Ask HN: PhDs, how have you organized your research visits?
I'm a second-year PhD candidate in France, working in NLP. In January I contacted a professor from another university in the Netherlands to ask about a research visit opportunity -- I did this because both my university and hers were part of a funding program for research visits. We had a call and she was very interested in my topic and the potential help I could give for her project (and I'm also very interested in what she's working on).
I applied to this funding but my application was rejected because my university told me I should apply to another funding program specific to the university. I did that in March, but things have been going downhill, as the person who is supposed to deal with the applications left, and everything's mostly been on standby since. Thus, I haven't received a reply for the funding.
The visit was originally planned from September to November, so I'll probably have to reschedule it because I'm still not sure about the funding. But even then, the funding is only about 1000 EUR for two months, and I've found it very difficult to find a place to live there for only two months, especially because there is a housing crisis and university does not provide accommodation. The more I reflect about it and the more I think I'll have to get an Airbnb, which is quite expensive for two months (between 2500 and 3000 EUR).
This is the very first research visit I'm planning so I wanted to ask about some things and possibly get advice on this situation:
1. How do you generally deal with moving out and finding a place to live for such a short time?
2. How have your research visits usually been funded? Is it the lab the student is affiliated with that generally covers expenses? By how much?
3. How much personal funding is it acceptable to use for such a research visit? Personally I think this would definitely be a great and worthwhile experience, but I don't know to what extent I will have an ROI.