PhD zebra

on

LIFE is like zebra : white and black stripes come one after another. However, zebra’s stripes are more or less equal, unlike those in life: sometimes difficult stressful periods are much larger than bright and happy ones.
So, when I have dark times in my work, I am pretty motivated to write another blog post and complain-complain-complain.... but I don’t do that. I am waiting until the moment when it becomes better, so that I could retell about troubles in more soft and optimistic way :)
This time, I want just to give some practical tips for the future generations of ITN projects... especially, for those who will do it in France.
This time it’s about money ๐Ÿ’ธ

Being involved in such an active project as INFRASTAR is not easy in terms of money-spending. So, the general advice is 
SAFE money in order to have always a backup of few thousands euros

This year has started with a huge amount of paiments: 
  • expensive secondment in Denmark, 
  • training week, 
  • implementation day, 
  • conference IABMAS that takes place in Melbourne in 2018. 

All of these events require booking apartments in advance, paying public transport, and visas... 

EXPECT to spend sometimes up to five thousands euros within one month, and wait a couple more months in order to be refunded step by step


VISA is another interesting topic! I am Russian, that means “non-EU”. So, even holding an European residence permit doesn’t allow working legally in other European countries (I.e. for secondments) or stay more than 90 days per year. So, in the beginning of the year 2018 I have received three visas:
  • French residence permit (extension of the first year visa) = 269€
  • Danish work permit (for my secondment at COWI, Copenhagen) = 3320 DDK (~450€) visa fee + 204€ fingerprints
  • Australian business visa 140 AUD (~90€) + 41€ fingerprints
It takes money, time and brings some /a lot of/ stress...
but once you get the positive response, it gives satisfaction and brings only positive emotions :)

Thank you, INFRASTAR for all opportunities that you give us! :)

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