DN: What expenses should the recruiting beneficiary cover for the Doctoral Candidates’ long-term secondments (over 6 months)?

In a MSCA Doctoral Networks, secondments of six months or less which require mobility from the place of residence must be financed using the Research, Training and Networking costs in order to prevent an unreasonable financial burden for the recruited researchers. This includes at least the travel and accommodation costs. Costs for visa-related fees should also be covered by the same cost category.

For long-term secondments, it is recommended that the beneficiary makes arrangements with the researcher and the receiving institution in order to avoid double charges (e.g., accommodation).

For secondments shorter than 6 months, fellows will probably keep their principal residence and to avoid them paying for two housings, the beneficiary must cover the accommodation costs related to their secondments. 

However, for secondments longer than 6 months, fellows will probably relocate and won’t have to pay for two residences. Therefore, for secondments longer than 6 months, it is not mandatory for the beneficiary to pay for the secondment costs. For example, for a one-year secondment, it is not mandatory for the beneficiary to pay for the secondment costs (even for the first six months).

However, while not mandatory, it is still allowed for the beneficiary to cover a part of the long-term secondments’ costs from the RTN costs budget, if they want to do so.