follow up concerning the survey on National Contact Points (NCP) in France. After the survey, I have contacted the NCPs and have discussed with Sandrine Schott-Carriere - who is the coordinator for the NCPs in France - about the different issues that have arisen from this survey. You will find below a summary of both the results of the survey and the comments and outcomes of the discussion I had with Mrs Schott-Carriere.
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Unless the participant provided her/his details, the survey was anonymous. 18 persons have participated among which 10 of them have contacted a NCP in France and 8 have not.
1. Overall, you are satisfied with your Marie Curie National Contact Point (NCP) in France
The ratio of satisfied/unsatisfied participants is of 50/50.
2. It was easy to get the contact details of a NCP based in France
It appears that not everyone knows about NCPs - Who they are? What they do? When and how to contact them?
I will receive in a near future a presentation that answer these questions and will post it here as soon as I receive it.
In the meantime, you can find the contact details of the NCPs here: http://www.horizon2020.gouv.fr/cid73946/le-pcn-actions-marie-curie.html.
3. You received a fast reply from your NCP
Half of the participants received a fast reply from the NCP. The other half did not.
There is only one email address to reach all the NCPs. Mrs Schott-Carriere admitted that, for various reasons, emails can be skipped. If this happens to you, do not hesitate to contact them back until you get an answer. E.g.: I had to contact them twice to get in touch with Mrs Schott-Carriere. On my second email, I was in touch with her on her private line in less than a hour.
4. The NCP was able to help you solve your issue or to provide useful information
Among the ten persons who contacted the NCPs, 3 participants are extremely satisfied by the help provided by the NCPs. The other participants were not satisfied.
If they can help you solve an issue, the NCPs will help you. However, they cannot solve all of the problems. To find out if it is appropriate to contact the NCPs or not, I will invite you to have a look at their presentation as soon as it will be available here.
In the meantime, I receive the following link where you will find many documents (in French) that can help you solve possible issues related to MSCA: http://www.horizon2020.gouv.fr/cid79134/boite-outils-pour-les-actions-marie-sklodowska-curie.html. Although it is out of this context, you will also find here documents to help you write and get an EU grant.
Some participants mentioned they contacted the NCPs to solve issues they had with their HR and the NCP “simply” forwarded their emails to the HR. I have suggested to Mrs Schott-Carriere that, in future situations like this, NCPs inform the fellows about her/his intention and ask for permission before contacting the HR. She has agreed and will inform the other NCPs about this.
5. About the participants
The happier participants are women who are over 30 y-o whereas the unsatisfied participants are mostly 30+ men. I have no idea if this is representative and if there is a direct correlation with how cases are handled but, just in case, I mentioned it. Hopefully, NCPs will still look after 30+ y-o (grumpy) men.
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The NCPs were surprised to hear about “complaints”. Mrs Schott-Carriere said she was glad to receive this feedback as it will help NCPs to improve the way they support us. Since this was the aim here, I hope it will.
From now on, I suggest using this thread if you have questions or comments about NCP.
Thanks to those of you who participated in the survey!
Yves
