When I first arrived at DCU to begin my MSCA fellowship, my supervisor paraded me around the place introducing me to various people, most of whose names I promptly forgot. (Sorry!) What did stick in my mind, however, were the numerous congratulations I received on winning such a competitive grant, which the Marie Curie fellowship certainly is, and on getting such a sweet deal, which it most definitely is. But it wasn’t all good times and glowing reviews, the way here – far from it, in fact. That’s why I thought I’d share the story of how I came to be in Dublin and how things might have turned out quite differently, had I been a bit less perseverant than I was.

I got my doctorate in 2014 at the relatively mature age of 35, having gone through a process that was a good deal more convoluted than it was, in theory, supposed to be. Following my academic baptism of fire, working as a Master’s student in a project dealing with computational quality assurance of spot welding joints, I embarked on a rather erratic journey that saw me dabble with research topics as varied as exergame design and ethics of scam baiting. I eventually pieced together my dissertation around the theme of knowledge discovery in databases, focusing on what the overall process looks like from different perspectives and how it can be supported effectively.

Not only was the process of writing my thesis unnecessarily complicated, but so was the process of getting the manuscript reviewed and accepted for publication. When the pre-examination phase was finally over and I was galloping, or at least cantering briskly, into the home stretch, there turned out to be one more obstacle to clear: finding an external examiner for the defence. I pitched a number of names to my then-supervisor, but one by one they all respectfully declined the invitation, not having the time to spare or not feeling that the topic of the thesis was close enough to their area of expertise. Fortunately, one of them offered the suggestion that Alan Smeaton of DCU might be our man.

This turned out to be a considerable stroke of luck: Alan was indeed kind enough to accept the job, and his style of handling it was very much what I’d hoped for, making this test of my ability to defend my magnum opus feel much less like a test and more like a friendly conversation on a topic of mutual interest. Some among the audience even described the proceedings as entertaining, which is hardly the word that first comes to my mind when I think about thesis defences! In all honesty, it’s not the word I’d choose to describe mine either – I was far too nervous to be entertained – but it did feel quite rewarding after all the hard work (not to mention a not negligible amount of self-doubt) to talk for several hours as an equal to a senior academic who had taken such an interest in my research.

Having thus finished my doctorate, it was time to make some decisions. I felt that I wasn’t quite done with academia yet, but I also felt that I needed some kind of change, and besides, there’s a certain amount of pressure on fresh post-docs to go explore the world beyond their alma mater for a while. Since I happen to have a great deal of appreciation for many things Irish (including, but not limited to, grain-based fermented beverages and traditional music), this seemed like a potential opportunity to combine business with pleasure, so the next time I visited Dublin, I met up with Alan to have a cup of tea and a chat on the possibility of moving there to work with him, provided that some funding could be secured. Later that year, we submitted our first proposal for an MSCA Individual Fellowship to the European Commission.

MSCA wasn’t the only funding source we considered; I also applied to the Academy of Finland for a grant that would have involved me mostly staying in Finland at the University of Oulu but spending a mobility period of six months or so at DCU. However, the feedback I got from the Academy did not paint a rosy picture of my chances of winning the grant even after several iterations, and in the meantime, I was feeling rather aimless in my research and finding the idea of switching to industry more and more attractive. Unsurprisingly, my publication record for these past few years is not exactly impressive, but thankfully, the MSCA reviewers seemed to be more interested in what I wanted to accomplish than in what I’d (not) accomplished before. With the assistance of DCU’s excellent research support staff, Alan and I were able to put together a good plan, and then, after a very encouraging round of reviews, to make it even better for our second attempt. This was in 2016; in early 2017 we got the notification that the fellowship had been awarded. After that, I went on working in Oulu until the end of the year to complete my contract, took January 2018 off to wind down and make arrangements, moved to Dublin at the end of January and started the new project on the 1st of February.

If there’s a lesson to take home from all of this, I guess it would be that even if you haven’t been the most shining star of your peer group during your PhD studies, that doesn’t mean you’re out of options if you want to keep pursuing a career in research. Sure, some funders may dismiss you on the basis of your CV alone if they don’t think it shows enough potential, but still, a well prepared proposal can go a long way if you know your strengths and build your research plan around them. MSCA Individual Fellowships are perhaps a more forgiving funding source than many others, since they’re explicitly meant to help you advance your career and thus come with the built-in assumption that there’s something important you don’t yet have but can gain by carrying out the right sort of project with the right sort of host. So, if you’ve found yourself a host with a set of known strengths that complement the ones you’ve demonstrated in your previous work, you already have a pretty solid foundation to build your proposal on.