€96.6 million for research training programmes under MSCA’s 2023 Cofund call

The 2023 Cofund call of Marie Sklowdowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is now open and will award €96.6 million to support regional, national and international training and career development programmes through co-funding mechanisms.

The MSCA actions are part of Horizon Europe, the main funding programme of the European Union to support research and innovation and strengthen the European Research Area. With a budget of €6.6 billion for the period 2021-2027, managed by the European Research Executive Agency, the MSCA actions focus on providing funding for the doctoral education and postdoctoral training of researchers.

The MSCA 2023 Cofund call will contribute to spreading MSCA’s best practices by promoting:

• High standards and excellent working and employment conditions.
• International talent attraction, increasing the research and innovation capacities of organisations.
• Sustainable training for researchers and innovators in academia and beyond, leading to better career development perspectives and employability.
• International, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility for researchers, increasing networking and knowledge-sharing that leads to cutting-edge research.
• Research programmes that mind open science, communication, community engagement, entrepreneurship, gender, ethics or high-quality supervision.

The deadline for submission of proposals is set on 8 February 2024.

Which projects can be eligible?

Projects should last for up to five years and recruit at least 3 researchers, taking the form of:

• Doctoral Programmes, offering research training activities for doctoral candidates to develop and broaden their skills, ultimately leading to the achievement of a doctoral degree.
• Postdoctoral Programmes, funding advanced research training and career development fellowships for postdoctoral researchers.

At the same time, these programmes can:

• Cover any research disciplines (bottom-up).
• Focus on specific disciplines, especially when they are based on national or regional Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation.

Moreover, funding synergies with Cohesion Policy funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility will be positively assessed.

Project proposals with a total score equal to or higher than 85% but not funded due to a lack of budget will be awarded a Seal of Excellence, recognising their value and facilitating that other funding organisations will finance them without hgoing through the whole assessment process again.

Which organisations can apply?

The proposal must be submitted by a single legal entity from any EU Member State or any country associated with Horizon Europe. Organisations based outside these countries can be included in the project as associated partners to host and train doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.

Eligible organisations may include public and private entities, such as:

• Government entities and regional authorities
• Funding agencies
• Universities and research organisations
• Enterprises

The researchers involved, who can be of any nationality, will be supported for a minimum of three months. They can go on short-term secondments but they should not have recently resided or carried out their main activity in the country of the recruiting organisation. In case of Postdoctoral Programmes, researchers should not already be permanently employed by the hosting organisation.

Which expenses does it cover?

Each beneficiary can receive a maximum of €10 million per call.

MSCA will help host organisations cover the following expenses for each supported researcher:

• An allowance of a fixed amount equivalent to the minimum salary that researchers should receive, to support any cost items of the programme.
• A long-term leave allowance and special needs allowance, if applicable.

FI Group has 20 years of experience and wants to accompany you on the new NextGenerationEU path. Our experts are at your disposal to analyse how your project fits into the NextGenerationEU European recovery fund and to take the next steps together with you. Contact us.

Marina Marcos