This Tuesday I am lucky enough to
be taking part in a panel discussion on memory at the Cheltenham Literature
Festival [1]. Ultimately, they wanted my boss to take part and ended up with me, so
apologies to Cheltenham in advance. Hopefully I’ll be able to contribute in my
own special way and not make too much of a fool of myself.
I was pleasantly surprised to
hear I am to be paid for taking part in the discussion. A princely sum of £150
I believe. This is on top of reimbursement of expenses for travel and
accommodation. Here is where my naïve young research question comes in. Is it
OK to take this money? I completely understand why some (e.g., self-employed/free-lance
types) require fees for talks. I am obviously in a completely different
situation though: (1) I am employed on an MRC grant and therefore paid by the
tax-payer, (2) some form of science outreach is part of this job, (3) I’m
participating in this event during working hours (actually, it is in the
evening, but I will end up missing ~1 day of work as a result), (4) this is undoubtedly
a good experience for me (e.g., practicing communication skills, meeting other
memory researchers etc.).
All this made me think taking a
fee was somewhat amoral. I’m not paid huge amounts as an academic, but I’m certainly
paid enough to live a comfortable life and I would have participated in this
event regardless of the money. The fee will swell my wallet in the short-term
but make very little difference in the long-term. So, my questions to you are:
- Should I simply give the money to charity?
- Is there a moral code for this type of thing that I simply am not aware of, or do people just tend to make up their own minds?
- Am I over-analysing this?
Your answers and advice would be
very much appreciated.
