Guests and Visitors FAQ

You need to open an online invitation through the GRS portal (Guest Registration Service) at least 10 days before the guest’s arrival date/start date of activity. In the form you will need to specify any financial arrangement planned for the guest, the funds to be charged and any request to activate facilities (badge, office, account, etc.).

Yes, except in the case of a Visiting Scientist with a flat-rate reimbursement (see question 18). SISSA has framework agreements with some hotels in Trieste. To find out which hotels are covered, please contact the guest team of the Events Office (events@sissa.it).

This is possible, but it is preferable to use this option mostly for intercontinental trips, as for other types of travel it may not be advantageous. SISSA has a contracted travel agency. To activate this option, please contact the guest team of the Events Office (events@sissa.it).

As a rule, fees and flat-rate reimbursements are subject to a withholding of IRPEF (personal income tax) of 20% for those who are tax resident in Italy during the calendar year, or 30% for those who are tax resident abroad. However, the situation must be checked case by case, so we recommend contacting the guest team of the Events Office for details (events@sissa.it).

Invitations are expected to be activated at least 10 days before the guest’s arrival. In exceptional cases, however, an invitation can be opened as an exception to this limit, but authorisation from SISSA’s Direction is required. In these cases it is enough to enter the invitation in GRS and the system will automatically ask the Direction for authorisation to waive the 10-day notice. Please note that the offices cannot validate the invitation until it has been authorised by the Direction.

Although GRS allows changes to the invitation at any time, users are asked NOT to modify invitations that have already been taken on by the Events Office, so that changes are not missed by the offices. In these cases, please write to events@sissa.it to have the changes entered on the GRS form.

When a desk needs to be assigned to a guest, it is the scientific host’s responsibility to identify the room. Please note that the Events Office does not have an up-to-date picture of the spaces available in each area. We therefore recommend checking the space available in your own area/research group, if necessary by asking your Area Coordinator/research group leader. You may also use the Room Management portal, where temporary availability of offices can be viewed.

A fee can be paid to anyone who gives one or more seminars or sits on an examination board, whether the activity takes place online or in person. Obviously, if the activity takes place online, no expense reimbursement can be provided.

We recommend contacting the guest team of the Events Office if the fee is to be paid to foreign guests (events@sissa.it).

The difference lies in the main activity carried out by the guest. When the main purpose of the visit is to give a seminar or take part in an examination board, the corresponding invitation type should be used. The main purpose of a Visiting Scientist, on the other hand, is to carry out a scientific collaboration free of charge with a SISSA host, for which only expense reimbursements (itemised or flat-rate) may be provided.

The hourly fee is conceived as payment for occasional work provided by an expert in a given scientific field, such as a guest who gives one or more seminars for the SISSA community or a guest who acts as an external member of admission or PhD examination boards.

The flat-rate reimbursement is instead one of the two possible ways of reimbursing the expenses incurred by a collaborator to reach SISSA and meet local costs while carrying out a scientific collaboration provided free of charge. It is therefore not a fee paid for work done by the guest. The flat-rate reimbursement of expenses can only be activated for Visiting Scientists.

Please check that the guest has filled in the required data online, accepted the invitation and uploaded a copy of an identity document. If the guest does not complete this step, the system does not send notifications to the offices involved (Reception, Technical Office, etc.). For notifications to be produced, the GRS invitation must reach the status “Awaiting guest arrival” (“Attesa arrivo ospite” in the Italian interface). Otherwise, please contact the guest team of the Events Office (events@sissa.it).

It is possible to reimburse the travel of a guest who travels from/to a place other than their workplace, provided that the cost falls within the ceilings set by the Visiting Scientist Regulation (see Art. 3, paragraph 1). By custom, the same spending ceilings are applied to invitations for seminars/evaluation sessions. For special cases, please contact the guest team of the Events Office in advance (events@sissa.it).

For a guest invited to give seminars or to take part in an evaluation session, the hourly fee may range from a minimum of €40 to a maximum of €150 gross per hour.

The number of hours must be determined by the scientific host, taking into account the time commitment required of the guest. For seminars, the number of seminar hours delivered should therefore be considered; if appropriate, the time spent preparing the seminar can also be taken into account. For evaluation sessions, the hours spent conducting the examination and reviewing/marking any written papers should be considered.

If this guest type is selected in GRS, only an itemised expense reimbursement against expense documents can be provided. In addition to the reimbursement, the hourly fee can be paid, as explained in the previous question.

In these cases the guest must be asked to give consent to the use of their image and to the web dissemination of their seminar by signing a release form, to be signed after reading an information notice. The forms, in Italian and English, are available from the guest team of the Events Office (events@sissa.it).

Once signed, the release form must be sent to protocollo@sissa.it (with events@sissa.it in copy).

Please remember to state the date and title of the seminar on the release form, so that the event to which the guest gives consent can be identified.

The Visiting Scientist Regulation does not allow this. The scientific collaboration, which is the main activity of a guest invited under this type, is presumed to be carried out free of charge, i.e. without payment of a fee. A Visiting Scientist may, however, receive a reimbursement of travel expenses and of accommodation and meal expenses incurred during the stay in Trieste. This reimbursement may be paid as a flat-rate amount (subject to tax) or, alternatively, as an itemised reimbursement (not taxed), on presentation of the original expense documents.

Flat-rate and itemised reimbursement cannot be combined.

If the flat-rate arrangement is chosen for a Visiting Scientist, services invoiced directly to SISSA cannot be booked. The guest will have to pay for the accommodation but will receive from SISSA the flat-rate amount determined by the scientific host at the time of the invitation.

As the term “Scientist” suggests, the guest is expected to have a significant scientific CV, built up after graduating, at a university or research body other than SISSA. In any case, we recommend contacting the guest team of the Events Office to assess which invitation type can be matched to the guest in question (events@sissa.it).

Article 1, paragraph 1 of the Visiting Scientist Regulation states: “In order to consolidate and strengthen its internationalisation strategy, and to encourage interdisciplinarity and promote its research activity within a framework of collaboration, SISSA intends to promote exchanges and the mobility of scholars and researchers in the context of scientific collaborations with other bodies/institutions.”

That being so, expense reimbursement, whether itemised or flat-rate, is presumed to be payable to those who incur costs related to moving to and staying in Trieste (travel or out-of-pocket expenses) to carry out the collaboration.

In any case, please contact the guest team of the Events Office so that feasible solutions can be assessed case by case (events@sissa.it).

As mentioned in the previous question, the “Visiting Scientist” type is considered to be assignable to those whose workplace is outside Trieste, at another body or institution. If the person to be invited is already in Trieste after ending a previous working relationship with SISSA, another invitation type (contract, grant, etc.) should be considered. To assess the specific case, please contact the guest team of the Events Office (events@sissa.it).

A Visiting Scientist may take part in an evaluation session (admission or PhD examination boards) or give one or more seminars during their visit to Trieste. However, as this concerns a Visiting Scientist, it is understood that the main activity for which they are invited is scientific collaboration. If the guest’s main purpose is to give seminars or to take part in an evaluation session, we recommend considering the invitation type provided for those activities, possibly providing for expense reimbursement and/or an hourly fee.

As a rule, the expense reimbursement is paid to the guest at the end of the visit.

Monthly payment of the reimbursement can be requested for those who visit SISSA for more than 2 months. In this case, please state the request in the notes of the invitation, so that it is clear to the offices. The contribution will then be paid monthly in arrears (once the reference month has ended). Before payment, the offices will ask the scientific host to certify that the guest’s activity has been carried out regularly.

It is also possible to request advance payment of the first month on a reasoned request from the scientific host (for example to cover the first costs of settling in Trieste). The payment cannot, however, be made before the guest’s arrival at SISSA.