Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

The European Commission has announced new calls under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), part of Horizon Europe, in 2024. This year, the MSCA will provide organisations with over €1.25 billion to fund cutting-edge research through excellent doctoral and postdoctoral programmes, collaborative research and innovation projects and research fellowships. These projects will support, provide jobs and train around 10,000 talented researchers from all over the world, at all stages of their career and in all disciplines.

Postdoctoral Fellowships aim to improve the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD.They will help researchers acquire new skills,develop their careers, and gain international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral experience by working in another country. These prestigious fellowships are also a stepping stone in researchers’ careers. They allow them to strengthen research cooperation with leading scientific teams and figures worldwide.

Under this call, the European Commission will support institutional, regional, national and international training and career development programmes for researchers. COFUND allows organisations to create or strenghten their own doctoral and postdoctoral programmes, with the goal of recruiting researchers and attracting international talent, by co-funding a significant part of their cost. Organisations benefitting from such funding need to top it up with their funding own sources.

The MSCA Feedback to Policy call will award up to €2 million to map and assess thematic links between MSCA projects and their contribution to several EU policy priorities. It will also gather feedback from MSCA’s research and innovation community on how to maximise the programme's impact. The European Commission and the European Research Executive Agency (REA) will organise 2 information sessions on 25 April and 29 May 2024.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are organising a satellite event in the run up to the EuroScience Open Forum’s (ESOF) annual conference and exhibition in Katowice, Poland. The programme will feature rich exchanges around practical sessions, dedicated training and activities and will promote both personal and professional connections between participants. MSCA research fellows, alumni, and staff of all career stages, including coordinators, supervisors and research managers are welcome to apply.

Science is Wonderful!, the annual science fair for primary and secondary school pupils, will take place in Brussels on 25-26 April 2024 at the Egg, Brussels. For two days, visitors will have the opportunity to step into the shoes of a scientist through mind-blowing hands-on experiments, games, science shows and much more. 100 researchers from across Europe, most funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, will be ready to meet young and old alike and inspire them with their research.

The Doctoral Networks are a key part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions under Horizon Europe. There are three different implementation modes: Standard Doctoral Networks (DNs), Joint Doctorates (JDs) and Industrial Doctorates (IDs). The MSCA 2024 Call Info event aims at informing all potential applicants and stakeholders about all important requirements for the 2024 call and promoting the ID and JD modes.

The European Commission has announced a €10 million top-up for the MSCA4Ukraine initiative, funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Since 2023, the scheme has allowed 125 displaced researchers from Ukraine to continue their research in 21 countries. The extra budget will enable around 50 additional fellows, including doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers, to continue their work safely in academia, businesses, research centres and public institutions based in the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe.

The Commission has adopted an amendment to the 2023-24 Work Programme of Horizon Europe, the EU's research and innovation programme. The amendment mobilises previously unallocated Horizon Europe funding to increase the 2024 budget by nearly €1.4 billion to a total of €7.3 billion. The new Work Programme includes calls funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in 2024 and 2025.

The European Commission has announced the results of the 2023 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) call for Doctoral Networks. The MSCA will fund a total of 128 excellent doctoral programmes with € 443 million to train over 1,900 doctoral candidates in and outside academia. In total, 113 standard Doctoral programmes, 8 Industrial Doctoral programmes and 7 Joint Doctoral programmes will be funded.

The third call of the MSCA-funded Staff Exchanges scheme under Horizon Europe will fund collaborative research projects and support groundbreaking research through international staff exchanges. The European Research Executive Agency received 233 proposals. Through this call, the European Union is expected to fund between 70 and 90 projects with an indicative budget of around €78.5 million. The results will be communicated in June.

The European Commission awarded MSCA Seal of Excellence certificates to 1,737 applicants for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships in 2023. These applicants submitted excellent proposals but did not receive funding from the scheme. The MSCA Seal of Excellence is a quality label awarded to applicants for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships who scored 85% or higher in the assessment. The Seal is a guarantee of the outstanding value of the research project, recognized by a comprehensive and thorough assessment process. Beneficiaries can use this award to obtain alternative funding for their research.

All researchers participating in Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) projects must complete an evaluation questionnaire, immediately after the fellowship, and a follow-up questionnaire two years later. The European Commission regularly publishes the latest results of these two questionnaires. The 2024 report notably looks at results according to different scientific fields, and provides insights into MSCA researchers’ experience, skills acquired and career paths after their fellowship.

The MCAA, a non-profit organisation for current and previous MSCA fellows, elected a new Board for the next two years in its General Assembly on March 16th in Milan. Amongst the elected candidates are former Board members and ex-Chairs of the regional Chapters and Working Groups of the MCAA, providing the newly elected Board with a strong background and know-how for managing the association. Gian Maria Greco, member of the previous MCAA Board, former Vice-Chair of the Communication Working Group, founder of the MCAA Editorial Board, and co-lead of the ResearchAbility initiative, was voted Chair of the Board.

The Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) has developed a survey to gather insight into current and former researchers’ experiences working in academia. It focuses on aspects of researchers' careers and lives, from professional development and fellowship experiences to working conditions and mental health. The survey helps the MCAA give recommendations to the Commission on various aspects of the MSCA programme and improve its services for its members’ career development during and after their MSCA fellowship. Answer by 15 May.

Did you miss the MSCA 2024 Conference? You can now watch all the sessions to learn more about the rich discussions on the future of researchers' careers in Europe. The recordings include also the Falling Walls Lab MSCA 2024 competition.

March marked the launch of PEP-CV (The Peer Exchange Platform for Narrative-style CVs) a free and open resource for everyone active in the research and innovation sector. It allows users to engage in simple peer mentoring exchanges and discuss how to best present a diverse range of experiences, achievements, and career paths in narrative-style CVs. The PEP-CV platform has been developed in partnership between six research funding agencies, the Marie Curie Alumni Association, and the Young Academy of Europe. Join PEP-CV now!