net4mobility+ · proposal checks, info days and broad dissemination activities. corina...

N4M+ project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No 785632

Net4Mobility+

Network of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions National Contact Points for the mobile scientific and innovation community

Deliverable No: 2.2:

1st Participant Book: MSCA Individual Fellowships: How to attract & retain talented

researchers and how to advise on MSCA-IF proposal writing

Issued by: APRE Issued data: May 2019 Work Package Leader: APRE (IT)

1st Participant Book: IF: How to attract and retain talented researchers and to advise on MSCA-IF proposal writing

N4M+ (H2020 GA No. 785632) 2 MSCA NCP Network: www.net4mobilityplus.eu

Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 2

2. INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIPS (IF): HOW TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN TALENTED RESEARCHERS .................... 3

2.1 Ca' Foscari University: The Marie Curie+1 programme ..................................................................... 3

2.2 University of Padova: Seal of Exellence as potential instrument ...................................................... 3

2.3 Politecnico di Milano: MSCA EF MASTER CLASS 2019 @ POLIMI ...................................................... 4

3. BEST PRACTICES OF 3 NCPS ....................................................................................................................... 5

4. HOW TO ADVISE ON MSCA-IF PROPOSAL WRITING.................................................................................. 6

5. GROUP EXERCISES ..................................................................................................................................... 7

6. PRESENTATIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 8

7. ANNEXES .................................................................................................................................................... 8

1. INTRODUCTION As indicated in the project DoA (Description of Action), a summary of the materials provided for every

training on MSCA issues will be prepared in a form of a “Participant Book” for further use by the NCPs in

their everday work. It will include the Power Point presentations, specific documents, exercises and case

studies. All the material will be also available on CIRCABC.

The 1st Participant Book contains a short description of each session carried out in Venice during the

training “Individual Fellowships (IF): How to attract and retain talented researchers and how to advide on

MSCA-IF proposal writing”, a syntesis of all presented cases studies and link to the presentations.

The objective of this training was to enhance the competences, knowledge and skills of the MSCA NCP

network related to the MSCA- IF to be later on disseminated by NCPs at national, regional and local level.

The training was structured in two days, the first one was more theoretical and focused on the

enhancement of researchers’ attractiveness by institutions and the second one, more practical, was on how

to support and advise applicants at the writing stage.

In addition, the participants had the chance to know in depth the future of MSCA in Horizon Europe, the

opportunities for hosts (how to find the researchers) including good Italian practices, as well as to get in

touch with the MSCA evaluators and fellows for direct suggestions on how to write successful proposals.

http://www.net4mobilityplus.eu/



2. INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIPS (IF): HOW TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN

TALENTED RESEARCHERS The first day of the training was dedicated to good practices in attracting and retaining talented

researchers. The NCPs started with a Brainstorming exercise on the topic: "IFs for hosts - how to find their

researchers". Afterwards the NCPs were presented with several good practice examples from Italian IF

Hosts as well as from NCPs. Here is a summary of these good practices:

2.1 Ca' Foscari University: The Marie Curie+1 programme Ca’ Foscari becomes the first university to provide a 'Marie Skłodowska-Curie' fellow with a tenure-track

position.

An Italian ministerial decree in 2015, foresees this possibility of tenure-track recruitment for researchers

who have been awarded a three-year project financed by the prestigious European research grant “Marie

Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowships”.

In 2015, Ca’ Foscari has already inaugurated new

approaches for direct call recruitment through “open call”

mechanisms, directed towards the most noteworthy

researchers on the International scope, and new

incentives for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellows with

the Marie Curie+1 programme that offers the fellows a

scholarship extension in order to complete their activities

and activate new lines of research.

Ca’ Foscari continues to invest in quality of research, in

practices aimed towards attracting the greatest talents in

Italy and around the world, and to support the researchers by offering infrastructure and maintaining

support to facilitate their participation in networks and research funding internationally.

Thanks to “Marie Curie +1” programme, the winners of the MSCA-IF who choose Ca' Foscari as a host

organization, will be assisted in their career development by the university which offers scholars - an

additional paid year, on their contract to consolidate the results of their research or their position within

the university.

With “plus one”, the University funds a “fourth” year of the “Marie Skłodowska-Curie” programme, during

which the researchers will consolidate their results and plan new developments aiming at a prestigious and

competitive funding: the Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC).

2.2 University of Padova: Seal of Exellence as potential instrument The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are funded under the European Commission's Horizon 2020

programme and aim at supporting the training and career development of researchers. In particular,

Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) finance transnational mobility for a period of 12 to 36 months.

Starting with the MSCA 2016 Call, the European Commission has automatically awarded the "Seal of

Excellence - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions" to high quality MSCA-IF proposals which scored 85/100 or

above and passed the quality threshold, but could not be funded due to budget limits under a given call.

The Seal of Excellence recognizes the value of a project proposal and guarantees that it has passed a highly

competitive evaluation process, thus being recommended for funding by other sources, at national,

regional or local level.




Through the investment programme called "Talent in Research", the University of Padova aims at

supporting excellent research to be conducted

within its premises. This Initiative is intended to

attract young researchers carrying out high quality,

innovative and ambitious research, with the final

goal of strengthening the University’s ability to gain

external competitive funding. In the framework of

the programme “Talent in Research” and with a

view to encouraging a wider participation in the

MSCA-IF calls and looking forward to collaborating

with the most qualified researchers, the University

of Padova has introduced the “MSCA Seal of

Excellence @UniPD” which only concerns projects that receive the Seal of Excellence under the MSCA-IF

Call 2017 and 2018 (scored of 85% or above). Through a dedicated call for applications addressed to

researchers of all citizenships, this funding programme assigns a grant of 50,000 Euro per year to projects

that have the University of Padova as their planned Host Institution and, despite not being funded, have

obtained the "Seal of Excellence - MSC Actions". It covers a the costs for the researcher’s employment

contract (40.000 Euros/year) and budget for research, training and networking (10.000 Euros/year).

Researchers are not eligible for funding if: they

benefit from other funding, specifically assigned

for the implementation of the research activities

envisaged by their proposed project; they

already benefit from an employment contract at

the University of Padova. Moreover, for

researchers that have received the Seal of

Excellence and are included in the Reserve list

indicated by the EC, the funding they should

receive under the university’s call shall be

suspended until they were re-selected from the

Reserve list.

2.3 Politecnico di Milano: MSCA EF MASTER CLASS 2019 @ POLIMI Politecnico di Milano is launching the second edition of the Master Class call (MSCA EF MASTER CLASS

2019 @ POLIMI) for potential applicants to the MSCA - European Individual Fellowship call 2019.

The aim of the call is to attract and train young and talented researchers to successfully applying for MSCA

European Fellowship with the Politecnico di Milano as the host institution. Application deadline: April

17th 2019.

Candidates will be pre-selected based on their expression of interest, CV and motivation. In order to apply

the applicants must choose one of the “Supervisors project proposals”. The Politecnico di Milano team will

verify candidates eligibility and send the applications to the Supervisors taking in consideration the choice

expressed by candidates in their application forms. The Supervisors will select one candidate per each

“Supervisor project proposal”. The selected candidates will be contacted by the Politecnico di Milano team

and will be invited to attend the 3-days MSCA MASTER CLASS (10-12 June 2019).

The MASTER CLASS will allow the promising candidates to meet their supervisors, to visit laboratories and

facilities, to attend an in-depth training course on the proposal writing and to make use of full support of




POLIMI advisors in the application writing process. Applications are open for projects to be presented in 7

MSCA Evaluation Panels (Mathematics panel is excluded). The University will organize and cover directly

the travel and accommodations expenses (a maximum reimbursement of 2.500 euro) for the selected

candidates

Candidate fellows and supervisors will be guided throughout the whole application process with deadline

on 11thSeptember 2019. Only those who get funding through the European Commission’s MSCA IF

programme will be admitted to the University.

There are three main requirements of eligibility:

Applicants must have a PhD (or equivalent

research experience of at least four years’ full

time research experience by the time of the call

deadline: September 11th 2019)

Applicants can be of any nationality but

must not have lived or worked in Italy for more

than 12 months during the three years up to the

closing date of the call (mobility rule)

The applicants must choose the

Politecnico di Milano as their Host Institution

3. BEST PRACTICES OF 3 NCPS After the presentation of best practices from Italian Host Institutions, 3 NCPs from widening countries

presented best practices in attracting talents:

Gabriella Tchouprenska (NCP Bulgaria):

Bulgaria has attractive research infrastructures, recognized

researchers, good experience in EU projects and excellent

human research management policies: such as special

measures to retain fellows on permanent positions after the

end of projects.

Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at

the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IICT) with its cutting

edge equipment and expertise, is an example of a strong

participant in various EU projects,. Moreover, incoming

Individual Fellows in H2020 have remained at the institute after their fellowships ended.

Last autumn Bulgaria adopted a Seal of Excellence initiative to attract talents. The initiative is implemented

by the Bulgarian Science Fund for a period of 7 years. 10 projects are expected to be funded during the first

call: MSCA eligible proposals for 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Margarida Santos (NCP Portugal):

Portugal has been remarkably successful in the first year of

the Widening Fellowships programme, with 21 funded IF and

12 WF in IF 2018 call. Portugal is an attractive place to live

and do research, but the efforts of the Portuguese GPPQ -

Framework Programme Promotion Office, also seems to

have an impact. Their goal is to promote Portuguese

participation in the EU Framework Programmes by offering




support, advice and assistance to potential Portuguese participants. This is done through e.g. training,

proposal checks, info days and broad dissemination activities.

Corina Abraham-Barna (NCP Romania):

The Romanian initiatives for attracting talents have been mostly carried out through:

a) strategic databases such as the Research infrastructures database & map ERRIS erris.gov.ro and the

HR: Researchers’ database BrainMap www.brainmap.ro

b) fellowship programs such as Fellowships for Scientific Diaspora. Romania has one of the highest

share of researchers working abroad so a targeted action towards Romanian diaspora is

implemented

c) cooperation with Marie Curie Alumni Association.

4. HOW TO ADVISE ON MSCA-IF PROPOSAL WRITING On the second day of the training the NCPs received an inspiring presentation with hints and tips from the

IF EC evaluator - Diego Calaon, Expert of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Marie Curie Fellow, Ca' Foscari

University.

Some of the main points from the presentation are presented

below.

Before filling in the form, have a detailed “abstract” of your

research idea and master the idea:

Who are you? What is your academic strength?

Consider carefully the methods you will use.

Think carefully about the training you will receive.

Focus on a feasible but suggestive objective.

Define the partner’s role around your idea, not the reverse

Think about society at large.

Work with your host, both with the academic contact

(supervisor) and with the administrative / research unit and

reserve enough time for the proposal.

Be aware of the level of novelty, the credibility of the research/innovation and the interdisciplinary/

multidisciplinary aspects.

The following elements should be considered in the review:

What is the potential for the proposed activity to:

o advance knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields

(intellectual merit); and

o benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes (broader impacts)?

To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original or potentially

transformative concepts?

Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well organized and based on a

sound rationale?

Does the plan incorporate a mechanism to assess success?

How well qualified is the individual, team or institution to conduct the proposed activities?

Are there adequate researches available to carry out the project?


http://www.brainmap.ro/



Keywords (and abstract) are essential to match your project with your possible evaluators! Do not

mess with it! Catch the expert’s attention from the first page and help the evaluators: be visual, use

key-sentences, adjectives, clear explanations, synthesis! And use clear language! Evaluators want to

understand, not to be confused or challenged.

Produce the best Gantt chart ever and make a good Data Management Plan.

5. GROUP EXERCISES 1st day:

The MSCA NCPs were asked to discuss in groups about the "IFs for hosts - how to find their researchers"

and to propose tools and strategies. As tools, the participants mentioned the Seal of Excellence initiative

(already described above), the use of the national infrastructure databases and brain maps, to identify

where European Researchers are located outside of their respective countries, grants for scientific

diasporas, and so on.

In terms of strategies to increase the attractiveness of their institutions, the participants indicated:

development of internationalization strategies, dissemination of the availability of their research

infrastructures as well as the quality and services offered by their offices (mainly Grant Offices), good

working conditions (e.g. HR Excellence Award), posting offers on the EURAXESS webpage and finally

organizing events and workshops for supervisors and researchers as well as creating videos illustrating

success stories.

Below you can find some practices identified during this group exercise:




2nd Day: Reading of a MSCA project

This day focused on the work with two real proposals submitted to the MSCA IF call with Ca' Foscari

University as the host. One of the project has been funded by MSCA, the second one by the university’s

Seal of Excellence program. The participants were divided into 6 groups that read Excellence, Impact or

Implementation part. This group exercise was structured as follows :

- 20 minutes of individual evaluation and providing scores

- 30 consensus meeting

- 15 minutes group presentation

For this exercise, the groups used the “Self-evaluation form of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual

Fellowships”. This form is made available to applicants who may wish to arrange an evaluation of the

proposal themselves prior to final editing and submission of their proposal. The aim is to help applicants

identify ways to improve the applications. The same forms are also used by the experts for their evaluation

reports.

After the NCPs’ evaluation, both proposals were presented by the researchers who submitted them and

followed by the presentations of scores given by each NCP’s group. At the end, the ESRs were shown in

order to compare the NCPs and EC evaluators comments and scores.

The “Self-evaluation form MSCA Individual Fellowships (IF) is available under this link:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/ef/2018-2020/h2020-call-ef-msca-if-

2018-20_en.pdf

6. PRESENTATIONS All presentations for these training sessions are available under CIRCABC website:

Library > Net4MobilityPLUS > 4. Project events > 2019 - IF_ How to attract & retain researchers

7. ANNEXES Agenda of the training


http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/ef/2018-2020/h2020-call-ef-msca-if-2018-20_en.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/call_ptef/ef/2018-2020/h2020-call-ef-msca-if-2018-20_en.pdf

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