MSCA Co-funding of Regional, National and International Programme

In practice, MSCA CO-fund provides complementary funding for doctoral or postdoctoral programmes managed by entities established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. Those co-funded programmes must follow MSCA’s good practice in terms of international recruitment and minimum standard of employment for the recruited fellows as described in the European Charter for Researchers.

Proposed programmes can cover any research disciplines, but exceptionally can also focus on specific disciplines, notably when they are based on national or regional Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3 strategies). In this case, the range of covered disciplines should allow reasonable flexibility for the researchers to define their topic. Funding synergies with Cohesion policy funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) are strongly encouraged.

A Career Development Plan must be jointly established by the supervisor and each recruited researcher upon recruitment. In addition to research objectives, this Plan comprises the researcher’s training and career needs, including training on transferable skills, teaching, planning for publications and participation in conferences and events aimed at opening science and research to citizens. The Plan must be established at the beginning of the recruitment and should be revised (and updated where needed) within 18 months.

Programme Types

• Doctoral Programmes:
  • Doctoral programmes offer research training activities to allow doctoral candidates to develop and broaden their skills and competences. They will lead to the award of a doctoral degree in at least one EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country. The training activities should be based on the EU Principles on Innovative Doctoral Training.
  • Substantial training modules, including digital ones, addressing key transferable skills and competences common to all fields, fostering good scientific conduct such as research integrity, and fostering the culture of Open Science, innovation and entrepreneurship will be supported. They will include, inter alia, training on the use of collaborative tools and approaches, opening access to publications and to other research outputs including data, FAIR data management, societal engagement and citizen science.
  • On top of compulsory international mobility, applicants are encouraged to include elements of cross-sectoral mobility and interdisciplinarity into their programmes. Collaboration with a wider set of associated partners, including from the non-academic sector, will be positively taken into account during the evaluation. These organisations may provide hosting or secondment opportunities or training modules in research or transferable skills.
  • Particular attention is paid to the quality of supervision and mentoring arrangements as well as career guidance. The selection procedure for doctoral candidates must be open, transparent and merit-based, in line with the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The vacancy notice (to be widely advertised internationally) must mention if the published rates include all employer and employee’s taxes and contributions. If possible, the gross salary (net salary + employee’s taxes and contributions) should be published.
• Postdoctoral Programmes:
  • Postdoctoral Programmes fund individual advanced research training and career development fellowships for postdoctoral researchers. The programmes should offer training to develop key transferable skills and competences common to all fields, foster good scientific conduct such as research integrity, foster innovation and entrepreneurship and promote and (where appropriate) reward Open Science practices (open access to publications and to other research outputs including data, FAIR data management, societal engagement and citizen science, etc.).
  • Postdoctoral Programmes should have regular selection rounds following fixed deadlines or regular cut-off dates, allowing fair competition between researchers. The selection procedure for postdoctoral candidates must be open, competitive, merit-based and with a transparent international peer review, in line with the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The vacancy notice (to be widely advertised internationally, including on the EURAXESS website) must mention if the published rates include all employer and employee’s taxes and contributions. If possible, the gross salary (net salary + employee’s taxes and contributions) should be published.
  • On top of compulsory international mobility, applicants are encouraged to include elements of cross-sectoral mobility and interdisciplinarity into their programmes. Researchers will be able to freely choose a research topic and the appropriate organisation to host them, fitting their individual needs.

Expected Impacts

• Proposals under this Action should contribute to the following expected impacts:
  • Enhance talent and knowledge circulation across the R&I landscape, through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility, including by supporting regional or national smart specialisation strategies when appropriate;
  • Align practices with MSCA policies based on the European Charter for Researchers;
  • Improve the attractiveness of researchers’ careers notably through better working and employment conditions;
  • Strengthen Europe’s human capital base in R&I by training highly-skilled researchers;
  • Increase Europe’s attractiveness as a leading R&I destination;
  • Enhance the quality of R&I contributing to Europe’s sustainable competitiveness;
  • Establish sustainable collaboration between academic and non-academic organisations;
  • Foster the culture of open science, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Expected Outcomes

• Projects results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
  • For supported doctoral candidates or postdoctoral researchers:
    • Deeper and more diverse set of research-related and transferable skills and competences;
    • Improved employability and career prospects both within academia and beyond;
    • New mind-sets and approaches to R&I work forged through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary experience;
    • Enhanced networking and communication capacities with scientific peers, as well as with the general public that will increase and broaden the research and innovation impact.
  • For participating organisations:
    • Enhanced quality and sustainability of research training;
    • Increased global attractiveness, visibility and reputation of the participating organisation(s);
    • Stronger R&I capacity and output among participating organisations;
    • Increased contribution of the participating organisations to the local, regional and/or national socio-economic ecosystems;
    • Regular feedback of research results into teaching and education at participating organisations.

For more information, visit European Commission.