Experience with Doctoral Networks call 2021

Framework programme changes are very demanding, both for the researchers and the support stuff. I hope that the EC will involve research support staff more in the development of the new framework programme as well as the work programmes. For example, we experiences a higher burden to arrange letters of support which were not needed in previous ITNs (as a university medical centre linked to a university, a letter of support to commit to training of ESRs was not needed in earlier years but in 2021 it was). I hope this will not be mandatory in the 2022 call. We did have more proposals (4 out of 12 coordinatorships) granted than previous years, due to a lower amount of submissions (~30% overall for the DN call versus ITN). Therefore, I hope we will be just as successfull in the upcoming DN calls :) I also hope that an extension of the NCP network (Net4Mobility+) will set-up an annotated template for the DNs, like they did with the ITNs: https://www.net4mobilityplus.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/N4M__MSCA_ITN_Handbook_2020.pdf