3rd MSCA fellowship in our group
Congratulations on being awarded the MSCA fellowship!!!! These are the desired words that resonate with every postdoctoral candidate who has applied for this esteemed fellowship. In 2024, Malgorzata Graul (Gosia), a postdoc fellow from our group, was one of the fortunate recipients who got to hear these words.
Gosia applied for the MSCA fellowship in September 2023 after joining Marta Bally’s group in October 2022 with expertise in Biotechnology and Virology. Having missed the application deadline for the year 2022, Gosia faces a critical stage, as she possesses only one remaining opportunity to apply for the MSCA. Considering that this application is imperative for her continued involvement and contribution to the laboratory’s research activities, Gosia put together an application for the MSCA and MADE IT!! Congratulations Gosia!
With this fellowship, Gosia will investigate differences in various filoviruses’ entry and egress mechanisms for the next 2 years. For this, she will work with an EBOV virus-like particle system.
So, what makes Gosia’s application stand out among 8039? What types of challenges did she need to face and how did she balance her ongoing research work and writing up the application? What does she have to say about her overall experience?
“Preparation of proposal took a lot of time. We had constantly new ideas to improve both the scientific part of the project as well as the equally important implementation. The research that I performed at that time on filoviruses as well as my previous virus-research experience of course helped with formulating hypotheses and designing experiments to verify them. Why does this project stand out? I honestly don’t know. I think it was a combination of topics that concern pathogens that are on the WHO R&D Blueprint list and a great help from Marta. Her experience in writing grant applications greatly improved the quality of this proposal.”, says Gosia.
Gosia’s MSCA fellowship marks the third successful application in Marta Bally’s research group in the past four years. This is remarkable considering the furious competition to win this prestigious fellowship.
To give our readers some advice and tips for the successful application, I asked one of the past recipients of the MSCA fellows from our group.
“It is truly remarkable that our lab managed to secure so many MSCAs in the last years. I believe that a fundamental aspect of a strong MSCA application is the formulation of a clear and innovative research question, coupled with a robust plan for execution and dissemination both in the scientific world and to the public. In addition, the multidisciplinary research at the border between biology, physics, and chemistry we perform in our lab, as well as the diverse background of the MSCA applicants, has been instrumental in the collective achievements we have experienced in the last years.”, says Dario.
Aside from writing a well-structured project, a perfect match between the candidates and the host group/institutes is also a key factor for MSCA application. To learn about this intricate balance and get a few more tips, I asked our group head.
“This is correct! In my view, a key of a successful MSCA application lies in identifying a project which highlights synergies between the candidate and the host lab. It is of course important that the postdoc learns something new during the 2-year postdoc fellowship, and that the research activities convincingly expand his/her research profile to make it unique. However, it is also important that the postdoc contributes to the host lab’s activities by bringing in new competencies and expertise. This worked very well with Gosia’s application.
Another advice: start early! You can never be done too early with the application. It is during the feedback phase leading to refining, re-writing, readjusting… that the proposal maturates into something really good!”, says Marta.
In summary, the key points to remember when writing your MCSA application are the following.
- Prepare a research project and refine it with the help of an experienced grant-writing person.
- Formulate a clear and innovative research question.
- Plan for execution and dissemination both in the scientific world and to the public.
- Present a research project that will benefit both the candidate and the host lab by bringing in new competencies and expertise to the host lab.
- As for any grant application, start planning and writing EARLY!!!!
Read more rules and tips here.