Hello everyone,

So here is the story. Last year i finished my master's degree, and got accepted for a PhD with a Marie Curie studentship in order to study bioinformatics. The studentship was actually awarded to a private research institute and when they posted the studentship i got it.

So i have a number of problems,

i am here for almost a year now, and since i joined this centre, i never got any true training, no lectures, i am not even registered with a university [because the institute itself does not award PhDs]. When i first came here, they told me what project were they working on and they gave me this set of data to work on. They also pointed a bioinformatician within the institute and then they said do the analysis. Notice that i was just a biologist with no experience in bioinformatics whatsoever. Is that how a PhD should be? Shouldn't there be a guidance, some formal training? All i did, i did it all by myself by clinging onto this bioinformatician guy until he is fed up and help me.

The other problem is the financial. I am pretty aware of the fact that a Marie Curie studentship is a very prestigious one. Because of the economical crisis of the country, i never receive my salary on time, it's been a year and i always receive my salary half at the beginning of the month and the rest at the end of the month. The thing is that i know that the funding comes on time but i never receive it on time, plus they spend zero for my education, which is supposed to be included in the studentship [e.g i am still waiting for a good PC to work on and still working on my laptop]. Should i make a deal out of it?

I am in the verge of quitting the whole thing! The worst part? My supervisor hates me, he thinks i do not work enough!

Any advice will be appreciated =)

N.

What a mess! The bad news is that if you are not registered for a PhD then you are not actually doing one, and I think you will struggle to use your work at this place towards one unless the institute has an agreement on this with a local university. Are there any other people there doing a PhD? If so, ask them about the registration arrangements asap. It sounds as if this institute is effectively using you as a funded researcher rather than providing training. What you need to find is their original application for the Marie Curie funding if you possibly can and see what they claimed to be delivering against what they actually are. That would give you grounds for your complaint. If I remember correctly MC studentships can be used for pre-doctoral training i.e. the stage before a PhD but they would have guaranteed training and should not have advertised it as a PhD if it is not. I'm an ex MC fellow myself and wonder if the association might be able to give you some advice: http://www.mariecurie.org/ - also if you do leave, make sure the European Commission knows why. If this institute is abusing the system then they need to know about it.

Thank you for your post. Yes, the initial advertisement was stated as an Early Stage Researcher for pre-doctoral training, and on the interview my PI said that is my choice if i want to be enrolled with a university. But afterwards he made it look as if i had no choice but to enroll. Anyway, as you saw, no training is provided whatsoever. Two other phd student with an MC are here, they were kicked out from their lab because their PI was fired[My PI is the head of the Mol. biology department], they are now in another department in the same institute and they are just paying tuition fees in universities abroad, and doing practically nothing.

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How long is your post for?  It's really tough having to learn stuff the hard way as I had some similar problems during one aspect of my PhD so I know how you feel!  Although it's hard and you feel you are constantly hitting your head against a brick wall you will get a great sense of achievement once you have done it! 

As it's pre-doctoral training you should get some training definitely. Did the proposal specify any particular type of training e.g. formal lectures which I presume the uni would've been involved in or workshops?  If not it could include anything especially informal training such as learning on the job which I know it was not what you were expecting or hoping for but it can be counted as training.  It's not what I would've expected either as MC are known as prestigious grants that are designed to ensure good research skills and training. 

Bioinformatics is a good field to get into and very relevant for the future as technology progresses so you should hang in there if you can as it's competitive particularly for PhDs so having this grant/position on your CV will give you bonus points and show your potential for research.  

Having said that if you are not happy in your work environment and very stressed that is not healthy either. I think you need to consider your alternatives and weigh up your options to see if it's worth continuing.  What stage are you into your  grant?  It sounds like you've had a lot of problems settling in and been thrown in the deep end (i.e. been left to get on it/rely on your own resources) which can be scary especially as it's a new subject so that may have affected your self confidence/esteem. Is this the 2nd yr blues commonly associated with people half way through their PhDs though it can also occur later but generally kicks in around 2nd yr (hence name!)  It just seems like you are a data producing machine with no end in sight but this phase will pass as you need to regain control of the situation.  It probably just means you are a bit exhausted and need to take a break. It's amazing what a break can do for you and leaves you feeling refreshed! Or is it a symptom of something more serious? How do you feel about doing the research itself and your topic area (ignoring problems with lack of supervision etc...)

It's not helpful to have an uneasy relationship with your supervisor as that makes things worse so you need to assess where the problems are and try to resolve them if possible.  Why does your supervisor think you are not working hard?  Is it due to nature of the work which is time consuming so you probably don't have much to show for all your hard work?  I also had this problem due to the nature of my research too as I didn't produce results fast enough for my supervisor so they thought I wasn't working hard enough despite spending all my time doing it! They came round eventually probably when they saw I had turned into a zombie! ;-)  It could also be a personality clash or that your supervisor is not a people-friendly person like the stereotypical view of academics so they are hard to work with. 

I hope this helps and you consider all your options. I hope you can get some help to sort out your situation.  I'd agree that you should look at the MC website to see what help is available and what can be done about your lack of supervision/training. You've done really well to get this far! 

Good luck (up) 8-)