Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Your research career in Europe

EU Research Executive AgencyMarie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks

What are the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions?

A European Union funded programme for structuring researcher training, mobility and career development

Objectives

Ensure the optimum development and dynamic use of Europe’s intellectual capital

to generate new skills, knowledge and innovation

Budget 2014-2020: € 6.162 billion

What do the MSCA offer you?

• Prestigious career opportunities• Excellent working conditions: employment contracts, full social

security etc.• Very competitive salaries• Opportunities to work and train with the best researchers in

Europe and worldwide• Whole career training: complementary skills• Access to top level conferences, professional associations & Marie

Curie Alumni

Who, what and where?

• Who: All levels of research experience from PhD student upwards: there are actions for different levels of experience.

• What: All areas of research are supported: bottom-up approach

• Where: Anywhere: any research performing organisation, public or private worldwide - there are actions for European and international mobility.

As a researcher I want to…

Undertake a project in Europe

Spend my time at leading labs in Europe

Be part of a well-established and prestigious programme

Benefit from good working conditions

Why?

I want to…

Work with businesses

Be part of a short-term exchange

Bring a researcher from Europe at no cost to my employer

Why?

Excellence

Research

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Optimum development and dynamic use of Europe’s intellectual capital

Knowledge

Why?

Mobility to …28 EU MemberAustria, Belgium, Bulgaria,Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,Denmark, Estonia, Germany,Greece, Finland, France,Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta,Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

• 12 Associated Countries*

• Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina,• Faroe Islands, FYROM, Iceland,• Israel, Moldova, Montenegro,• Norway, Serbia, Switzerland,• Turkey

• * on 17.12.2015

Where?

61%

86%

6%

4%34%

10%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Before Six-months after

otherunemployedemployed

MC fellowsShort-term employability

•MC fellowships very effective in improving fellows’ short-term employability.

•MC fellows are more likely (+8%) of obtaining a permanent position after the fellowship.•MC fellows are more likely to obtain an ERC grant

Retention by hosts•MC fellows more likely to be retained by hosts, especially after long

fellowships (+11% prob.)

Marie Curie researchers and their long-term career development: a comparative study (2014)

Why?Employability

What actions?

Innovative Training Networks

ITNearly-stage researchers(< 4 years)

Doctoral and initial training: European Training Networks, European Industrial Doctorates, European Joint Doctorates

Individual Fellowships

IFexperienced researchers(> 4 years)

Support for experienced researchers to undertake international and inter-sector mobility, incl. career restart and reintegration

Research and Innovation Staff Exchange

RISE International and inter-sector cooperation through the exchange of staff

Co-funding of programmes

COFUND Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes: - doctoral programmes (ESR)- fellowship programmes (ER)

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

How to apply?

Depends on experience and type of mobility

Experience: Support for 2 categories of researchers:

Early Stage Researcher: Less than 4 years of research experience*, and without a doctoral degree ("pre-doc")

Experienced Researcher: In possession of a doctoral degree or at least 4 years of res. experience* ("post-doc")

*counted from the time when the researcher is entitled to embark on a doctoral degree

Support for two types of mobility:

European: moving from outside Europe into Europemoving within Europe

Global: moving from Europe to outside of Europe – NB. compulsory return phase of one year (fully funded)

2 ways to be supported:

Apply for your own fellowship

or

Apply to a project

1. Apply for your own fellowship

Directly to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

with a hosting institution

Experienced researchersIn possession of a doctoral degree, or have 4 years of full-time

research experience at the time of the call deadline

Individual Fellowships

Individual trans-national post-doctoral fellowships for the best and most promising

experienced researchers

Two types depending on the mobility of the researcher

Within or into Europe - European Fellowships

Outside Europe - Global Fellowships

For fellows from Europe going to Third countries (12-24 months) and returning (12 months)

Any Experienced Researcher may submit only one proposal to this

call for proposals

For fellows coming to or moving within Europe (12-24 months)

IF TopicsEuropean and Global

• Mobility: Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the country of the host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline

• Any scientific domain: 8 scientific panels covering all possible research subjects: CHE, ECO, ENG, ENV, LIF, MAT, PHY, SOC

• Duration of projects: 1-2 years

• Focus on career development

• Open to hosts from both academic and non-academic sectors

• Secondments to / from the non-academic sector: 3 – 6 months

• Strengthening networking capabilities both for researchers and for organisations involved

• Separate multidisciplinary panels for Career Restart and Reintegration

Main Features

Reintegration Panel

Return and reintegration of researchers into a longer term research position in Europe

• Separate multi-disciplinary reintegration panel (RI)

• Researchers must be a national or long-term resident of a Member State (MS)/Associate Country (AC)

• Long term resident: at least 5 consecutive years of research activity in one or more MS/AC

• Mobility rule different: Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the country of the host organisation for more than 36 months in the 5 years immediately prior to the call deadline

• Mobility into Europe is essential

The Financial Dimension

Monthly rates

* Living allowance subject to country correction coefficient

§ Amount quoted is gross amount before deductions

Next call: March 2015

Opens: 12 March 2015Closes: 10 September 2015 @ 17:00:00 Brussels time

Budget: €215m

Are you eligible?

Experienced researcher of any nationality

International mobility within or into EU Member States (MS) and Associated Countries (AC)

Meet the mobility rule: Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the country of the host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline

NB: check different mobility rules for Career Restart and Reintegration panels.

To prepare:

Look for a host institute and supervisor (youyou can only submit one application per call)

Design your research project Consider appropriate secondment options Think about the proposal in the context of the

Evaluation Criteria (see Work Programme available on the Participant Portal and Guide for Applicants for the most recent call

Guide for Applicants published with the Call

2. Apply to a project

Doctoral student level

• Research training for obtaining a PhD • transnational network in multi/interdisciplinary & emerging

fields• training primarily through research on individual,

personalised research projects• complemented by substantial training modules in key

transferable skills• Exposure to the non-academic sector as elementary part of

the training

• Working with the best researchers in Europe and internationally

• Fellowships of 3-36 months

Innovative Training Networks

• Exposure to the non-academic sector as elementary part of the training

• Joint supervision with business (including SMEs) or other non-ac. partners

• Project of up to 4 years duration and fellowships of 3-36 months

Main Features

How to apply for a fellowship

• All projects publish their vacancies on the Marie Curie website, Euraxess, NatureJobs, etc.

• !!! Check the MSCA website frequently !!!

• Funding levels defined by the MSCA - employment contracts with full social security

• Duration: 3 year PhD training; max 24 months for post docs

2. Apply to a

doctoral student and post-doc

Cofunded Call

Cofunding of regional, national and international doctoral and fellowship

programmes

Why: to stimulate the regional, national or international programmes to foster excellence in researchers' training, mobility and career development i.e. to spread the best practices of the MSCA

-Opportunities for researchers from all countries -Researchers comply with the mobility rules of the MSCA-Open and transparent: calls/vacancies widely publicised

for a doctoral position or a fellowship• Known calls are always listed on EURAXESS, Nature Jobs and of course,

in the MSCA Website! !!! Check the MSCA website frequently !!!

• Future calls will be advertised there also

• Eligibility depends on the call - consult the documentation carefully

• The financial dimension: what is the minimum which hosting institutions should pay their COFUND fellows:

*minimum total costs related to the employment of the fellows

How to apply

Experts wanted!

MSCA website:

http://ec.europa.eu/msca

MSCA on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Marie.Curie.Actions

HORIZON 2020:http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020

Participant Portal:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/

EURAXESS European Researchers Mobility Portal:

http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Research and Innovation Staff Exchange

RISE

The RISE scheme supports

• projects which promote staff exchanges between:

• MS/AC and TC (international)

• Intra european (MS/AC) inter-sectoral (academic and non-academic sectors)

General Aspects

- All Countries can participate in RISE

- All nationalities can participate in RISE

- All institutions fulfilling the requirements of the Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation can participate in RISE

ProjectMain Aspects

- Project built on joint research and innovation activities

- Project implemented through the secondment of staff (no recruitments)

- Each staff member seconded for a period of 1 to 12 months

- The maximum size for a project is 540 person months

- No minimum size explicitly defined for the project, but substantial impact is expected

- Maximum project duration is 4 years

Some example from RISE 2014

  Average MAX MIN

EC Contribution 783.933 2.430.000 144.000

Secondments 174 540 32

Participants 7 24 3

Success Rate in RISE 2014

Evaluated proposalsRetain List Threshold

Reserve List Threshold Success Rate

Chemistry 82.6 76.2 50%

Economic Sciences 70.6 70 33.3%

Information Science and Engineering 78.6 75.6 40.7%

Environment and Geosciences 78.4 75.8 45.8%

Life Sciences 78.2 76.4 45.5%

Mathematics 76.4 n/a 25%

Physics 81.4 79 32%

Social Sciences and Humanities 77.2 75.2 47.6%

Average 42%

Participants in RISE

- Beneficiaries• Sign the Grant Agreement and claim costs• Are responsible for the execution of the programme• Are established in a MS/AC

- Partner Organisations• Do not sign the Grant Agreement and do not claim costs• Must include a letter of commitment in the proposal• Are established in a TC

Sectors

The sector of an organisation is defined automatically

- Academic Sector• Higher education establishments (public or private)• Non-profit research organisations (public or private)• International European interest organisations

- Non-Academic Sector• Any socio-economic actor not included in the academic sector and

fulfilling the requirements of the Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation (typical examples: multinationals, NGOs, museums, etc.)

Staff Members

- Actively engaged in or linked to research/innovation activities for at least 6 months prior to first secondment

- Types of staff members:•ESR (no PhD and < 4 years experience)•ER (PhD or > 4 years experience)•Managerial staff•Administrative or Technical staff

- In-built return mechanism

MinimumEligibility Conditions

- At least 3 independent participants in 3 different countries. (At least 2 participants from 2 different MS/AC)

- If all in MS/AC: at least 1 academic and 1 non-academic

In practice, 2 possible minimum settings:

Academic

MS/AC 1

MS/AC 2

Non-Academic

TC+ +or

MS/AC 1

MS/AC 2+ + MS/AC 3

Countries EligibleFor EU Funding

- EU Member States

- Overseas Countries and Territories linked to the MS(As defined on page 3 of General Annex A to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015)

- Horizon 2020 Associated Countries(In principle, the same as FP7, but subject to the adoption of the association agreements)

- The Third Countries listed(On page 3 of General Annex A to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015)

Countries Not Eligible For EU Funding

Countries not listed previously are not eligible for EU funding

In practice, those countries are mainly: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia, United States.

In very exceptional cases, partners from those countries might be funded. But the following conditions have to be fulfilled:

a) This partner has competences/expertise that no organisation in MS/AC has

b) The relevant transfer of knowledge can only be done via a secondment in the direction TC MS/AC

c) Points a) and b) must be endorsed by the expert evaluators

d) The experts' endorsement (point c) must be confirmed by the REA

EU Contribution

Marie Skłodowska-Curie

Action

Staff member unit cost *

person/month

Institutional unit cost *person/month

Research, training and networking costs

Management and indirect costs

Research and Innovation Staff Exchange

2 000 1 800 700

Unit costs per researcher per month of secondment

For secondments eligible for funding

*These unit costs are subject to a funding rate of 100% and no country coefficients apply.

EU contribution

The Staff member unit cost is intended to support the travel, accommodation and subsistence costs linked to the respective secondments. Participants are expected to continue paying the salary of the seconded staff during the period of exchange.

Ensure that the EU contribution is fully used for the benefit of the seconded staff members.  

EU contribution

It can be:•paid directly to the seconded staff member or •managed centrally by the beneficiary according to the specific needs of the secondment. Detailed arrangements for the use of the contribution may also be agreed internally between beneficiaries and partner organisations, to address the specific financial needs of each secondment.

EU contribution

The Research, training and networking costs cover the costs of research and innovation related activities of the project such as purchasing of consumables, laboratory costs, participation to conferences, workshops, coordination and review meetings, and networking activities.

EU contribution

Management and indirect costs cover all general costs connected with the organisation and implementation of the secondments (administrative and financial management, logistics, ethics, human resources, legal advice, documentation, etc.).

EU contribution

The beneficiaries, as grant recipients, are responsible for the management of the project. Each beneficiary will report to the REA the person-months of its own staff seconded to another organisation, plus the secondments from TC partners to its organisation. The payment of each categories is linked to the implementattion of the secondment. If the secondment is not implemented none of the 3 categories is paid.

Split Secondments

The minimum length of 1 month is reached if either:

a. The secondment starts on day n of a month (month N) and ends on day n-1 of the next month (month N+1) – If there is only 1 period of secondment (or several consecutive ones)

or

b. The duration of the several secondments periods adds up to 30 days – If there are at least 2 non-consecutives periods of secondment

2. EU funding is to be paid as a pro-rata of 30 days, in case part of a secondment is not a full month. (Of course only EU funding is only eligible for the cases where at least 1 month of secondment is reached for the respective researcher, as defined in point 1.a and 1.b). The calculation of the funding for each month is to be done as follows:

a. A full month is reached if the secondment starts on day n in month N and ends day n-1 in month N+1

b. When a full month is not reached, the remaining days are a pro-rata of 30 days (each of the 3 categories: 2000, 1800, 700 is paid as pro-rata).

The following examples might clarify the different points:

Examples for 1.a:

- Secondment from 1 January 2014 to 31 January 2014 (January is 31 days and the secondment is 31 days) => Minimum length of 1 month is reached

- Secondment from 15 January 2014 to 14 February 2014: (January is 31 days and the secondment is 31 days) => Minimum length of 1 month is reached

- Secondment from 15 January 2014 to 13 February 2014: (January is 31 days and the secondment is 30 days) => Minimum length of 1 month is NOT reached => EU funding for this researcher is not eligible

Examples for 1.b:

- Secondment from 1 January 2014 to 6 January 2014 + 1 February 2014 to 24 February 2014 (the secondment is 6+24 = 30 days) => Minimum length of 1 month is reached

- Secondment from 1 January 2014 to 6 January 2014 + 1 February 2014 to 23 February 2014 (the secondment is 6+23 = 29 days) => Minimum length of 1 month is NOT reached => EU funding for this researcher is not eligible

Examples for 2.a:

- Secondment from 1 January 2014 to 31 January 2014 (January is 31 days and the secondment is 31 days = 1 month) => EU funding = 4500 EUR

- Secondment from 15 January 2014 to 14 February 2014: (January is 31 days and the secondment is 31 days = 1 month) => EU funding = 4500 EUR

Examples for 2.b:

- Secondment from 1 January 2014 to 6 January 2014 + 1 February 2014 to 24 February 2014 (each period is less than 1 month: 6 days + 24 days) => EU funding = 4500 x 6 / 30 + 4500 x 24 / 30 = 4500 EUR

- Secondment from 15 January 2014 to 14 March 2014: (January is 31 days and February 28 days: the secondment is 2 months: [15 January to 14 February] = 1 month {31 days} + [15 February to 14 March] = 1 month {28 days} )=> EU funding = 4500 x 2 = 9000 EUR

- Secondment from 15 January 2014 to 28 March 2014: (January is 31 days and February 28 days: the secondment is 2 months + 14 days: [15 January to 14 February] = 1 month {31 days} + [15 February to 14 March] = 1 month {28 days} + [15 March to 28 March] = 14 days)=> EU funding = 4500 x 2 + 4500 x 14 / 30 = 11000 EUR

Evaluation

Evaluation Panels:-- Chemistry (CHE)-- Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC)-- Economic Sciences (ECO)-- Information Science and Engineering (ENG)-- Environment and Geosciences (ENV)-- Life Sciences (LIF)-- Mathematics (MAT)-- Physics (PHY)

Evaluation Criteria:-- Award Criteria-- Selection Criteria

Award Criteria

Selection Criteria

- Operational capacity has to be checked

- Proposals must include a description of:•The profile of the people who will be primarily responsible for carrying out the proposed work

•Any significant infrastructure or major items of technical equipment, relevant to the proposed work

•Any partner organisations (not beneficiaries) contributing towards the proposed work

Proposal Part A

- Section 1: General information (including abstract)

- Section 2: Information on participants

- Section 3: Budget and Secondments tables

- Section 4: Ethics table

Proposal Part B

30 pages limit

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS (including data for non-academic beneficiaries)

RISE Calls

Next call: - H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015- Opened 06 January 2015- Deadline: 28 April 2015

Results of the evaluation: 5 months after the call deadline

Signing of grant agreements: 8 months after the call deadline

Thank you for your attention

Mr Sanopoulos Dimitrios

Centre for Research andTechnology Hellas (CERTH)

sanopoul@certh.gr