The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fund excellent research and innovation and equip researchers at all stages of their career with new knowledge and skills, through mobility across borders and exposure to different sectors and disciplines. The MSCA help build Europe’s capacity for research and innovation by investing in the long-term careers of excellent researchers.

The MSCA also fund the development of excellent doctoral and postdoctoral training programmes and collaborative research projects worldwide. By doing so, they achieve a structuring impact on higher education institutions, research centres and non-academic organisations.

The MSCA promote excellence and set standards for high-quality researcher education and training in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the recruitment of researchers.

The principles underlying the programme are

Excellence

• The MSCA support excellent researchers. They also foster excellence in research and innovation collaborations, knowledge transfer, methodologies and content, as well as in training, supervision and career guidance.

Mobility

• The MSCA support the mobility of researchers between countries, sectors and disciplines to acquire new knowledge, skills and competences.

Bottom-up and open to the world

• The MSCA are open to all domains of research and innovation and encourage international cooperation to set-up strategic collaborations.

Excellent recruitment, working conditions and inclusiveness

• The MSCA promote the principles of the European Charter for Researchers, a set of principles underpinning the development of attractive research careers to support excellence in research and innovation across Europe. It outlines the specifies the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers as well as of employers and funders of researchers.

Effective supervision and career guidance

• The MSCA promote effective supervision and adequate mentoring and career guidance. This contributes to creating a supportive environment for the researchers to work. The Guidelines for MSCA Supervision provide recommendations in this regard.

Open science and responsible research and innovation

• The MSCA support Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation.

European Green Deal

• The MSCA support bottom-up and frontier/applied research supporting the European Green Deal and tackling climate and environmental-related challenges. The MSCA Green Charter provides recommendations in this regard.

Synergies

• The MSCA promote strong links with the Cohesion policy funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

MSCA under Horizon Europe

Following feedback from various stakeholders, there are a number of changes to the MSCA under Horizon Europe (2021-2027), compared to the previous programme Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). The budget for the MSCA under Horizon Europe is €6.6 billion.

Some of the main changes include

• streamlined actions
• harmonizes rules
• stronger emphasis on supervision
• greener MSCA

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions announce €1.25 billion to support cutting-edge research

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions will fund doctoral and postdoctoral programmes and collaborative research and innovation projects with various calls in 2024, supporting around 10,000 researchers.

The European Commission has announced new calls under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) 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. Supported researchers will be able to carry out their research whilst acquiring new skills and developing their careers in and outside academia, in the EU and beyond.

Through its funding programmes, the MSCA are setting high standards for researchers’ careers and continue to achieve a long-lasting impact on European research and innovation systems and organisations, boosting cooperation beyond academia and increasing their global attractiveness and visibility.

The calls follow the adoption of the revised 2023-2025 Horizon Europe Work Programme this month.

This year funding round will kickstart with the opening of the Postdoctoral Fellowships, COFUND and Feedback to Policy calls this week.

Doctoral Networks

Doctoral Networks implement programmes to recruit and train doctoral candidates in academia and other sectors, including industry, businesses, and public administrations. The scheme includes the development of joint degrees, including a possible European degree, and industrial doctorates, training doctoral candidates in academia and other sectors, including industry and business.

The 2024 Doctoral Networks call will have a budget of €608.6 million.

The call opened on 29 May 2024 and closes on 27 November 2024.

See quick guide to prepare your application

Staff Exchanges

Staff Exchanges develop international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary exchanges and knowledge sharing at all stages of the innovation chain through collaborative projects. The scheme helps participating organisations turn ideas into innovative products, services or processes.

The 2024 Staff Exchanges call will have a budget of €99.5 million.

The call opening will be published on 19 September 2024 and close on 5 February 2025.

See quick guide to prepare your application

Researchers at Risk

This call will provide customised support to researchers at risk, based on the needs already identified in previous national and EU initiatives.

After two MSCA-funded projects to strenghten capacity and networking of the organisations supported. This action will build on their results and lessons learned. It will also put a stronger focus on training and networking needs of researchers at risk.

This call will award a budget of maximum €1.5 million. It opened on 12 September 2024 and closes on 14 January 2025.

Contact us:

Iryna Shteimiller

Deputy Director of International Relations

irynashteimiller@ieu.edu.ua