ITN: Can fringe benefits be regarded as part of the living allowance if the employment contract does not provide for this but according to the collective agreement, all employees are entitled to receive this fringe benefit?

Fringe benefits should be explicitly mentioned (if not agreed upon) in the employment contract. However, if they are a usual practice stated in the organisation’s official documents (e.g., internal regulations), the Fellow should carefully look for relevant references in the signed contract. In any case, there must be a legally binding document for the organisation to verify the regularity and legality of the fringe benefits, in order to be included in the living allowance.

ITN: A PhD researcher employed within an MSCA Innovative Training Networks project has to return to their home country because of medical reasons but their employment under the project ends in two months. Can they finish their project teleworking?

As it is for medical reasons, and, only for a couple of months, the project coordinator can discuss this issue with the Project Officer. Under normal circumstances, teleworking from another country is not allowed and the fellows have to be employed at the premises of the Host Institution.

RISE: Is it necessary to submit a second periodic report and a final report under RISE?

At the end of the project, the coordinator will submit the periodic report of the last reporting period (similar to the first one, covering only that reporting period and NOT the whole project), plus they will submit a publishable summary covering the whole project (main achievements, etc.). 

ITN: An ITN project got an extension and its final conference is postponed by 10 months. The employment contracts of most of the early-stage researchers recruited within the project have already finished. Do they have contractual obligations to attend and co-organise the final project conference?

The only document that links the early-stage researchers to the beneficiaries are their employment contracts. If these contracts don’t mention attending and co-organising the final project conference, the researchers do not have any obligations. The Project Officer should be contacted to discuss moving the conference or organising it online.

ITN: What should be done if a host organisation, part of an ITN project, is facing financial difficulties which may affect the doctoral candidate’s fellowship and payments each month?

In such situation the fellow should discuss this issue with the coordinator of the project and the coordinator should try and find a solution together with the Project Officer of the project. It could be that this organisation might leave the project. In such a case, there are a few possibilities, such as: a transfer of the fellow (and associated person-months) to another partner or the organisation can be replaced by a new partner which will hire the doctoral researcher.

ITN: A fellow has not received their salary for a while. What can they do to reclaim their allowance?

The relation between the fellow and the host organisation is regulated by the type of work contract signed between the two parties for the implementation of the ITN project and as such, falls under the legal framework of the country where the contract had been concluded.

If the organisation does not pay these amounts to the fellow, it will not be entitled to claim the units related to the cost of recruitment of the fellow for the period in question. This should be worked through with the REA Project Officer. If the Project Officer finds enough evidence that the work on the project was correctly delivered (although with a temporary breach of Article 32 in terms of salary payments to the fellow), they might consider it is more beneficial to reimburse the organisation so that it could rectify their payments towards the fellow.

However, if the host organisation finally pays the fellow even with 5 months’ delay, it still respects the Grant Agreement.

The coordinator should check if there are any procedures planned in the Consortium Agreement for such cases.

RISE: Is working part-time during secondments in H2020 RISE projects allowed?

The 2020 MSCA RISE Guide for applicants, on p. 18 of 75, states “Note that all secondments must be performed on a full-time basis.” In addition, the H2020 AMGA on both p. 528 and p. 529 states “The beneficiaries must respect the following recruitment and working conditions for the seconded staff member under the action: … ensure that the staff members are seconded full-time”. For part-time staff members this may require a change of their relationship (i.e. conclude a contract or a supplementary agreement), to allow the secondment to be implemented on a full-time basis.

ITN: In a European Joint Doctorates project is it mandatory to obtain the PhD diploma by the end of the project?

It is not mandatory for the MSCA fellows to defend their thesis or to obtain their PhD single, double, joint or multiple degree in the frame of the ITN project.  

IF: What documents are required from MSCA Individual Fellowships beneficiaries for final reporting on their Horizon 2020 projects?

In general, the Final Technical Report is a publishable summary of the entire project:

        - overview of the results and their exploitation and dissemination,

        -  conclusions on the project,

        - its socio-economic impact of the project,

        - an up-to-date link to the project website,

        - project logos, diagrams, photographs and videos illustrating its work (if available).

Like the summaries for the periodic reports, the final summary must be written in an understandable style for a non-specialist audience.

IF: What should a postdoctoral fellow with an Individual Fellowship need to do if they want to terminate their working contract with the host institution a month earlier than the project’s end date?

Please make sure the host institution:

1. Requests the (early) termination of the grant agreement, based on its art.50 (on page 330).
2. This is done via “formal notification” – the host institution will need to pick the notification on grant termination.
3. Art. 50 requires the reasons – this would be an early termination of the fellowship (upon fellow’s request – please be specific – has the fellow resigned?).
4. Art. 50 requires the date the termination will take effect on – this will be the last day of the fellowship, i.e. the last day the fellow legally worked (last day of their employment contract).

Only once the termination is acknowledged by the Research Executive Agency, the project data in the system will be rectified and the new dates for final reporting etc., will appear.