MCFA UK National site

This is a quick update for those of you who would still like to come to the Pub this Friday.

So far, we are meeting 4 people.  Details of the Pub to follow.  If you are going to attend and have not send an e-mail/not received an e-mail from me with confirmation, please e-mail me ASAP.

Vanessa

Hello everyone,

I have a few news concerning the UK meeting in London.

I have managed to contact the professional development office at UCL and they (in principle) would be glad for us to have a meeting in one of their rooms, free of charge, refreshments, etc, which is great news as any "external" event from UCL must pay for rooms and hiring of audiovisual material.  We should make the event a bit more "open", which is not necessarily bad because other people can benefit from our own experiences regarding MC Fellowships.

The only thing is that they are fully booked until December, so, we will postpone the UK meeting until after the new year at least.  Since I have to book a room and everything with them, the final date for the meeting will be announced shortly and this will give you time to get your things sorted on your side, so "the more the merrier".  I hope I'll see you here.

In the meantime, since the new year is still a few months away (not so much I would say, we are dangerously slipping towards winter...) I will try to organise an informal meeting for MC Fellows in London.  Let's go to a pub, have a chat, meet each other, talk about Europe, the MCFA, etc, etc, etc all in a friendly, relaxed and hopefully not too intoxicated atmosphere. 

So, as I want to do this soon, what about the 24th of October (Friday)?. Around 5.00 pm sounds about right. Don't work until late on a Friday, my former supervisor used to tell me: "If by chance you get to get things working by Friday noon, just leave and go away for the weekend...otherwise you'll find a mistake by 4.00 pm and you'll spend a miserable weekend trying to fix it!" ...priceless!!!.

There are some nice pubs around Russel Square/Kings Cross. If you are coming, drop me an e-mail to uk.mcfa@gmail.com and I'll book a table or something so we can eat and have a few drinks.

Cheers,

Vanessa

Hello, hello,

I thought that the UK meeting was going to be a case of "crashed and burned" but there is still some light.  So far, I've only received an e-mail from about 8 people interested to come.  I would urge you to send an e-mail to uk.mcfa@gmail.com if you would be interested in coming as I would have to book a room, inform security, etc and to organise a programme.

The target should be at least 12 people I would say.  Since we are already on the 17th of September, we might shift the meeting to the very beginning of October. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

Looking forward to meeting you in london,

Best wishes,

Vanessa

Dear all,

The long due meeting of the MCFA UK group will be in September in London after the holidays period (date and place still to be defined) and I'm also waiting for some MC ITNs to start here at UCL so the new ones can join us.  I'll try to come up with a sensible agenda but we might do a "gathering" after the meeting in a pub or something like that.  Keep watching this space.  I thought it would be quite useful to give my own experience setting up MC Proposals for ITN networks and a some advice for the "youngest" amongst us. I might invite somebody from UKRO as well.  The meeting will probably be on a Saturday although I'm not excluding a meeting during the week but I know is always more difficult.

If you are interested in this sort of meeting I would very kindly ask you to send a quick e-mail to: uk.mcfa@gmail.com just saying that you would be interested in participating.  If you've got suggestions, please let me know.

I'll send information about the meeting to the UKRO and if they are kindly enough they will put the information on their Newsletter so European Research Offices in the UK should know about it.

OK, this is it for now.  Have some nice holidays and I'm looking forward to meeting all of you soon.

Vanessa

Hi there,

I wrote this e-mail to a new MC Fellow the other day. This person was asking how salaries are calculated. I thought some excerpts might be useful for everybody so I'm posting it. I've masked any private information, just in case. Any innacuracies are my responsibility only.

Vanessa

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Hi X,


Hmmm...the Fellows salary, what a tricky question. Let me put things straight: it will depend very much on where you will be doing your fellowship and there's little we can do about it. That's why we need strong national groups, but for that, we need motivated people working for the benefits of all of us. In the calculation of your salary, the big difference will come from whether or not your mobility and family allowances are taxed or not.


The EC provides recommendations about these allowances. Recommendations are not laws or mean any obligations whatsoever, so, some Universities have arranged with the local tax officer (because each region has a different one, taxes are decentralized) to let go (which is beneficial for the fellows) the mobility and family allowances tax-free. Others just consider these allowances as taxable and they put everything in the same recipient.


Now, before signing your contract, you can try to negotiate with your University as there is a way to get the mobility and family allowances tax-free by presenting receipts. Receipts for your rent, children school, utility bills, etc. Some Universities do not want to know anything about it because it is a lot of work indeed but the possibility is there. They might argue that it is the way they treat all MC Fellows equally but we all now the truth.


So, one thing that you must know is that you will always pay tax on your living allowance (your salary, basically, the others are sort of bonuses"). This tax is going to be roughly 25% of your salary.


Another thing. You DO NOT have to take upon the Pension scheme (University Superannuation Scheme). Should you take it? well, it's up to you really. With that scheme, that is the one that applies for Academic Staff all over the UK, the employee pays 6% and the University about 14%. HOWEVER, since you come with a fixed amount of money (the EC is giving to your University a lumped sum of money for you for the 2 years) , the University will take from your fellowship lumped sum the 14% corresponding to the University's contribution. Let's try again: if you were an employee of the University, the University would put some money for you in your pension scheme. Since in your case, the University is perceiving a total amount of money for you from the EC, the University will make its calculations and will fit your allocated "budget" to cover all expenses from the lumped sum that is receiving from the EC. Still confused? here it is: In conclusion, if you take the superannuation scheme, the 14% and the 6% will both come from the allocated funds of your fellowship. There will be no extra money that the University will put for you from the University's own budget.

This wouldn't be so bad if you could "claim back" that money somehow, however, this is not always the case. In the Pension Scheme case, you MUST know that you can export (take with you somewhere else) the 6% that "you" contributed but you CANNOT export to another country the 14% from the "University" contribution (at least, that's what I know but I'm pretty sure is true). And remember, both the 6% and the 14% come from the same place. If your plans are to stay in the UK, think about it, if not, well, think about it twice as hard. I didn't join, but that meant that I didn't have any pension contributions for 2 years.

Another thing about tax, if you are staying for up 2 years (no more) in the UK, you can get your taxes back from the tax office (this has nothing to do with your University, to the best of my knowledge) but I don't know what kind of receipts or information you must provide to the local tax man, so keep a folder with everything. However, if you are staying longer than 2 years (even for 1 day) you loose this benefit. Because it is highly unlikely that you will just run away one day before the end of your Fellowship, you know what it will happen, but I must admit that I knew an Austrian guy who left a bit before the end of the 2 years and managed to submit reports and everything from home. A lot of planning but worthwhile in the end since he could get all his taxes back.

My advice: ASK PLENTY OF QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU SIGN.

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I hope you'll find this helpful. You can write to: uk.mcfa@gmail.com if you have any queries.

Cheers,

V.