The Postdoctoral Fellowships call
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships' purpose is to empower highly skilled Ph.D. researchers to enhance their creative and innovative capabilities through advanced training, international mobility, and exposure to diverse research environments. These fellowships are open to researchers from all nationalities and encourage them to engage in research and innovation projects within the non-academic sector. The program also welcomes researchers seeking to reintegrate into the European research landscape, those displaced by conflict, and those with exceptional potential looking to relaunch their research careers.
By supporting original and personalized research initiatives, MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships aim to foster excellence through training and mobility, equipping researchers with the necessary skills and competencies to tackle current and emerging challenges. Postdoctoral fellows are encouraged to engage with society at large, making their research findings accessible to the public and involving citizens, civil society, and end-users in the co-creation of research content when appropriate.
The International Cooperation calls
The goal of this action is to promote international cooperation in MSCA within Horizon Europe. This will be done through a dedicated support action that will complement and coordinate existing promotion channels at local, bilateral, and regional levels. The focus will be on countries that have concluded bilateral science and technology agreements with the EU, as well as on bi-regional research and innovation policy dialogues.
The action will include activities such as:
- Assessing main cooperation trends, opportunities, and challenges related to local developments in the R&I/higher education domain;
- Identifying possible gaps versus joint priorities and participation of prominent local stakeholders;
- Reviewing existing cooperation mechanisms (info relays, training, co-funding schemes) relevance and efficiency for MSCA;
- Identifying main existing or planned cooperation initiatives to build upon, as well as major local players, networks, and associations to be prioritized;
- Qualitative monitoring of the participation in the different MSCA calls;
- Preparing background reports ahead of joint committee meetings and regional dialogues;
- Providing contributions to newsletters and periodic reports from existing information relays, e.g. Euraxess Worldwide, EU Delegations;
- Identifying main local/bilateral or bi-regional events to target for MSCA promotion and opportunities for ad-hoc events co-located with bilateral/regional policy dialogues;
- Liaising with local MSCA info relays, including local NCPs, Euraxess Worldwide offices, EU Delegations/S&T Counsellors, National Erasmus+ Offices, Enterprise Europe Network, and other stakeholders/association representatives to identify coordinated promotion plans;
- Organizing MSCA promotion and training sessions (including through the physical participation of EU trainers when relevant);
- Liaising with the EU NCP coordination platform to coordinate promotion activities with MSCA NCPs;
- Analyzing consistency with EU R&I bilateral and bi-regional, cooperation roadmaps, action plans, people-to-people dialogues;
- Synergies with promotion events and activities related to Horizon Europe, including ERC, COST, and other EU programs (in particular Erasmus+).
The expected duration of the action is 36 months.
Budget and eligibility criteria
The MSCA International cooperation budget consist of a single grant amounting to 2 million euros. The Postdoctoral Fellowships budget break down as follows:
- 230 139 000 euros allotted to the European Fellowships program;
- 40 613 000 euros for the Global Fellowship program.
For both the calls, participants and legal entities must come from EU Member States, Horizon Europe-associated countries, and non-associated third countries listed in Annex B of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. International European research organization are also eligible.
The European Postdoctoral Fellowships calls are open to researchers of any nationality who wish to engage in Research and Innovation (R&I) projects by either coming to, or moving within Europe. The standard duration of these fellowships must be between 12 and 24 months. The Global Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to European nationals or long-term residents who wish to engage in R&I projects with organisations outside EU Member States and in Horizon Europe Associated Countries. These fellowships require an outgoing phase of minimum 12 and maximum 24 months in a non-associated Third Country, and a mandatory 12-month return phase to a host organisation based in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country.
The call for proposals can be submitted, for both programs, starting from April 10th, 2024, up until September 11th, 2024.
