Ashwani Kumar Tiwari
New Doctoral Networks (DN) - facing some issues
Hi all,
I was wondering whether someone is already on board a new Doctoral Network granted in the last (first) HE call. If yes, perhaps you could help me with two questions:
1) Having the limit of 10 Doctoral Candidates (DC) also reduces the amount to be withheld by the coordinator as “Central Management Budget” (usually a fix amount per person-month). Are your organisations providing some financial support to this?
2) The work-programme – about selection procedure of DC – it clearly states the vacancies must include the gross salary (excl. employer’s social contributions) offered to the researchers. What is your experience? Are HR departments providing / willing to provide these amounts? (A tricky issue for our beneficiaries).
Any feedback will be much appreciated! Many thanks in advance and wishing you all a good day,
Best, -Paz
4 Comments
Many thanks, Laurian!
This is very helpful. (Our university does not plan either to top-up the central budget with extra financial support).
Kind regards, -Paz
Dear Paz,
If that helps, we had also in mind increasing the percentage.
Best, Olivia
Dear Paz,
In addition to Laurian's comment (we are from the same organisation): I also believe transparancy is important and I don't really understand the issue with the gross salary, as this should be equal to the unit costs that the researcher can claim during their recruitment period (living+mobility+family and now additionally special needs and long-term leave allowance). These are all listed in the workprogramme, which is publicly available:https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2021-2022/wp-2-msca-actions_horizon-2021-2022_en.pdf.
There are merely some country specific regulations of how the salary is built-up (for example, student salaries in the Netherlands increase per year, but by the end of their project, the students will have made the exact amount by the end of the project, as required by the EU)
With kind regards, Kimberley
Dear Paz,
No experience yet, so I don't know whether my opinion is of any help, but as far as I know our institute will not provide extra financial support, but it all depends on what you plan to do from the central management budget. you can either increase the percentage you'll keep behind with the coordinator, OR you can "do less".
Regarding the gross salary, isn't that in general what you have to provide when you hire people? In my opinion you should be transparent, also to avoid problems later on.
Have a great day!
Laurian