Some (hopefully) useful advice for writing a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie application
Michael Küffmeier
Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Global fellow
Experiences from applying in 2019
About me before applying
- 2008 - 2011 Bachelor in physics at FU Berlin (2010-2011 ERASMUS in Uppsala, Sweden)
- 2011 - 2014 Master in astrophysics at Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) in Copenhagen
- 2014 - 2017 PhD in computational astrophysics at NBI
- 2018 - 2020 postdoc in Heidelberg; mostly funded by postdoctoral grant from independent research fund Denmark (DFF, kind of the Danish DFG)
What I applied for?
InAndOut: towards a complete understanding of embedded disks
2 years at University of Virginia + 1 year at MPE Garching
My motivation for this choice
3 instead of 2 years funding
possibility to tailor application such that institutions/supervisors are (or at least appear to be) perfect match (+NOT my PhD affilia.)
UVA: magnetic fields expert and code collaborator
CAS at MPE: contribute physical models to astrochemistry expertise
96.8% score (excellence: 4.9, impact: 4.7, implementation: 4.9)
Writing the proposal
- Start early! Planning and writing the application is time consuming.
Idea of applying with hosts
Contacting supervisors
8 weeks
4 weeks
deadline
Writing and rewriting...
extremely valuable feedback from colleagues/collaborators
asking for previous applications (very helpful!)
Bothering to get documents
5 months later
- Don't wait until you are "ready". Even if you are not successful, 1) you have a great fundament for reapplying and 2) get (hopefully) constructive feedback.
- Do not overuse words like 'unique', 'breakthrough' etc. (even though it is common practice)
The biggest help for writing the application
The book by Karen Kelsky really helped in writing the application. (No, I don't get commission for advertisement.)
Focus on page 1
State 2 - 4 objectives on page 1
Put a nice figure on page 1. Sprinkle the rest of your proposal with figures/images. (Confession of a reviewer: "biased to visually appealing proposals when reading (too) many of them"
Highlight important parts
I underlined objectives in my MSCA but better use bold font and/or color (easier to read according to reviewer)
Overall state of mind
Adopt the perspective of the reviewer!
The typical reviewer is busy with teaching preparation, supervision, attending (too many) meetings, writing proposals themself, family duties ...
... and instead of finally doing research they have to review a bunch of MSCA proposals.
They are not searching for the good in your proposal.
They are searching for weaknesses to reject and finish asap.
Summary
Give it a try. There is a non-zero chance that you are lucky.
Make your proposal visually appealing with some figures.
Start early. In your current situation: focus fully on writing the application now.
Page 1 is the most important page of your proposal. Spend a lot of time on writing it over and over again.
Try to get previous applications (preferentially with evaluations). It is hard to describe what is a good application, but you can always tell when you see a good one.)
Adopt the perspective of your reviewer!