Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Postdoctoral Fellowships give researchers holding a PhD a chance to gain new skills and experience whilst carrying out their own research project abroad. The call is open to researchers of any nationality and applications in any scientific field. These Fellowships include European Fellowships, which allow researchers to carry out a personalised project in the EU or countries associated to Horizon Europe, and Global Fellowships, open to European nationals or long-term residents wishing to work with organisations in third countries before returning to Europe.

If you are considering applying for the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 call, these tips and tricks will guide you through the process. Learn how to check your eligibility, where to start looking for a suitable host, find relevant resources and expert advice and start preparing a successful proposal!

Are you representing an organisation active in research and innovation activities? MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships allow you to attract international talent, develop international cooperation and raise the profile and attractiveness of your organisation. Find researchers interested in developing an application with you by posting hosting offers on Euraxess and the MSCA Matchmaking Platform.

Four schemes are currently offering grants for MSCA Seal of Excellence holders who applied for Postdoctoral Fellowships under Horizon Europe or MSCA Individual Fellowships under Horizon 2020 to carry out research in Cyprus, Poland, Czechia and Romania. Other opportunities are also available throughout the year. Seals of Excellence under the 2022 Postdoctoral Fellowships were recently awarded and eligible applicants received a notification in the Funding and Tenders Portal to download their certificate.

The MSCA Feedback to Policy action aims to explore stronger thematic links between MSCA projects, raise the visibility of their contribution to key EU policy priorities and gather feedback from research institutions and other involved parties to maximise the programme's impact. Potential applicants are invited to watch the dedicated briefing about the call.

MSCA Doctoral Networks provide support partnerships of organisations from different socio-economic sectors across Europe to implement doctoral programmes. The aim is to train highly skilled doctoral candidates, stimulate their creativity, enhance their innovation capacities and boost their employability in the long-term.

The European Commission has announced that the MSCA4Ukraine fellowship scheme, part of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, will support 124 displaced researchers from Ukraine. 13 doctoral candidates and 111 postdoctoral researchers will continue their important work in academia, businesses, research centres and public institutions based in the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe. Funded researchers will be based in 21 different countries.

The European Commission has awarded Seal of Excellence certificates to 1,607 researchers who applied under the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships call in 2022 but whose proposals could not be funded due to budgetary constraints. This label recognises the value of these high-quality proposals and helps individual applicants secure alternative funding, whilst host institutions gain international visibility and attractiveness. Certificates will go to proposals coordinated by organisations based in 31 countries.

The Commission will fund a total of 149 excellent doctoral programmes with €429.4 million to train over 1650 doctoral candidates in and outside academia. Funding includes €47.5 million for 14 Industrial Doctoral programmes to train PhD candidates and develop their skills outside academia, including in industry and business. Doctoral candidates will also benefit from joint industry-academia supervision. It also includes €43.6 million for 12 Joint Doctoral programmes, which promote joint selection, training and supervision leading to joint or multiple doctoral degrees.

It is no coincidence that MSCA do not directly offer single doctoral fellowships to individual researchers. Instead, MSCA Doctoral Networks enable consortia of institutions to submit proposals together which, if successful, will allow them to recruit several doctoral fellows in line with their project objectives, thus creating structural links among institutions including in the academic and non-academic sectors. Learn more about the cooperation modalities under Doctoral Networks and the benefits for organisations and researchers.

The EU Guiding Principles for Knowledge Valorisation constitute the pan-European initiative to turn research and innovation results into solutions more effectively. At the EU Knowledge Valorisation Week, you will hear about how these guidelines are put into practice. This is a forum to exchange experiences, discover novel approaches and peer learning. A series of training sessions on skills in intellectual assets management will be offered for free.

The United Kingdom and the Spain/Portugal Chapters of the Marie Curie Alumni Association are co-organising a new webinar on career possibilities after the MSCA fellowship. The session will focus on opportunities outside academia, industry and businesses. The event will take place on 28 April at 1pm CEST, Brussels time

The webinar Exploring funding opportunities in the EU and beyond: Advice for researchers from Ukraine will address funding opportunities available for researchers from Ukraine beyond the MSCA4Ukraine scheme and how to prepare competitive applications. This event is part of MSCA4Ukraine, the MSCA-funded fellowship programme for displaced researchers from Ukraine, and organised by Scholars at Risk Europe and Maynooth University.

This webinar, organised free of charge by the European Intellectual Property Helpdesk, will provide an overview of key aspects in the field of intellectual property management in MSCA projects. The training session is open to MSCA applicants, beneficiaries, project managers and fellows and will give an overview of relevant intellectual property issues for MSCA proposals, particularities of MSCA grant agreements, ownership of background and results and highlight some MSCA success stories.

The Horizon Results Booster offers free services by experts that cover several aspects linked to dissemination and exploitation activities. Services are free for EU funded projects, including finished or ongoing MSCA projects. This information session will give an overview of the main services and include testimonials from those who have already benefited from them. No registration needed.

The European Researchers' Night is a Europe-wide public event, which displays the diversity of science and its impact on citizens' daily lives in fun, inspiring ways. Are you a researcher passionate about outreach and communication on science and research? The European Researchers' Night is a unique opportunity to engage with citizens of all ages to raise awareness about your research and its impact on society and to put your outreach skills to practice. Reach out to the organisers of European Researchers’ Night events taking place near you to see how you can get involved.

Open Research Europe is an open access publishing platform accessible to MSCA researchers. The platform makes it easy for them to comply with the open access terms of their funding and offers a publishing venue free of charge to share their results and insights rapidly and facilitate open, constructive research discussion.

Understanding how gender plays a vital role in research and innovation allows us to address the diverse needs of citizens of the European Union. It enhances the societal relevance of the knowledge, technologies and innovations produced, and contributes to the production of greater goods and services. Discover how the EU tackles gender inequalities and learn what gender-related terminology means with this article published by the European Executive Research Agency (REA). If you are a considering applying for MSCA, this could help you prepare your project proposal.

Come and test your MSCA-related knowledge in a playful way! Here is the new version of the MSCA self-assessment tool, including various documents for further reading and information sources.

The MSCA-NET project published three MSCA Policy Briefs on Gender, Open Science and EU Missions in Horizon Europe. The scope is to help potential applicants understands the political background behind the MSCA.