Paid extensions of MSCA projects following disruptions caused by COVID-19 pandemic

Hi Keti,

I am in a similar situation...I requested an extension to my project officer and they have declined it, they also told me I need to spend my budget before my project ends, which is a bit unfair considering everything... I am not sure on how to proceed.

Best wishes,

Hi Julia,

I know that it was a Survey to complete.

I know that there is this petition

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/community_petitions/mscareaec_representatives_paid_extensions_of_msca_projects_following_disruptions_caused_by_covid19_pandemic/?emMACndb&utm_source=sharetools&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition-912955-paid_extensions_of_msca_projects_following_disruptions_caused_by_covid19_pandemic&utm_term=MACndb%2Ben

My perseptions are that we cannot act individually and that scientific or not press should report this situation.

I m not aware, here in the website or elsewhere, how is the MSCA Association acting?

Hi Julia,

I know that it was a Survey to complete.

I know that there is this petition

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/community_petitions/mscareaec_representatives_paid_extensions_of_msca_projects_following_disruptions_caused_by_covid19_pandemic/?emMACndb&utm_source=sharetools&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition-912955-paid_extensions_of_msca_projects_following_disruptions_caused_by_covid19_pandemic&utm_term=MACndb%2Ben

My perseptions are that we cannot act individually and that scientific or not press should report this situation.

I m not aware, here in the website or elsewhere, how is the MSCA Association acting?

Hi Keti,

The MCAA Board does a huge amount of positive work promoting MCAA and MSCA researchers. The Policy Working Group is one of the most active and effective Working Groups. MCAA has made giant steps in the last years and is continually becoming more effective on a policy level.

I asked Alejandro Manzano Marín to write an article for EuroScientist: Early-Career Researchers’ prospects during COVID-19: Costed extensions denied to MSCA researchers amid a discourse of support from the EU This article summarises the issue, many of the initiatives undertaken so far and the response from the MSCA.

MCAA also covered COVID in its Newsletter from April that was prepared in the first weeks of the crisis in March.

The European Universities Association is working on how COVID affects doctoral schools and has collected a lot of data that can be used in lobbying national governments. The French "Réseau National de Collèges Doctoraux" has negotiated extensions for PhD candidates in France from the French government.

The MCAA Board is liaising with the MSCA Unit and the REA. MCAA is carrying out a survey, which aims to allow the Unit/REA assess how much budget they would need to assign to deal with this issue. Hundreds of MCAA members have filled out the survey. It's already quite late but if you have not done so already, please fill out the survey. Negotiating with serious partners generally works better when you can provide solid evidence.

MCAA has almost 16,000 members but many current fellows are not yet MCAA members. If you know any current MSCA researchers that aren't already members of MCAA, please encourage them to join. Ask your supervisors/project coordinators to join MCAA. It is easier to reach out to members, when an issue like COVID emerges.

It is likely that both MSCA and REA do not have much spare budget this late in H2020. 99.995% of the budget is already spent or allocated. Political lobbying for extra funding is not only "fighting" with MSCA/REA but also positive promotion of MSCA and the excellent researchers supported by MSCA, who achieve huge positive impact thoughout the world in their further careers. MCAA does a huge amount of this sort of promotion. Lobbying for extra funding for MSCA may be more effective above the level of MSCA itself, that is,

• Director General for Education and Culture Themis Christophidou (plenary speaker at MCAA Annual Conference in 2019),
• Research Commissioner Mariya Gabriel,
• Commission President von der Leyen and
• National Governments/Ministries for Research/Science/Innovation/Education.

The budget for Horizon Europe is not yet fully agreed. At the moment the Commission has requested an extra €13.5b in new funding because of COVID. There is a lot of "good will" for MSCA but very little visible lobbying for extra support. It is very likely there will be no real increase in funding for MSCA in Horizon Europe and the number of applications has been increasing steadily for years. A very tiny part of this €13.5b could be used to extend MSCA contracts.

What does lobbying for MSCA look like? Many researchers, research managers and also prominent people and organisations (including MCAA) are lobbying through the "Friends of the ERC" to secure sufficient funding for the ERC. I agree that protecting the ERC is very important (many MCAA members win ERC grants) but there should be more prominent support for MSCA too.

I don't know of any coordinated campaign to protect MSCA. Keti's original post is basically asking MCAA to provide this voice and gather a wide coalition of stakeholders to support it. Just like "Friends of the ERC". I would be on board!

All the Best,

Brian

Dear Brian,

You got my point!

I fill that not allowing an extension for the MSCA contracts is creating a good amount of discrimination between us and other funding bodies and the past and future MSCA fellows which have been able to complete their projects, publish and look at the next step for ERC grants.

Many thanks Brian for your impressive efforts!

Best,

Keti

Dear all,

I am sorry to hear how the current pandemics is negatively impacting the development of your projects. For those who may need, information on flexibility measures put in place for MSCA projects can be found HERE and HERE.

The MCAA board has been receiving many messages of distress from our members and we are effectively following up on this situation. Here is a list of the main initiatives we have taken so far: 

- MCAA board officially supported this petition by MCAA member, Alejandro Manzano Marín. Our Policy WG issued this statement.

- The petition was promoted both in our social media as well as in our newsletter, with several interviews to fellows on the impact of the pandemics on their projects.

- We had a meeting between the MCAA Board, MSCA Unit of EC and REA to discuss the fellows' complains and demands. 

- As an outcome of the meeting, we launched this survey for all the current MSCA fellows and already received over 300 responses. This survey was extensively promoted on various MCAA platforms. We are at the closing phase of the survey and in the process of informing the results to the MSCA Unit. 

Based on the survey results, we are writing a few recommendations for the MSCA Unit and REA which can help to provide solutions on individual cases. We hope these will help. However, considering the current perspective, we fear it is highly unlikely that all the current fellows will get an automatic extension. Nevertheless, as an association, we are helping our members to communicate their opinion to the policymakers. 

We have been bringing to the knowledge of the MSCA Unit and REA independent initiatives of MCAA members such as an open letter from IF fellows to the presidency of the European Commission. Do let us know of any other initiatives, we will make sure these will reach the MSCA Unit and REA.

If you or any of the members have any suggestions, feel free to write to us.

(editing: oh, and by the way, I will bring your suggestion to the board Brian, thanks!)

Best wishes

Fernanda

(Vice-Chair of the MCAA board and executive committee)

Hi everyone, I am in a bit of the same situation. We are trying to suspend my project and to apply for Furlough by the UK government to gain more time. Apparently UK-based researcher are eligible for Furlough if the MCF has been suspended. However I am still in the midst of figuring out the details. You might also want to think about going part-time to extend the project duration? Hope this helps.Best, Susanne

Similar to Susanne, currently considering the UK Furlough Scheme, though this was not what I wished for (i.e. I wanted a real extension of 3 months). My Fellowship supposed to end in September this year but have not been able to access archives which are the basis of my project. In addition, for those who finish this year, we're facing a dreadful employment/work market situation comres October. I think that this should be taken into account as well.

The Furlough needs to be organised in close collaboration with your Research Office if you want to know more about it do contact them. They're the ones who will liaise between you, the University/HR and the PO. For me there has been a lot of back and forth emails as we constantly need clarification. I certainly understand that this is unprecedented for the EU and that urgent health & safety measures needed to be prioritized the past 2 months. However, yes, many of us have been critically affected. Above all, I find that the point about person-months in the FAQ (should not be hiding in the corner of a FAQ by the way when it's so significant) which explains why the EU does not allow extensions of IF MSCA grants is discriminatory - favors ERC scholars, beneficiaries of larger grants, who yet (at least usually) have a more stable situation than Individual Fellows.

Have signed the petition and will do the survey. That's all I can say from my end to you Keti as I'm not aware of anything else that's being done. Have very little hope something better will crop up but let's keep our hopes up for now. Best of luck to youse all. 

Dear All,

thank you very much for your messages and for raising this problem.

I am part of an MSCA Innovative Training Network, I don't have an Individual Fellowship, but I am enrolled in a PhD program at a UK university under an MSCA scheme and some of my colleagues in the ITN are also UK-based. We are in the same situation, with our Project Manager trying to lobby the EU and our PO for an extension, given that some Universities are not supporting PhD students, but some UK funding bodies are (Wellcome Trust, UKRI). 

I was wondering whether we could also join the petition/survey, or if those are only specific for IF? It would be very important to us, given that we are also in our final year of the PhD, with the end date due in September 2020.

Many thanks

Best wishes,

Cristina 

Dear all,

thank you for sharing this information. Did any of you manage to enter the Furlough Scheme? 

In my case, my research officer at the University of Manchester told me straight away that the University would not assist me in any way, should I interrupt my project (which I did for caring duties because of COVID). 

However, if other universities have fourloughed their Marie Curie Fellows, then this looks like arbitrary behavior that would be worth raising with Brussels. 

Best regards,

Sofia

Hi,

MSC-IF at the University of Oxford here. Sorry for commenting on a somehow old thread, I have joined recently and my membership request for this chapter is still pending. Maybe I will be we able to open a new discussion when it will be approved, in this case I will do that.

I do not know how many IF are aware of the fact that they can use the unspent RTN costs for salary, at least in theory. This has been said to me by my project officer already in April 2020. It is far from being an ideal solution - in my case, my project started in September 2019, so on the whole I have had one year of disruptions and the impact is simply huge. Also, this would mean less RTN funds. And, I do not know how many institutions are keen to consider this solution - I have started a discussion with mine and apparently they are not. Are there other MC fellows who tried this, especially at Oxford? And, any recent news about how the initiatives mentioned in the above messages are panning out?

Best,

Matilde