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Horizon Europe - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - MSCA

Last checked on:
26 July 2024
Published on:
10 March 2021

Do you wish to conduct research abroad or employ researchers from abroad? The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fund excellent research and innovation. They equip researchers at all stages of their career with new knowledge and skills, through mobility across borders and exposure to different sectors and disciplines.

Different type of MSCA

The MSCA offers various opportunities to conduct research abroad for a certain period. They also offer opportunities to temporarily employ foreign researchers. The different MSCA are:

  • Doctoral Networks (DN)
    The objective of DNs is to implement doctoral programmes by partnerships of organisations from different sectors across Europe and beyond to train highly skilled doctoral candidates, stimulate their creativity, enhance their innovation capacities and boost their employability in the long-term.
  • Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF)
    PFs are individual grants to support post-doctoral researcher' careers and foster excellence in research. The Postdoctoral Fellowships actions target researchers holding a PhD, who wish to carry out their research activities abroad, acquire new skills and develop their careers. PFs help researchers gain experience in other countries, disciplines and non-academic sectors.
  • Staff Exchange
    The Staff Exchanges action funds short-term international and inter-sectoral exchanges of staff members involved in research and innovation activities of participating organisations. The aim is to develop sustainable collaborative projects between different organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors (in particular SMEs), based in Europe and beyond.
  • COFUND
    The COFUND action provides funding for regional, national and international programmes for training and career development, through co-funding mechanisms. It spreads the MSCA’s best practices by promoting high standards and excellent working conditions. COFUND promotes sustainable training and international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility.
  • MSCA & Citizens
    Every year on the last Friday of September, the European Researchers’ Night makes science accessible to all through activities which combine education with entertainment, such as exhibitions, hands-on experiments, science shows, games, competitions, quizzes and more. The objective of the MSCA & Citizens actions is to bring research and researchers closer to the public at large, with a focus notably on families, pupils and students. 

Budget

The budget for MSCA is € 6.64 billion for the period 2021-2027.

Most actions offer a living, travel and family allowance to cover the participant's costs. The European Union contributes to the researcher's training, networking and research costs. The programme also covers management and indirect project costs.

Conditions

MSCA publishes several calls for proposal. Each type of subsidy has a deadline once a year. Each promotion has different conditions for who can submit and for which researchers the grant is suitable.

Read more on the MSCA website

Find a suitable call for proposal

In the Funding & Tenders portal of the European Commission you can find which calls are currently open and you will find all important documents with the conditions for participation. You can submit your proposal in this online portal.

Questions about MSCA or need help with your proposal?

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency hosts the National Contact Point for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Please contact our MSCA advisors for questions or advice on your MSCA application or project or email us via horizon.mariecurie@rvo.nl.

Frequently asked questions

In the document below you can find answers to the most common financial questions from researchers participating in a MSCA project.

Commissioned by:
  • Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy
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