COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION

of 6.12.2022

on the adoption of the work programme for 2023-2024 within the framework of the Specific Programme implementing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and on its financing

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 1 (“the Financial Regulation”), and in particular Article 110 thereof,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, laying down its rules for participation and dissemination, and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1290/2013 and (EU) No 1291/2013 2 ( “Regulation (EU) 2021/695”), and in particular Article 8, paragraphs (1), (2) and (3), thereof, 

Having regard to Council Decision (EU) 2021/764 of 10 May 2021 establishing the Specific Programme implementing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, and repealing Decision 2013/743/EU 3  (“Council Decision (EU) 2021/764”), and in particular Article 13(2), point (b), thereof,

Whereas:

(1)Pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2021/695, and in order to ensure the implementation of Council Decision (EU) 2021/764, it is necessary to adopt a multiannual financing decision, which constitutes the multiannual work programme for 2023-2024. Article 110 of the Financial Regulation establishes detailed rules on financing decisions.

(2)It is appropriate to authorise the award of grants without a call for proposals and to provide for the conditions for awarding those grants.

(3)The envisaged assistance is to comply with the conditions and procedures set out by the restrictive measures 4 adopted pursuant to Article 29 TEU, Article 75 TFEU or Article 215 TFEU.

(4)It is necessary to allow for the payment of interest due for late payment on the basis of Article 116(5) of the Financial Regulation.

(5)The maximum Union contribution for the implementation of the Specific Programme in 2023 includes part of EFTA contribution which is fixed for 2023 as 2.89% of the appropriations. The maximum Union contribution for the implementation of the Specific Programme in 2024 includes part of EFTA contribution which is estimated for 2024 as 2.89% of the appropriations.

(6)In order to allow for flexibility in the implementation of the work programme, it is appropriate to allow changes which should not be considered substantial changes for the purposes of Article 110(5) of the Financial Regulation. 

(7)Pursuant to Article 62(1)(c) of the Financial Regulation indirect management is also to be used for the implementation of the work programme.

(8)The Commission is to ensure a level of protection of the financial interests of the Union with regard to entities and persons entrusted with the implementation of Union funds by indirect management as provided for in Article 154(3) of the Financial Regulation. To this end, such entities and persons are to be subject to an assessment of their systems, rules and procedures in accordance with Article 154(4) of the Financial Regulation 5 and, as the case may be, to appropriate supervisory measures in accordance with Article 154(5) of the Financial Regulation before a contribution agreement is signed.

(9)The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Programme Committee established by Article 14 of Council Decision (EU) 2021/764.

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1
The work programme

The multiannual financing decision, constituting the multiannual work programme for the implementation of the Specific Programme implementing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for 2023-2024 (“work programme”), as set out in Annexes I to XIII, is adopted.

Article 2
Union contribution

1.The maximum Union contribution for the implementation of the actions in the framework of the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe for 2023 is set at EUR 7 572 593 690.00, and shall be financed from the appropriations entered in the following lines of the general budget of the Union:

(a)budget line 01.020102: EUR 889 101 000.00;

(b)budget line 01.020103:EUR 320 260 000.00;

(c)budget line 01.020210: EUR 1 010 447 782.00, of which EUR 454 190 735.00 from NGEU appropriations;

(d)budget line 01.020220: EUR 284 882 415.00;

(e)budget line 01.020230: EUR 171 398 454.00;

(f)budget line 01.020240: EUR 1 677 017 997.00 , of which EUR 453 704 557.00 from NGEU appropriations;

(g)budget line 01.020250: EUR 1 648 474 731.00, of which EUR 452 975 495.00 from NGEU appropriations;

(h)budget line 01.020260: EUR 1 056 391 235.00;

(i)budget line 01.020302: EUR 69 540 076.00;

(j)budget line 01.020401: EUR 393 750 000.00;

(k)budget line 01.020402: EUR 51 330 000.00.

The appropriations provided for in the first subparagraph of this paragraph may also cover interest due for late payment.

The implementation of this Decision for 2023 is subject to the availability of the appropriations provided for in the general budget of the Union for 2023, following the adoption of that budget by the budget authority or as provided for in the system of provisional twelfths.

2.The maximum Union contribution for the implementation of the actions in the framework of the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe for 2024 is set at EUR 5 892 555 932.00, and shall be financed from the appropriations entered in the following lines of the general budget of the Union:

(a)budget line 01.020102: EUR 913 157 000.00;

(b)budget line 01.020103:EUR 333 800 000.00;

(c)budget line 01.020210: EUR 521 198 929.00;

(d)budget line 01.020220: EUR 260 150 000.00;

(e)budget line 01.020230: EUR 161 489 000.00;

(f)budget line 01.020240: EUR 1 118 000 000.00;

(g)budget line 01.020250: EUR 1 114 885 000.00;

(h)budget line 01.020260: EUR 903 900 000.00;

(i)budget line 01.020301: EUR 25 000 000,00;

(j)budget line 01.020302: EUR 85 576 003.00;

(k)budget line 01.020401: EUR 404 130 000.00;

(l)budget line 01.020402: EUR 51 270 000.00.

The appropriations provided for in the first subparagraph of this paragraph may also cover interest due for late payment.

The implementation of this Decision for 2024 is subject to the availability of the appropriations provided for in the general budget of the Union for 2024, following the adoption of that budget by the budget authority or as provided for in the system of provisional twelfths.

Article 3
Methods of implementation and entrusted entities or persons

The budget implementation tasks related to the actions carried out by way of indirect management, as set out in the Annexes II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and XII, shall be entrusted to the entities or persons referred to therein.

Article 4
Flexibility clause

Cumulated changes to the allocations to specific actions not exceeding 20% of the maximum Union contribution set in the first and second paragraphs of Article 2 of this Decision shall not be considered to be substantial for the purposes of Article 110(5) of the Financial Regulation, where those changes do not significantly affect the nature of the actions and the objective of the work programme.

The increase of the maximum Union contribution set in the first and second paragraphs of Article 2 of this Decision shall not exceed 20%.

The authorising officer responsible may apply the changes referred to in the first paragraph. Those changes shall be applied in accordance with the principles of sound financial management and proportionality.

Article 5
Grants

Grants may be awarded without a call for proposals in accordance with the conditions set out in the Annexes. Grants may be awarded to the bodies referred to in the Annexes II, III, IV, V, VII, VIII and XI.

Done at Brussels, 6.12.2022

(1)    OJ L 193, 30.7.2018, p. 1.

(2)    OJ L 170, 12.5.2021, p. 1.

(3)    OJ L 167, 12.5.2021, p. 1.

(4)     www.sanctionsmap.eu Note that the sanctions map is an IT tool for identifying the sanctions regimes. The source of the sanctions stems from legal acts published in the Official Journal (OJ). In case of discrepancy the OJ prevails.

(5)    Except for the cases of Article 154(6) of the Financial Regulation, where the Commission may decide not to require an ex-ante assessment

EN

Annex I

Horizon Europe

Work Programme 2023-2024

1.General Introduction

Welcome to the Horizon Europe work programme 2023 - 2024

Horizon Europe is the EU flagship programme for research and innovation. It sets the best minds in Europe and the rest of the world to work on delivering excellent solutions to the key issues of our time, supporting the EU’s policy priorities and building a better future for the next generations in Europe.

This work programme will cover the years 2023-2024. It will foster excellence in research and support fellowships, training and exchanges for researchers through Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, build more connected and efficient European innovation ecosystems, create world-class research infrastructures, support the green and digital transitions and target global challenges while supporting European industrial competitiveness, including through the EU Missions. Finally, it will widen participation in the programme and strengthen the European Research Area.

This introduction describes how these actions will underpin EU policy priorities, and presents the main features of this work programme, which are aimed in particular at enhancing its impact and delivering results.

Delivering on EU policy priorities

With this work programme, the EU will invest around €13.5 billion in research and innovation that will shape the future of Europe. A substantial part of this funding will be dedicated to targeted actions that support the green and digital transitions for our societies and economies as well as our security, resilience and a sustainable recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of Horizon Europe in general, and this work programme in particular, is to create opportunities for the EU and the world of tomorrow from the challenges of today.

In the light of the new geo-political situation following Russia’s unjustified military invasion of Ukraine, this work programme will place a special emphasis on actions that contribute to a safe and secure Europe, help reduce energy- and other dependencies and build a more robust economic base. In particular, actions included will help accelerate the clean energy transition in line with the REPowerEU Plan 4 , improve food security, cybersecurity, help ensure open strategic autonomy and reduce dependencies on critical raw materials, and accelerate delivery of the Green Deal. For example, a package of actions across the ‘Climate, Energy and Mobility’, ‘Digital, Industry and Space’ and ‘Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment’ clusters in particular will aim to speed up the clean energy transition. In addition, this work programme includes targeted actions to support Ukraine such as reinforcing Ukrainian researchers’ access to European research infrastructures while the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities will support a number of Ukrainian cities in integrating the principles of climate neutrality in their reconstruction.

The European Commission encourages all potential participants in actions in this work programme to create, where possible, opportunities for the affected persons and entities, in particular researchers and innovators previously active in Ukraine, Ukrainian researchers and innovators who are unable to return to Ukraine in the given circumstances as well as those who remain in Ukraine but have limited means to continue their work. 5

In order to support our commitment to make the EU the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, Horizon Europe will direct a minimum of 35% of the funding available to climate objectives. These funds will be used for projects that advance the science of climate change, develop solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to adapt to the changing climate. For example, activities will accelerate the transition towards zero-pollution production, clean energy and mobility in a sustainable and fair way, help adapt food systems and support the circular and bio-economy, maintain and enhance natural carbon sinks in ecosystems, and foster adaptation to climate change. Jointly such activities will be fundamental to create the new products, services and business models needed to sustain or enable EU industrial leadership and competitiveness, and to create new markets for climate neutral and circular products.

The New European Bauhaus is an initiative in the wider context of the European Green Deal, which aims to show the benefits of the green transition in people’s daily lives and living spaces. Research and innovation policy is an integral part of the New European Bauhaus’s enabling framework 6 . Horizon Europe contributes by supporting, across many areas and disciplines, the holistic transformation of the built environment and land-use complex with a regenerative design approach. 7

In support of the digital transition, this work programme will foster research and innovation to make this decade Europe’s digital decade, and lay the ground work to ensure that all actors of society, including enterprises, master the complex interplay of technology and humankind, for a better society and life, fully respecting universal human rights and planetary boundaries. For instance, actions supported by this work programme will help to maximise the full potential of human-centric digital tools and data-enabled research and innovation in a wide range of sectors, such as healthcare, cultural and creative industries, energy and mobility as well as food production, and support the deep transformations required for the modernisation of traditional industrial models. Using an EU- coefficient type calculation systems it is estimated that 34.5% of funds in the presented work programme, and 36.5% of funds across all parts of Horizon Europe contribute to the digital transition. This equals overall investments of €9.6 billion during 2023-2024. The overall investment into main digital activities, i.e. the development of core digital technologies, is estimated at €3.6 billion in 2023-24.

Finally, this work programme will direct investments of more than €1 billion in 2023 from NextGeneration EU to help repair the immediate economic and social damage brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and to create a post-COVID-19 Europe that is greener, more digital, more resilient, more inclusive and better fit for the current and forthcoming challenges. This is done through topics contributing to a green, digitally-enabled recovery, through modernising health systems, topics contributing to research capacities, including for vaccine development, and supporting actions to increase preparedness for future crisis.

Delivering on the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024

This work programme for 2023-2024 is a key step in delivering on the priorities set out in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan for 2021-2024 10 . Based on the overarching EU policy priorities, the Strategic Plan sets out four key strategic orientations and 15 impact areas. These are based on 32 expected impacts that have been defined in an inclusive and ambitious strategic planning process. Each expected impact is targeted via dedicated packages of actions in the work programme. These are termed ‘destinations’, because they indicate both the specific direction and the ultimate point of arrival of the projects to be supported through Horizon Europe. An overview of all expected impacts of the Strategic Plan and the corresponding destinations in the work programme parts for the six clusters can be found in the appendix to this introduction.

From EU priorities to work programme destinations

The four key strategic orientations in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024 each define a set of higher-level objectives where research and innovation investments are expected to make a difference. The four key strategic orientations are:

Below, each key strategic orientation is presented along with its impact areas. For each impact area, some examples are given to illustrate the activities in the work programme that will implement it.

A - Promoting an open strategic autonomy 11 by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains

As set out in the Versailles declaration 12 following Russia’s unjustified military invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Europe’s economic base needs to be more resilient, competitive and fit for the green and digital transitions, while leaving no one behind. Current strategic dependencies related to sensitive areas such as critical raw materials and the digital area are evident across the EU society and economy and need to be addressed. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, new technologies have kept our businesses and public services running and our family and social bonds afloat. A number of these are now thoroughly ingrained in our everyday lives, and today, the data economy lies at the heart of innovation and job creation. The European Union has the ambition of empowering European citizens with digital solutions rooted in our common values and enriching the lives of all of us. This work programme will help shape innovative technologies and solutions in a wide range of applications, paving the way to a resilient, inclusive, regenerative and circular economy, reducing strategic dependencies. Thereby, it will also underpin the open strategic autonomy of Europe and its global leadership in digital and emerging enabling technologies.

A total number of eleven expected impacts contribute to this key strategic objective and its four impact areas, all of which are being put into effect through this work programme. The following examples provide an illustration of how this is achieved:

ØTo promote industrial leadership in key and emerging technologies that work for people, the co-programmed Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, Data and Robotics will drive the development of human-centric, trustworthy, safe and robust technologies that will boost new markets and applications and that are compatible with Europe’s ethical standards and values. A dedicated action will also examine humanistic deployment of artificial intelligence and related technologies. Within the quantum field, this work programme will target efforts to ensure that Europe will have its first computer with quantum acceleration by 2025, also paving the way for Europe to be at the cutting edge of quantum capabilities by 2030. Efforts will also support the ambitions of the future European Chips Act, including by supporting research at lower Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 13  in micro-electronics and integration technologies for industrial solutions.

ØIn order to attain secure and cybersecure digital technology, this work programme supports research and innovation on cybersecure technology and its implications. For this work programme, efforts will include actions aimed at enhancing prevention and deterrence of advanced forms of cyber threats and cyber-dependent crime and tracing of cryptocurrency transactions.

ØWith a view to supporting a competitive and secure data-economy, a wide-ranging effort on critical raw materials is undertaken, targeting all steps of the value chain from exploration, extraction, processing and up- and recycling. Furthermore, this work programme will support efforts to develop advanced materials that can substitute critical raw materials, for instance in applications for the new energy innovation, promoting a circular economy and resource efficiency while reducing strategic dependencies.

ØTo make available high quality digital services for all, it fosters research and innovation on, for example, innovative approaches to empower the cultural and creative industries, including its many micro enterprises, to reap the benefits of using digital technologies, creating more appealing and valuable products, services and experiences for its users. Collaborative platforms for cultural heritage and cultural and creative industries will be supported, including a cloud platform for European cultural heritage institutions. Such platforms will strengthen the collaboration and co-creation among cultural heritage institutions and with other stakeholders in the cultural heritage domain, widen access for citizens and strengthen research.

B - Restoring Europe’s ecosystems and biodiversity, and managing sustainably natural resources

Human activities create pressures on natural resources that go far beyond sustainable levels. This is affecting ecosystems and their capacity to provide multiple services for human well-being, while natural resources are being further degraded because of the impacts of climate change. The European Union has the ambition to halt biodiversity decline, protect and preserve ecosystems, manage natural resources on land and sea in a sustainable way, thereby ensuring food and nutrition security as well as a clean and healthy environment for all. Horizon Europe will thus advance knowledge, build capacities and provide innovative technologies and solutions to support the state and functioning of ecosystems, to ensure a clean and healthy environment and sustainable management of natural resources that provides for our needs and contributes to climate neutrality and adaptation.

The following examples give an idea of how the three impact areas under this orientation are being implemented through this work programme:

ØWith a view to developing sustainable food systems from farm to fork on land and sea, this work programme supports research and innovation on sustainable farming, fisheries and aquaculture as well as the transformation of food systems.  It does so through a wide range of actions, including the European partnership on accelerating farming systems transition and the European partnership on safe and sustainable food systems for people, planet and climate, also focusing on R&I to promote the production, provision and safe consumption of alternative sources of protein. Actions also aim to make use of the latest digital technologies to revolutionise fisheries control and contribute to ensuring sustainable fishing.  A number of initiatives also aims to enhance collaboration with Africa on these topics. Furthermore, specific initiatives aim to use advanced materials for sustainable agriculture, by creating more sustainable agrochemicals. At the other end of the food system, this work programme will also help create biodegradable polymers for sustainable packaging materials.    

ØAs a contribution to clean and healthy air, water and soil, this work programme will support research and innovation to prevent environmental contamination, for example with actions focusing on halting emissions of pollution to air, soil and water; also promoting sustainable use of pesticides; protecting drinking water and managing urban water pollution, enabling chemicals and materials that are safe and sustainable by design 14  and increasing environmental performances and sustainability of processes and products, e.g. in construction products and textiles. Related actions will also create new knowledge about the role of environmental pollution in human health. 

ØTo enhance ecosystems and biodiversity on land and in waters, actions will focus on understanding and addressing the main drivers of biodiversity loss; promote biodiversity protection and restoration and help develop new biodiversity friendly practices in agriculture, forestry, industry and aquaculture, for instance by promoting pollinator friendly farming systems. This work programme also supports the European Biodiversity Partnership: Biodiversa+.

C - Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy

The European Union has the ambition to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% in 2030, to become climate neutral by 2050 and turn into a more sustainable, bio-based, climate-neutral, circular, non- toxic and competitive economy. This requires unprecedented changes in the way we produce, trade, build, move around and consume, which will spur our technological, economic and societal transformation and contribute to a green recovery. This work programme will help transform the EU into a provider of green solutions for the benefit of all, and position Europe as a technological and industrial leader in the green transition industry, in order to make the EU climate neutral by transitioning all economic sectors.

This work programme contributes significantly to achieving the four impact areas under this orientation through seven expected impacts, as shown by the following examples:

ØTo promote climate change mitigation and adaptation, this work programme supports climate sciences and responses and cross-sectoral solutions for the climate transition through dedicated destinations and topics throughout the work programme.

ØWith a view to reducing energy dependencies and promote affordable and clean energy, this work programme supports a broad portfolio of clean and efficient demand side technologies as well as renewable energy technologies – helping to improve the competitiveness of more mature technologies and nurturing emerging technology solutions – and their smart integration into the overall energy system, thus boosting the energy transition in all its dimensions. One focus area in this regard is supporting a competitive and sustainable European battery value chain.

ØTo further advance smart and sustainable transport, research and innovation activities will pave the way for zero-emission, safe, resilient transport and Smart Mobility services for passengers and goods, for example in the field of Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM). Efforts are also focused to promote zero-emission road transport; accelerating climate neutral hydrogen-powered/electrified aviation and sustainable waterborne transport.

ØAs a considerable contribution to regenerative, circular and clean economy, this work programme will advance research and innovation on climate neutral, circular and digitised production and support the European Partnerships Made in Europe, Processes4Planet and Clean Steel, which will demonstrate EU leadership in the transformation of the manufacturing and energy-intensive industries into circular and carbon-neutral sectors. This work programme will also pave the way to the development of chemicals and materials fit for the twin digital and green transition through the Safe and Sustainable by Design approach 15 . Finally, efforts include a project to create one hundred circular model households, which will pilot efforts aimed at making European households sustainable through inclusive circular practices.

D - Creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society

Social cohesion and inclusiveness and the health, well-being, rights and security of its citizens are central aims of the EU’s policies and programmes. To uphold such objectives, the EU needs to tackle the negative consequences of manifold challenges, such as those arising from demographic change, globalisation, climate changes, evolving security threats and rapid technological change. These are putting the well-being of citizens and communities under strain, thereby challenging business models, public services, as well as the foundations of the single market and social rights. Investments under Horizon Europe will be instrumental for the EU to develop stronger health systems, improve health technologies and develop the knowledge and innovations that underpin the health and well-being of all its citizens. Furthermore, Horizon Europe will facilitate the development of innovations, policies and institutions to safeguard democratic governance, foster civic participation and enhance trust in democratic institutions, tackling polarisation and extremism. These will safeguard and promote Europe’s common values and cultural heritage, and support creative ways of cultivating independent critical thinking and inclusive debates. It will support innovative solutions for connecting education and training to emerging social and labour market needs while improving societal adaptation and citizens’ engagement in the green and digital transitions. It will also reinforce disaster risk management, border management and law enforcement while mitigating the negative effects of acute crises.

This key strategic objective and four impact areas encompasses ten expected impacts, all of which become operative through the Horizon Europe work programme, as these examples illustrate:

ØTo secure good health and high-quality accessible healthcare, this work programme will contribute with a wide-ranging number of activities targeting the young as well as the ‘silver’ generations, with personalised medicine and special care for people in vulnerablesituations 16 , as we are adapting to the post-pandemic life, for instance with actions aimed to create evidence-based interventions for promotion of mental and physical health in changing working environments (post-pandemic workplaces).

ØTo promote a secure, open and democratic EU society, it will foster research on how to protect, nurture and reshape democracies, through topics such as ‘Detecting, analysing and countering foreign information manipulation and interference’; ‘Disinformation by state authorities: developing a better understanding of information suppression’ and ‘Computational Social Science approaches in research on democratic legitimacy, resilience of democratic institutions and the new patterns of democratic participation’. It will also support critical infrastructures against physical and cyber threats to reinforce the EU resilience of critical entities, in order to anticipate the future risk landscape, the increasingly tight interdependencies between different sectors, and also the increasingly interdependent relationships between physical and digital infrastructures.

ØTo create a resilient EU prepared for emerging threats, research and innovation will enhance Europe’s disaster-resilience, including through actions to enhance pandemic preparedness, e.g. by developing new broad spectrum anti-viral therapeutics for infectious diseases with epidemic potential, and creating new knowledge to better understand the relationship between infectious and non-communicable diseases. It will also support actions aimed at improving preparedness for health emergencies. With a view to supporting the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)’s objectives, this work programme will promote investments in research to improve Europe’s preparedness and ability to respond to serious cross-border threats to health.

ØFinally, to foster inclusive growth and new job opportunities, research and innovation under this work programme will help assessing and strengthening the complementarity between new technologies and human skills; and tackling inequalities in the green and digital transitions through specific topics.

Supporting EU priorities through international cooperation in research and innovation

International cooperation in research and innovation is essential for tackling global challenges more effectively and underpins all the key strategic orientations of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024. It also enables Europe to access resources, know-how, scientific excellence, value chains and markets that are developing outside the EU.

In line with the EU global approach to research and innovation 18 , this work programme will tap into the opportunities offered by international cooperation in order to maximise the impact of its actions. It includes dedicated actions to support and strengthen cooperation through international initiatives in areas such as renewable energies, global health, environmental observations, ocean- coastal and arctic research, disaster management, and fair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems. It also builds on the ambitious and comprehensive ‘Africa Initiative’ and introduces the ‘Mediterranean Initiative’, which identifies relevant topics across different clusters to respond to the new R&I Agenda developed with the Union for the Mediterranean.

The openness of the work programme to international cooperation will be balanced with the need to safeguard EU interests in strategic areas, in particular to promote the EU’s open strategic autonomy and its technological leadership and competitiveness. In a limited number of cases for actions related to Union strategic assets, interests, autonomy or security, actions will be limited to cooperation between legal entities established in Member States only, Member States and Associated Countries, and/or certain third countries. For duly justified and exceptional reasons, participation can also be limited to legal entities established in the Union or in Associated Countries that are not directly or indirectly controlled by non-associated third countries or by legal entities of non-associated third countries, or make the participation of the controlled entities subject to conditions set out in the work programme.

The EU is a front-runner of international openness in R&I, at the same time, international cooperation can involve risks and challenges that must be taken into account. To support R&I actors in mitigating such risks, the Commission has published a toolkit for tackling foreign interference in R&I 19 . It is strongly recommended that participants in Horizon Europe actions familiarise themselves with this publication and consider its relevance for the proposals they intend to submit.

Strengthening framework conditions for research and innovation

This work programme will also strengthen the framework conditions for research and innovation within the EU by contributing to a stronger European research and innovation ecosystem, including through wider participation, greater mobility for researchers and world class research infrastructures.

The work programme part for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) respond to Europe’s continuing need for a highly-skilled and resilient human capital base in research and innovation that can easily adapt to, and find sustainable solutions for, current and future challenges. The MSCA make an important contribution by supporting researchers’ training and mobility through bottom-up and excellence-driven research in the framework of doctoral networks, postdoctoral fellowships 20 , staff exchanges and citizen outreach, thereby equipping researchers with new knowledge and skills and providing them with international and inter-sectoral exposure. A special area of focus is providing researchers at risk with tailored support in their new geographical area. The MSCA also have a structuring impact on higher education institutions and other R&I entities way beyond academia by widely spreading excellence and setting standards for high-quality researcher education and training, not only across the European Research Area (ERA) but also worldwide. 

Europe’s research and innovation system depends on world-class research infrastructures that are open and accessible to all researchers in Europe and beyond. Through the dedicated work programme part, excellent research and breakthrough science and innovation will be supported with cutting-edge, interconnected, specialised and sustainable Research Infrastructures. Special focus areas will be the further development of the European Open Science Cloud, thereby supporting open access to digital services for all European researchers; the support for access and integration of other research infrastructures services, including in the field of health and the green and digital areas but also to enable curiosity driven research in all scientific domains, and the development of the next generation of scientific tools and solutions for research and innovation.

As also set out in the New European Innovation Agenda 21 , the urgent challenges of today are inherently complex and systemic and will not be solved by individual actors or territories in isolation. To foster enabling innovation ecosystems across Europe requires a systemic approach that is inclusive and collaborative, involves diverse actors, institutions and places, maximises the value of innovation to all and ensures equitable diffusion of its benefits. The work programme part on European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) supports concrete actions to help create interconnected, inclusive and more efficient innovation ecosystems across Europe that draw on the existing strengths of European, national, regional and local ecosystems and pulls in new, less well-represented stakeholders and less advanced in innovation territories. Furthermore, it supports cooperation between innovation players, for instance with actions aimed at strengthening cooperation between academia and industry, or deep tech companies led by women. It also provides opportunities for innovative SMEs cooperation with European and/or international partners through funding market-led, cross-border, R&I collaborative projects and providing accompanying measures.

The European Research Area (ERA) foresees a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology across the EU based on excellent, competitive, open and talent driven research.Actions on Open science, Citizen Science, Gender and Ethics as well as a broad spectrum of actions to prioritise investments and reforms, improve access to excellence and reduce the research divide and geographical disparities in research and innovation performance, translate R&I results into the economy and deepen the ERA are presented in the current work programme part on Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area. The goal is to have a Union, where knowledge and a highly skilled workforce circulate freely; where research outputs are shared rapidly and efficiently; where researchers benefit from attractive careers and gender equality is ensured.

Ensuring continuity and bringing in new features

The work programme for 2023-2024 is shaped around the successes of and lessons learned from the work programme 2021-2022 and EU’s previous research and innovation framework programmes. It continues and builds on a number of key elements, such as open access to research data and results, which have proven their worth and relevance. It also features a number of important novelties introduced with Horizon Europe to further streamline and enhance the programme:

Gender equality – Gender equality is a cross-cutting priority in Horizon Europe and concerns all programme parts. The appropriate consideration of the gender dimension in research and innovation content 22 is mandatory for all applicants across the whole programme, unless the non-relevance of sex and/or gender analysis is indicated at topic level. Furthermore, Horizon Europe is promoting gender equality through sustainable institutional change by requesting that applicants (public bodies, research organisations and higher education establishments) have in place a gender equality plan as an eligibility criterion.

Widening participation - While keeping excellence as the main feature, a wide spectrum of measures will foster participation in the work programme actions and facilitate collaborative links. For instance, the ex-post ‘Hop on’ feature will allow existing project consortia to expand by including participants from so-called ‘low R&I performing countries’, in order to build collaborative links and reduce the research and innovation divide.

Synergies by design – The deployment and uptake of research results and innovative solutions developed in this work programme, and Horizon Europe in general, will be facilitated in cooperation with EU funding programmes. To foster synergies between Horizon Europe and other EU programmes and policies, they are considered in the design of the work programmes, level, as well as throughout all relevant implementation steps, such as project selection, management, communication, dissemination and exploitation of results. For instance, a set of guidelines on new opportunities to maximise the synergies between Horizon Europe and the European Regional Development Fund programmes was published in July 2022. 23

Making sustainable investments –  The topics in this work programme and their expected outcomes will support mid- and long-term policy objectives, including those of a green and digital transition. The ‘Do no harm’-principle (Green Oath) applies to all EU programmes as expressed in the agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework. 24 To that end, the the proposed outcomes of topics in this work programme have been screened for potential detrimental effects on the green transition and on the objectives of the Green Deal related policies. 25 Potential applicants and participants to actions in this programme can also contribute to this aim by reflecting on minimising the direct environmental impacts from their activities in their application form (proposal part B template) e.g. in their choice of methods, the organisation of work notably the related travel, and from future use of the results. 26  

Social innovation – i.e. innovation for societal impact and innovation with citizens, academics, entrepreneurs, and public administrators as co-designers, co-developers, and co-implementers is a cross-cutting priority in Horizon Europe. Social innovation recognises the sociotechnical nature of all innovations, benefits the need for society to own innovation, and serves the profound changes in social practices required, inter alia, to achieve, the digital and energy transition, climate-neutrality, sustainable management of natural resources, and greater societal resilience in the face of health, climatic and other hazards.

Trustworthy technologies - All projects supported by this work programme will be in line with EU values and adhere to the highest ethics and integrity standards. Horizon Europe is spearheading the artificial intelligence ethics by design agenda. Due diligence will be required to make sure all AI-based systems or techniques used or developed will be trustworthy: ethical, lawful and robust, with particular attention to safety, accuracy, reliability and explainability.

(1)

 

(2)

See Council Decision (EU) 2021/764.

(3)

As set out the Regulation (EU) 2021/695, art. 8(5) an assessment of the first missions established under the Programme shall take place no later than 2023 and before any decision is taken on creating new missions, or on continuing, terminating or redirecting ongoing missions. The assessment is foreseen by 2023.

(4)

See the RePower EU plan here .

(5)

Please note that the criteria for evaluation of proposals remain unchanged. The creation of such opportunities is voluntary and does not affect the ranking of proposals.

(6)

COM(2021) 573 final. Read the Communication here .

(7)

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Schellnhuber, H., Widera, B., Kutnar, A., et al., Horizon Europe and new European Bauhaus NEXUS report, 2022, can be found here .

(8)

The Horizon Europe components European Research Council, Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions, the European Innovation Council, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, as well as the Institutionalised European Partnerships based on Articles 185/187 TFEU and the direct actions by the Joint Research Centre have a combined budget of 12.043 billion equal to 46.81% of Horizon Europe total. The calculation includes a 60% share for climate action of budgets set aside for a potential missions related amendment for 2024.

(9)

EU-coefficients are based on the internationally recognized Rio-markers methods originally developed by OECD (see further information here .) The EU coefficients assigns 0-40-100% markers to actions and their budgets depending on climate action having a major impact (100%), a significant impact (40%) or a marginal impact (0%) of an activity. In this work programme the - coefficients are applied to every topic described for climate action, biodiversity, clean air, digital transition and artificial intelligence. For other parts of Horizon Europe they are applied to larger groups of actions and in general to awarded projects for expenditure monitoring and documentation. Actions can be assigned more than one coefficient if they contribute substantially to more than one of the related objectives.

(10)

 C(2021)1602: COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION adopting the 2021-2024 strategic research and innovation plan in the framework of the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The Strategic Plan 2021 – 2024 can be found here .

(11)

‘Open strategic autonomy’ refers to the term ‘strategic autonomy while preserving an open economy’, as reflected in the conclusions of the European Council 1–2 October 2020.

(12)

The declaration is available here .

(13)

The definition of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) is available in the General Annexes to this work programme.

(14)

Read more about the Safe and Sustainable by Design Framework and the Strategic Research and Innovation Plan for chemicals and materials here .

(15)

  https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials_en#sustainable-by-design-approach-towards-a-sustainable-future  

(16)

E.g. .groups of people and/or patients vulnerable from a social, financial, or health perspective, or at risk of discrimination, such as migrants, Roma people, trans and intersex people, specific age and gender groups (that intersects with other aspects of vulnerability, such as elderly women), indigenous people, homeless people, people in poverty or at risk of poverty, people with disabilities or patients with complex conditions.

(17)

See the press release here .

(18)

COM(2021) 252. Read the Communication here .

(19)

Tackling R&I foreign interference: staff working document, 2022. See the document here  

(20)

 Aiming to enhance nuclear expertise and excellence as well as synergies between Horizon Europe and the Euratom Research and Training Programme, nuclear researchers are eligible to participate in MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships supported by an annual financial contribution from the Euratom Research and Training Programme.

(21)

A New European Innovation Agenda: COM(2022) 332 final. See the communication here . 

(22)

Integrating the gender dimension in research and innovation content is an umbrella term for integrating sex and/or gender analysis, that is, ensuring that the biological characteristics and the social/cultural features of both women and men, as well as gender equality objectives, are taken into account as relevant in the content of research and innovation projects. For more information see: https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/gendered-innovations-2-2020-nov-24_en

(23)

See the guidelines here .

(24)

See further information here .

(25)

For Horizon Europe’s innovation support provided closer to commercialisation, by this work programme and as well as the European Innovation Council, the European Commission want to apply standards that are not lower than those of the EU taxonomy regulation that apply to commercial activities and investments. The ambition to raise standards and environmental performance is reflected in the formulation of topics, their scope and expected outcomes.

(26)

Please note that the criteria for evaluation of proposals remain unchanged. Evaluators will not score applications in relation to their compliance with the principle unless explicitly stated in the work programme.

EN

Annex II

Horizon Europe

Work Programme 2023-2024

2. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Table of contents

Introduction    

MSCA Doctoral Networks    

Call - MSCA Doctoral Networks 2023    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01-01: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2023    

Call - MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01-01: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024    

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships    

Call - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023    

Call - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01-01: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024    

MSCA Staff Exchanges    

Call - MSCA Staff Exchanges 2023    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-SE-01-01: MSCA Staff Exchanges 2023    

Call - MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01-01: MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024    

MSCA Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes    

Call - MSCA COFUND 2023    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-COFUND-01-01: MSCA COFUND 2023    

Call - MSCA COFUND 2024    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-COFUND-01-01: MSCA COFUND 2024    

MSCA and Citizens    

Call - MSCA and Citizens 2023    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-CITIZENS-01-01: European Researchers' Night and Researchers at Schools 2024-2025    

MSCA Support    

Call - MSCA Feedback To Policy 2023    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-FTP-01-01: MSCA Feedback To Policy 2023    

Call - Trans-national cooperation among Marie Skłodowska-Curie National Contact Points (NCP) 2024    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-NCP-01-01: Trans-national cooperation among Marie Skłodowska-Curie National Contact Points (NCP) 2024    

Call - MSCA International Cooperation 2024    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-INCO-01-01: MSCA International Cooperation 2024    

Call - MSCA for Researchers at Risk 2024    

Conditions for the Call    

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-RR-01-01: MSCA Researchers at Risk 2024    

Other Actions not subject to calls for proposals    

Grants not subject to calls for proposals    

1. Presidency event: MSCA Spanish Presidency Conference 2023    

2. Presidency event: MSCA Belgian Presidency Conference 2024    

3. Support to the Marie Curie Alumni Association    

4. MSCA Special Needs Allowances to Horizon 2020 legacy projects    

Procurements    

1. Public Procurement for Events and Outreach    

Other budget implementation instruments    

1. External Expertise    

Budget    

Specific conditions for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions    

DEFINITIONS    

1. MSCA DOCTORAL NETWORKS    

1.1.    Applicable unit contributions    

1.2.    Admissibility    

1.3.    Eligibility    

1.4.    Award criteria    

1.5.    Procedure    

1.6.    Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements    

2. MSCA POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS    

2.1.    Applicable unit contributions    

2.2.    Admissibility    

2.3.    Eligibility    

2.4.    Award criteria    

2.5.    Procedure    

2.6.    Legal and Financial set-up of the Grant Agreements    

3. MSCA STAFF EXCHANGES    

3.1.    Applicable unit contributions    

3.2.    Admissibility    

3.3.    Eligibility    

3.4.    Award criteria    

3.5.    Procedure    

3.6.    Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements    

4. MSCA COFUND    

4.1.    Applicable unit contributions    

4.2.    Admissibility    

4.3.    Eligibility    

4.4.    Award criteria    

4.5.    Procedure    

4.6.    Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements    

Table 1: Country correction coefficients (CCC) for Doctoral Networks and Postdoctoral Fellowships living allowances    

Introduction

The European Union needs a strong, resilient, flexible and creative human resource base, with the right combination of skills to match the future needs of the labour market, to innovate and to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit. The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted once more the importance of the Union’s reliance on a highly skilled research-based human capital that is able to detect and tackle upcoming challenges, to communicate scientific evidence to policy-makers and the public at large, and to work across disciplines.

In this context, the Union must reinforce its efforts to encourage more young women and men to make a career in research, promote its attractiveness for top talents from around the world, retain its own researchers and reintegrate those working elsewhere. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are the main instrument at Union-level to do so. Since their launch in 1996, they have become the Union’s reference programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training. Between 2014 and 2020, in the context of Horizon 2020, the MSCA have supported 65 000 researchers in Europe and beyond, both doctoral candidates and more experienced researchers, and have funded over 1 000 excellent international doctoral networks.

The MSCA strongly contribute to excellent research, boosting jobs, growth and investment by equipping researchers with new knowledge and skills and providing them with an international as well as inter-sectoral exposure (including through academia-business collaboration), to fill the top positions of tomorrow.

The MSCA do not only have a positive impact on individual researchers, they also contribute to the development of excellent doctoral programmes, postdoctoral training programmes and collaborative research projects. They have a structuring impact on higher education institutions and other entities way beyond academia by widely spreading excellence and setting standards for high-quality researcher education and training, not only across the European Research Area (ERA), but also worldwide. Positive structuring effects on organisations include:

1.increasing the quality of researchers’ training and supervision offered;

2.strengthening research capacity (e.g. ability to attract funding);

3.improving human resources practices and procedures, and providing fairer and more attractive working conditions for researchers, including through career guidance and development;

4.building new and sustainable international and inter-sectoral partnerships and networks; better transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines, enhancing their global reputation and visibility.

Main principles applying to the MSCA

Excellence

The MSCA focus on excellence in various aspects: excellence does not only apply to the individual fellows supported or the collaborations fostered and knowledge transferred, but also to the R&I methodologies applied, the research conducted as well as the training, supervision and career guidance provided. Long-term investment in people pays off, as indicated inter alia by the number of Nobel Prize winners who have been either former MSCA fellows or supervisors.

Mobility

The MSCA are based on the principle of physical mobility: researchers who receive funding have to move from one country to another to acquire new knowledge, skills and competences, and develop their research career. Researchers are also strongly encouraged to move between sectors and disciplines.

While virtual mobility does not have the same multifaceted impact on the development of individuals and sustainable cooperation among organisations as physical mobility, it can however complement it, facilitate long-distance collaboration and be an effective means to faster achieving research and training objectives. In this regard, all MSCA proposals are encouraged to explore opportunities offered by e-infrastructures and related services, in particular those provided through GEANT 1 , the pan-European research and education network.

Bottom-up and open to the world

The MSCA are open to all domains of research and innovation, chosen freely by the applicants in a fully bottom-up manner, addressed under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In addition, Postdoctoral Fellowships can also address domains covered by the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025). All MSCA will complement top-down collaborative research activities, notably contributing to the EU Missions.

The MSCA have also a strong international dimension: international cooperation is particularly encouraged as it allows institutions to set-up strategic collaborations worldwide, attracts foreign talents to Europe and provides European researchers with access to unique expertise, facilities, testing environments or data available only outside Europe.

Recruitment, working/employment conditions and inclusiveness

The principles of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers ( Charter and Code ) promoting open, merit-based and transparent recruitment and attractive working and employment conditions are a cornerstone of the MSCA and all funded host organisations must put effort into applying them. The MSCA pay particular attention to equal opportunities and inclusiveness. In line with the Charter and Code, all MSCA-funded projects are encouraged to embrace diversity and take measures to facilitate mobility and counter-act gender and disability-related barriers to it.

MSCA projects are also encouraged to facilitate access by researchers at risk 2 , through tailored support and career services, including job search assistance in the researcher’s new geographical area.

Supervision

The MSCA promote effective supervision, which contribute to creating a supportive environment for the researchers to conduct their work. In line with the principles set out in the Charter and Code, MSCA beneficiaries must ensure adequately supervision or mentoring and appropriate career guidance. Supervision is one of the crucial elements of successful research. Guiding, supporting, directing, advising and mentoring are key factors for a researcher to pursue his/her career path. In this context, all MSCA-funded projects are encouraged to follow the recommendations outlined in the Guidelines for MSCA supervision 3 .

Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation

The MSCA endorse Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) through engaging society at large, integrating the gender and ethical dimensions, promoting Open Science practices through targeted training activities, ensuring open access to research outcomes, including FAIR 4 data handling, encouraging formal and informal science education and feeding back research results into teaching and education.

European Green Deal

The MSCA support bottom-up and frontier/applied research contributing directly to the European Commission’s commitment to tackling climate and environmental-related challenges. Under Horizon Europe, the MSCA will significantly contribute to promote sustainable research in line with the European Green Deal, the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. All MSCA-funded projects are encouraged to address the principles of the MSCA Green Charter 5 and implement measures to minimise the environmental footprint of their activities.

Synergies

The MSCA promote the creation of strong links with the cohesion policy funds 6 and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) 7 , notably by creating synergies through its COFUND action and enabling complementarities via awarding a Seal of Excellence 8 certificate to proposals submitted to mono-beneficiary MSCA calls. The Seal is awarded to proposals that exceed all the evaluation thresholds set out in this work programme but cannot be funded due to lack of budget. The MSCA also encourage complementarities with other parts of Horizon Europe, such as the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) 9 , and synergies with other Union programmes, notably Erasmus+ 10 , including its European Universities Initiative.

MSCA Intervention areas

There are five main MSCA intervention areas as set out in the Council Decision establishing the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe (Annex 1, page 11-13). All individual Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions contribute to these intervention areas to one extent or the other:

1.Nurturing Excellence through Mobility of Researchers across Borders, Sectors and Disciplines;

2.Fostering new Skills through Excellent Training of Researchers;

3.Strengthening Human Capital and Skills Development across the European Research Area;

4.Improving and Facilitating Synergies;

5.Promoting Public Outreach.

The following Actions within the MSCA are implementing these intervention areas:

MSCA Doctoral Networks

The MSCA Doctoral Networks aim to train creative, entrepreneurial, innovative and resilient doctoral candidates, able to face current and future challenges and to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit.

The MSCA Doctoral Networks will raise the attractiveness and excellence of doctoral training in Europe. They will equip researchers with the right combination of research-related and transferable competences and provide them with enhanced career perspectives in both the academic and non-academic sectors through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility combined with an innovation-oriented mind-set.

Expected impact

Proposals under this Action should contribute to the following expected impacts:

1.Strengthen Europe's human capital base in R&I by training highly-skilled doctoral candidates;

2.Improve the attractiveness of researchers’ careers notably through better working and employment conditions of doctoral candidates in Europe;

3.Enhance talent and knowledge circulation across the R&I landscape, through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility;

4.Increase Europe's attractiveness as a leading research destination;

5.Enhance the quality of R&I contributing to Europe's sustainable competitiveness;

6.Establish sustainable collaboration between academic and non-academic organisations;

7.Foster the culture of open science, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The following call(s) in this work programme contribute to this Action:

Call - MSCA Doctoral Networks 2023

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 12

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01-01: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2023

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For supported doctoral candidates

1.New research and transferable skills and competences, leading to improved employability and career prospects within and outside academia;

2.New knowledge allowing the conversion of ideas into products and services, where relevant;

3.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

1.Improved quality, relevance and sustainability of doctoral training programmes and supervision arrangements;

2.Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines;

3.Increased integration of training and research activities between participating organisations;

4.Boosted R&I capacity;

5.Increased internationalisation and attractiveness;

6.Regular feedback of research results into teaching and education at participating organisations.

Scope: MSCA Doctoral Networks will implement doctoral programmes, by partnerships of universities, research institutions and research infrastructures, businesses including SMEs, and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond. MSCA Doctoral Networks are indeed open to the participation of organisations from third countries, in view of fostering strategic international partnerships for the training and exchange of researchers.

These doctoral programmes will respond to well-identified needs in various R&I areas, expose the researchers to the academic and non-academic sectors, and offer training in research-related, as well as transferable skills 13 and competences relevant for innovation and long-term employability (e.g. entrepreneurship, commercialisation of results, Intellectual Property Rights, communication). Proposals for doctoral networks can reflect existing or planned research partnerships among the participating organisations.

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, including on the EURAXESS 14 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.

MSCA Doctoral Networks are encouraged to lead to Industrial or Joint Doctorates.

Industrial Doctorates

Through Industrial Doctorates, doctoral candidates will step outside academia and develop skills in industry and business by being jointly supervised by academic and non-academic organisations, both of which can be established in the same EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.

Joint Doctorates

Joint Doctorates represent a highly integrated type of international, inter-sectoral and multi/interdisciplinary collaboration in doctoral training. They lead to the delivery of joint, double or multiple doctoral degrees 15 recognised in at least two EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Supervisory Board

Each MSCA Doctoral Network should have a clearly identified supervisory board co-ordinating network-wide training, research and in particular supervision activities in line with the Guidelines for MSCA supervision, while establishing continuous communication and exchange of best practice among the participating organisations to maximise the benefits of the partnership.

Training activities

MSCA Doctoral Networks should exploit complementarities between participating organisations and foster sharing of knowledge and networking activities for example through the organisation of workshops and conferences. Proposed training activities should respond to well identified needs in various R&I areas, with appropriate references to inter- and multidisciplinary fields and follow the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training 16 . They should be primarily focused on developing new scientific knowledge through original research on personalised projects.

Inter-sectoral secondments of researchers to other participating organisations, including in third countries, are encouraged when relevant, feasible and beneficial for the researchers and in line with the project objectives. This will increase the employability of the researchers outside academia.

Doctoral Networks should develop substantial training modules, including digital ones, addressing key transferable skills and competences common to all fields and fostering the culture of Open Science, innovation and entrepreneurship as well as good scientific conduct such as research integrity. In particular, Doctoral Networks should adequately prepare doctoral candidates for increased research collaboration and information-sharing made possible by new (digital) technologies (e.g. collaborative tools, opening access to publications and to other research outputs including data, FAIR data management, societal engagement and citizen science, etc.).

Supervision

Particular attention is paid to the quality of supervision and mentoring arrangements as well as career guidance. Joint supervision of the researchers is mandatory for Industrial and Joint Doctorates.

Career Development Plan

A Career Development Plan must be established jointly by the supervisor and each recruited doctoral candidate. In case of joint supervision, such a plan should be established involving all supervisors. 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 aiming at opening science and research to citizens. The plan, established at the beginning of the recruitment, should be revised (and updated where needed) within 18 months.

Call - MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 17

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01-01: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For supported doctoral candidates

1.New research and transferable skills and competences, leading to improved employability and career prospects within and outside academia;

2.New knowledge allowing the conversion of ideas into products and services, where relevant;

3.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

1.Improved quality, relevance and sustainability of doctoral training programmes and supervision arrangements;

2.Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines;

3.Increased integration of training and research activities between participating organisations;

4.Boosted R&I capacity;

5.Increased internationalisation and attractiveness;

6.Regular feedback of research results into teaching and education at participating organisations.

Scope: MSCA Doctoral Networks will implement doctoral programmes, by partnerships of universities, research institutions and research infrastructures, businesses including SMEs, and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond. MSCA Doctoral Networks are indeed open to the participation of organisations from third countries, in view of fostering strategic international partnerships for the training and exchange of researchers.

These doctoral programmes will respond to well-identified needs in various R&I areas, expose the researchers to the academic and non-academic sectors, and offer training in research-related, as well as transferable skills 18 and competences relevant for innovation and long-term employability (e.g. entrepreneurship, commercialisation of results, Intellectual Property Rights, communication). Proposals for doctoral networks can reflect existing or planned research partnerships among the participating organisations.

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, including on the EURAXESS 19 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.

MSCA Doctoral Networks are encouraged to lead to Industrial or Joint Doctorates.

Industrial Doctorates

Through Industrial Doctorates, doctoral candidates will step outside academia and develop skills in industry and business by being jointly supervised by academic and non-academic organisations, both of which can be established in the same EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.

Joint Doctorates

Joint Doctorates represent a highly integrated type of international, inter-sectoral and multi/interdisciplinary collaboration in doctoral training. They lead to the delivery of joint, double or multiple doctoral degrees 20 recognised in at least two EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Supervisory Board

Each MSCA Doctoral Network should have a clearly identified supervisory board co-ordinating network-wide training, research and in particular supervision activities in line with the Guidelines for MSCA supervision, while establishing continuous communication and exchange of best practice among the participating organisations to maximise the benefits of the partnership.

Training activities

MSCA Doctoral Networks should exploit complementarities between participating organisations and foster sharing of knowledge and networking activities for example through the organisation of workshops and conferences. Proposed training activities should respond to well identified needs in various R&I areas, with appropriate references to inter- and multidisciplinary fields and follow the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training 21 . They should be primarily focused on developing new scientific knowledge through original research on personalised projects.

Inter-sectoral secondments of researchers to other participating organisations, including in third countries, are encouraged when relevant, feasible and beneficial for the researchers and in line with the project objectives. This will increase the employability of the researchers outside academia.

Doctoral Networks should develop substantial training modules, including digital ones, addressing key transferable skills and competences common to all fields and fostering the culture of Open Science, innovation and entrepreneurship as well as good scientific conduct such as research integrity. In particular, Doctoral Networks should adequately prepare doctoral candidates for increased research collaboration and information-sharing made possible by new (digital) technologies (e.g. collaborative tools, opening access to publications and to other research outputs including data, FAIR data management, societal engagement and citizen science, etc.).

Supervision

Particular attention is paid to the quality of supervision and mentoring arrangements as well as career guidance. Joint supervision of the researchers is mandatory for Industrial and Joint Doctorates.

Career Development Plan

A Career Development Plan must be established jointly by the supervisor and each recruited doctoral candidate. In case of joint supervision, such a plan should be established involving all supervisors. 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 aiming at opening science and research to citizens. The plan, established at the beginning of the recruitment, should be revised (and updated where needed) within 18 months.

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships

The goal of MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD and who wish to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships will be open to excellent researchers of any nationality. The scheme also encourages researchers to work on research and innovation projects in the non-academic sector and is open to researchers wishing to reintegrate in Europe, to those who are displaced by conflict, as well as to researchers with high potential who are seeking to restart their careers in research.

Through the implementation of an original and personalised research project, MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships aim to foster excellence through training and mobility and to equip researchers with new skills and competences in order to identify solutions to current and future challenges. Postdoctoral researchers are encouraged to engage with society at large to make the results of their research visible to citizens and to involve citizens, civil society and end-users in co-creation of research content when relevant.

Expected impact

Proposals under this Action should contribute to the following expected impacts:

1.Enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD and wishing to diversify their individual competences and skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility while implementing excellent research projects across all sectors of research;

2.Strengthen Europe's human capital base in R&I with better trained, innovative and entrepreneurial researchers;

3.Enhance the quality of R&I contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth;

4.Contribute to Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I and for good working conditions of researchers;

5.Facilitate knowledge transfer and brain circulation across the ERA;

6.Foster the culture of open science, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The following call(s) in this work programme contribute to this Action:

Call - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 22

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For supported postdoctoral fellows

1.Increased set of research and transferable skills and competences, leading to improved employability and career prospects of MSCA postdoctoral fellows within academia and beyond;

2.New mind-sets and approaches to R&I work forged through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary experience;

3.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

1.Increased alignment of working conditions for researchers in accordance with the principles set out in the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers;

2.Enhanced quality and sustainability of research training and supervision;

3.Increased global attractiveness, visibility and reputation of the participating organisation(s);

4.Stronger R&I capacity and output among participating organisations; better transfer of knowledge;

5.Regular feedback of research results into teaching and education at participating organisations.

Scope: Fellowships will be provided to excellent researchers undertaking international mobility. Applications will be made jointly by the researcher and a beneficiary in the academic or non-academic sector.

Postdoctoral Fellowships either can take place in Europe (i.e. in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country) or in a Third Country not associated to Horizon Europe:

1.European Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to researchers of any nationality who wish to engage in R&I projects by either coming to Europe from any country in the world or moving within Europe. The standard duration of these fellowships must be between 12 and 24 months.

2.Global Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to European nationals or long-term residents 23 who wish to engage in R&I projects with organisations outside EU Member States and 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.

Specific eligibility conditions apply to MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships in the research areas covered by the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025 24 .

Secondments

Researchers receiving a Postdoctoral Fellowship may opt to include a secondment phase, within the overall duration of their fellowship in any country worldwide. The secondment phase can be a single period or be divided into shorter mobility periods.

For European Postdoctoral Fellowships, secondments cannot exceed one third of the requested duration of the action (excluding from the duration of the action any additional period for a non-academic placement) and should be in line with the project objectives, adding significant value and impact to the fellowship.

For Global Postdoctoral Fellowships, optional secondments are permitted for up to one third of the outgoing phase. A maximum of three months of such secondments can be spent at the start of the project at the beneficiary (or associated partners linked to the beneficiary), allowing the researcher to spend time there before going to the associated partner in the Third Country. This period of maximum three months will be considered as part of the outgoing phase.

Secondments cannot take place during the mandatory twelve-month return period to the host organisation in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.

Placements in the non-academic sector

Postdoctoral Fellowships can provide an additional period of up to six months to support researchers opting for a placement at the end of the project to work on R&I projects in an organisation from the non-academic sector established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country 25 . While this possibility is also available to fellows recruited in the non-academic sector, such a placement must be implemented at a different non-academic host organisation established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country 26 . The request for such a non-academic placement must be an integral part of the proposal, explaining the added-value for the project and for the career development of the researcher, and will be subject to evaluation. This incentive aims at promoting career moves between sectors and organisations and thereby stimulate innovation and knowledge transfer while expanding career opportunities for researchers.

If the placement does not meet the requirements (taking place in an academic organisation or in a Third Country), the proposal will be evaluated without taking into account the placement. This might affect the final score.

Training activities

The training activities implemented under the Postdoctoral Fellowships should include training for key transferable skills 27 , foster innovation and entrepreneurship, (e.g. commercialisation of results, Intellectual Property Rights, communication, public engagement and citizen science), foster good scientific conduct such as research integrity and promote Open Science practices (open access to publications and to other research outputs including data, FAIR data management, societal engagement and citizen science etc.).

Career Development Plan

In order to equip MSCA postdoctoral fellows with skills that enhance and expand their career opportunities inside and outside academia, a Career Development Plan should be established jointly by the supervisor(s) and the researcher. In addition to research objectives, this plan should comprise the researcher's training and career needs, including training on transferable skills, teaching, planning for publications and participation in conferences and events aiming at opening science and research to citizens. The Plan will have to be submitted as a project deliverable at the beginning of the action and can be updated when needed.

Euratom

Aiming to enhance nuclear expertise and excellence as well as synergies between Programmes, organisations active in nuclear research established in one of EU Member States or countries associated to the Euratom Research and Training programme 2021-2025, are eligible to participate 28 . MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships in this area of research will be supported by the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025 through an indicative annual financial contribution of EUR 1 million to the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships call 29 .

ERA Fellowships

The ERA Fellowships implemented through Work Programme Annex 11, Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area, provide specific support to researchers to undertake their fellowship in a widening country 30 . This will help spread excellence and contribute to fostering balanced brain circulation in widening countries.

Call - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 31

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01-01: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For supported postdoctoral fellows

1.Increased set of research and transferable skills and competences, leading to improved employability and career prospects of MSCA postdoctoral fellows within academia and beyond;

2.New mind-sets and approaches to R&I work forged through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary experience;

3.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

1.Increased alignment of working conditions for researchers in accordance with the principles set out in the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers;

2.Enhanced quality and sustainability of research training and supervision;

3.Increased global attractiveness, visibility and reputation of the participating organisation(s);

4.Stronger R&I capacity and output among participating organisations; better transfer of knowledge;

5.Regular feedback of research results into teaching and education at participating organisations.

Scope: Fellowships will be provided to excellent researchers undertaking international mobility. Applications will be made jointly by the researcher and a beneficiary in the academic or non-academic sector.

Postdoctoral Fellowships either can take place in Europe (i.e. in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country) or in a Third Country not associated to Horizon Europe:

1.European Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to researchers of any nationality who wish to engage in R&I projects by either coming to Europe from any country in the world or moving within Europe. The standard duration of these fellowships must be between 12 and 24 months.

2.Global Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to European nationals or long-term residents 32 who wish to engage in R&I projects with organisations outside EU Member States and 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.

Specific eligibility conditions apply to MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships in the research areas covered by the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025 33 .

Secondments

Researchers receiving a Postdoctoral Fellowship may opt to include a secondment phase, within the overall duration of their fellowship in any country worldwide. The secondment phase can be a single period or be divided into shorter mobility periods.

For European Postdoctoral Fellowships, secondments cannot exceed one third of the requested duration of the action (excluding from the duration of the action any additional period for a non-academic placement) and should be in line with the project objectives, adding significant value and impact to the fellowship.

For Global Postdoctoral Fellowships, optional secondments are permitted for up to one third of the outgoing phase. A maximum of three months of such secondments can be spent at the start of the project at the beneficiary (or associated partners linked to the beneficiary), allowing the researcher to spend time there before going to the associated partner in the Third Country. This period of maximum three months will be considered as part of the outgoing phase.

Secondments cannot take place during the mandatory twelve-month return period to the host organisation in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.

Placements in the non-academic sector

Postdoctoral Fellowships can provide an additional period of up to six months to support researchers opting for a placement at the end of the project to work on R&I projects in an organisation from the non-academic sector established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country 34 . While this possibility is also available to fellows recruited in the non-academic sector, such a placement must be implemented at a different non-academic host organisation established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country 35 . The request for such a non-academic placement must be an integral part of the proposal, explaining the added-value for the project and for the career development of the researcher, and will be subject to evaluation. This incentive aims at promoting career moves between sectors and organisations and thereby stimulate innovation and knowledge transfer while expanding career opportunities for researchers.

If the placement does not meet the requirements (taking place in an academic organisation or in a Third Country), the proposal will be evaluated without taking into account the placement. This might affect the final score.

Training activities

The training activities implemented under the Postdoctoral Fellowships should include training for key transferable skills 36 , foster innovation and entrepreneurship, (e.g. commercialisation of results, Intellectual Property Rights, communication, public engagement and citizen science), foster good scientific conduct such as research integrity and promote Open Science practices (open access to publications and to other research outputs including data, FAIR data management, societal engagement and citizen science etc.).

Career Development Plan

In order to equip MSCA postdoctoral fellows with skills that enhance and expand their career opportunities inside and outside academia, a Career Development Plan should be established jointly by the supervisor(s) and the researcher. In addition to research objectives, this plan should comprise the researcher's training and career needs, including training on transferable skills, teaching, planning for publications and participation in conferences and events aiming at opening science and research to citizens. The Plan will have to be submitted as a project deliverable at the beginning of the action and can be updated when needed.

Euratom

Aiming to enhance nuclear expertise and excellence as well as synergies between Programmes, organisations active in nuclear research established in one of EU Member States or countries associated to the Euratom Research and Training programme 2021-2025, are eligible to participate 37 . MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships in this area of research will be supported by the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025 through an indicative annual financial contribution of EUR 1 million to the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships call 38 .

ERA Fellowships

The ERA Fellowships implemented through Work Programme Annex 11, Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area, provide specific support to researchers to undertake their fellowship in a widening country 39 . This will help spread excellence and contribute to fostering balanced brain circulation in widening countries.

MSCA Staff Exchanges

MSCA Staff Exchanges promote innovative international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration in research and innovation through exchanging staff and sharing knowledge and ideas at all stages of the innovation chain. The scheme fosters a shared culture of research and innovation that welcomes and rewards creativity and entrepreneurship and helps turn ideas into innovative products, services or processes. It is open to research, technical, administrative and managerial staff supporting R&I activities.

Expected impact

Proposals under this Action should contribute to the following expected impacts:

1.Increase international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility of research staff within Europe and beyond through collaborative research networks and activities;

2.Strengthen the R&I human capital base in Europe and beyond;

3.Increase Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I;

4.Contribute to Europe's competitiveness and growth through high-quality R&I;

5.Foster the culture of open science, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The following call(s) in this work programme contribute to this Action:

Call - MSCA Staff Exchanges 2023

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-SE-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 40

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-SE-01-01: MSCA Staff Exchanges 2023

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For staff members

1.Increased set of research and transferable skills and competences, leading to improved employability and career prospects within and outside academia;

2.More knowledge and innovative ideas converted into products, processes and services;

3.More entrepreneurial mind-sets, testing new and innovative ideas;

4.Increased international exposure leading to extended networks and opportunities;

5.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

1.Innovative ways of cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines;

2.Strengthened and broader international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaborative networks;

3.Boosted R&I capacity.

Scope: MSCA Staff Exchanges involve organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors (including SMEs) from across the globe.

Support is provided for international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility of R&I staff leading to knowledge transfer between participating organisations.

Mobility through secondments

The organisations constituting the partnership contribute directly to the implementation of a joint R&I project by seconding and/or hosting eligible staff members. Such a project must explore activities that can be based on previous work but should go beyond and generate or strengthen long-term collaborations. Secondments must involve physical mobility 41 of the eligible staff members and must always take place between legal entities independent from each other.

MSCA Staff Exchanges can address three dimensions of mobility: international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary 42 . While exchanges between organisations within EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries should mainly be inter-sectoral, same-sector exchanges 43 are also possible under the condition that they are interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinarity is not required for same-sector exchanges with non-associated Third Countries.

Secondments between institutions established in non-associated Third Countries or within the same EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country are not eligible.

The collaborative approach of MSCA Staff Exchanges should exploit complementary competences of the participating organisations and create synergies between them. The secondments should be essential to achieve the joint project’s R&I activities. The project should inter alia enable networking activities and the organisation of workshops and conferences, to facilitate sharing of knowledge and testing of innovative approaches for specific R&I topics.

Skills’ development

For participating staff members, the project should offer new skills acquisition and career development perspectives. Participating organisations must ensure that the seconded staff are adequately mentored.

Call - MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 44

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01-01: MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For staff members

1.Increased set of research and transferable skills and competences, leading to improved employability and career prospects within and outside academia;

2.More knowledge and innovative ideas converted into products, processes and services;

3.More entrepreneurial mind-sets, testing new and innovative ideas;

4.Increased international exposure leading to extended networks and opportunities;

5.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

1.Innovative ways of cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines;

2.Strengthened and broader international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaborative networks;

3.Boosted R&I capacity.

Scope: MSCA Staff Exchanges involve organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors (including SMEs) from across the globe.

Support is provided for international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility of R&I staff leading to knowledge transfer between participating organisations.

Mobility through secondments

The organisations constituting the partnership contribute directly to the implementation of a joint R&I project by seconding and/or hosting eligible staff members. Such a project must explore activities that can be based on previous work but should go beyond and generate or strengthen long-term collaborations. Secondments must involve physical mobility 45 of the eligible staff members and must always take place between legal entities independent from each other.

MSCA Staff Exchanges can address three dimensions of mobility: international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary 46 . While exchanges between organisations within EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries should mainly be inter-sectoral, same-sector exchanges 47 are also possible under the condition that they are interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinarity is not required for same-sector exchanges with non-associated Third Countries.

Secondments between institutions established in non-associated Third Countries or within the same EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country are not eligible.

The collaborative approach of MSCA Staff Exchanges should exploit complementary competences of the participating organisations and create synergies between them. The secondments should be essential to achieve the joint project’s R&I activities. The project should inter alia enable networking activities and the organisation of workshops and conferences, to facilitate sharing of knowledge and testing of innovative approaches for specific R&I topics.

Skills’ development

For participating staff members, the project should offer new skills acquisition and career development perspectives. Participating organisations must ensure that the seconded staff are adequately mentored.

MSCA Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes

MSCA COFUND co-finances new or existing doctoral programmes and postdoctoral fellowship schemes with the aim of spreading the best practices of the MSCA including international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as well as international and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career.

In practice, MSCA COFUND 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 and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.

Expected impact

Proposals under this Action should contribute to the following expected impacts:

1.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;

2.Align practices with MSCA policies based on the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers;

3.Improve the attractiveness of researchers’ careers notably through better working and employment conditions;

4.Strengthen Europe's human capital base in R&I by training highly-skilled researchers;

5.Increase Europe's attractiveness as a leading R&I destination;

6.Enhance the quality of R&I contributing to Europe's sustainable competitiveness;

7.Establish sustainable collaboration between academic and non-academic organisations;

8.Foster the culture of open science, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The following call(s) in this work programme contribute to this Action:

Call - MSCA COFUND 2023

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-COFUND-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 48

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-COFUND-01-01: MSCA COFUND 2023

Expected Outcome: Projects results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For supported doctoral candidates or postdoctoral researchers

1.Deeper and more diverse set of research-related and transferable skills and competences;

2.Improved employability and career prospects both within academia and beyond;

3.New mind-sets and approaches to R&I work forged through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary experience;

4.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.

Scope: Applicants submit proposals for new or existing doctoral or postdoctoral programmes with an impact on the enhancement of human resources in R&I at regional, national or international level. These programmes will be co-funded by MSCA COFUND.

Proposed programmes can cover any research disciplines ("bottom-up"), 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 49 , 50 .

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.

COFUND takes the form of:

A) 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, including on the EURAXESS 51 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.

B) 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.

Call - MSCA COFUND 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-COFUND-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 52

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-COFUND-01-01: MSCA COFUND 2024

Expected Outcome: 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.

Scope: Applicants submit proposals for new or existing doctoral or postdoctoral programmes with an impact on the enhancement of human resources in R&I at regional, national or international level. These programmes will be co-funded by MSCA COFUND.

Proposed programmes can cover any research disciplines ("bottom-up"), 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 53 , 54 .

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.

COFUND takes the form of:

A) 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, including on the EURAXESS 55 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.

B) 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.

MSCA and Citizens

MSCA and Citizens aims to bring research and researchers closer to the public at large, to increase awareness of research and innovation activities and to boost public recognition of science and research education. It will show the role of the researcher for the society and economy, as well as the impact of researchers’ work on citizens’ daily lives. It also aims to raise the interest of young people in research and scientific careers.

MSCA and Citizens will address the general public, attracting people regardless of the level of their scientific background, with a specific focus on families, pupils, students, and notably those who do not have easy access to, and thus are less inclined to engage in, STEAM fields (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) or research activities. Inclusiveness should be key, in view of broadening access to science and research to all.

MSCA and Citizens should also promote gender balance and inclusiveness in science, Open Science, and Responsible Research and Innovation.

These objectives will be pursued through the organisation of the European Researchers’ Night and the implementation of the Researchers at Schools initiative.

The European Researchers ‘Night is the largest research communication and promotion event taking place across EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

The Researchers at Schools initiative aims to strengthen the connection between research and education, by bringing researchers to schools and other pedagogical and educational centres to encourage interaction with pupils at all levels of primary and secondary education. Researchers and pupils will meet to talk about current and future challenges of our societies and the related key role of research. Pupils will learn directly about research projects and activities addressing the EU priorities and main orientations.

Expected impact

Proposals under this Action should contribute to the following expected impacts:

·Enhance engagement with citizens on R&I;

·Increase awareness among the general public of the importance and benefits of R&I and its concrete impact on citizens’ daily life;

·Contribute to the diffusion and the promotion of excellence research projects across Europe and beyond;

·Raise the interest of young people in science and research careers;

·Contribute to a better understanding of the European Union policies and programmes among the general public;

·Support school teachers and educators in developing a scientific approach around priority topics and creating a learning opportunity for pupils through a direct interaction with researchers.

The following call(s) in this work programme contribute to this Action:

Call - MSCA and Citizens 2023

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-CITIZENS-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 56

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-CITIZENS-01-01: European Researchers' Night and Researchers at Schools 2024-2025

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

For researchers

·Enhanced opportunities to interact with citizens and local, regional and national authorities;

·Improved communication skills and competences to interact with a non-research audience, notably with pupils and students.

For organisations

·Increased reputation and visibility of participating organisations in terms of hosting excellence research projects towards the general public and possible future students;

·Researchers’ work made more tangible, concrete, accessible, and thus opening research and science to all;

·Improved outreach to all audiences, and notably those who do not have an easy access to science and research activities;

·Better communication of R&I results and activities to society, increased and strengthened opportunities for citizens’ engagement.

Scope: Proposals should cover both the organisation of the European Researchers’ Night and the implementation of the Researchers at Schools initiative.

The European Researchers' Night takes place every year, on the last Friday of September 58 . It supports events that can last up to two days: they can start on Friday and continue the following day. Pre-events, prior to the main event, and related post-events, such as wrap-up meetings or small-scale follow-up events, can also be organised. It is the occasion for a Europe-wide public and media event for the promotion of research careers.

The European Researchers’ Night targets the general public, addressing and attracting people regardless of the level of their scientific background, with a special focus on young people and their families, pupils and students, and notably those who do not have easy access to, and thus are less inclined to engage in STEAM fields (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) or research activities.

The Researchers at Schools initiative brings researchers to schools and other pedagogical and educational centres to interact with pupils on societal challenges and on the key role of research to address them. Pupils will thus also learn directly about research projects and initiatives related to EU main priorities.

Types of activities

European Researchers’ Night activities can combine education with entertainment, especially when addressing young audiences. They can take various forms, such as exhibitions, hands-on experiments, science shows, simulations, debates, games, competitions, quizzes, etc. Where appropriate, engagement with educational institutions should be sought in order to encourage formal and informal science education with the aim of improving the scientific knowledge base. The European Researchers’ Night should be highlighted as a European (and Europe-wide) event, and each proposal should promote the European Union and its impact on citizens’ daily life in the most appropriate way, according to the set-up and the configuration of the event, its location and its activities.

Researchers at Schools activities will allow researchers to showcase their work and interact with pupils. Researchers will engage with teachers, educators and pupils on challenges related to climate change, sustainable development, health and other issues related to the European Commission priorities and main orientations, such as the European Green Deal or the EU Missions. The Researchers at Schools activities should take place at any time during the project duration and should be subject to a dedicated promotion, particularly towards schools and other pedagogical and educational centres.

Involvement of researchers funded by Horizon Europe or previous Framework Programmes, notably by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, is highly encouraged.

Both the European Researchers’ Night and Researchers at Schools initiative should promote gender balance, diversity and inclusiveness in science in terms of planned activities and researchers involved.

The European Commission has defined priorities, notably through the EU Missions, which aim to tackle challenges faced by our societies. Applicants are encouraged to focus on, and include activities relating to these priorities identified by the Missions in their events.

Partnerships and coordination at regional, national or cross-border levels will be strongly encouraged aiming at a good geographical spread and avoiding overlaps. Activities carried-out in non-associated third countries are not eligible for funding.

High-quality applications not retained due to lack of funding may be granted the status of associated events.

Eligible costs will take the form of lump sum contributions as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals covering activities for both 2024 and 2025, including the organisation of two successive editions 59 (2024 and 2025) of the European Researchers’ Night and implementation of Researchers at Schools activities during the project duration.

MSCA Support

MSCA Support includes a set of activities organised through calls for proposals to promote, support and complement the MSCA implementation. They will cover:

·the exploitation of the MSCA contribution to EU policies and priorities;

·the facilitation of cooperation between MSCA National Contact Points (NCPs);

·the promotion of the MSCA at international level;

·the support to European and national initiatives and programmes in support of researchers at risk.

Expected impact

Proposals under MSCA Support should contribute to some of the following expected impacts:

·Ensure a coordinated and strategic monitoring, assessment and dissemination of the MSCA results and best practices vis-à-vis relevant EU priorities (including EU Missions) and ERA objectives;

·Improve and further professionalise MSCA NCP services allowing a wider diffusion of the programme, lowering entry barriers for newcomers and increasing the overall quality of submitted proposals;

·Contribute to a more strategic international cooperation in MSCA in line with R&I mutual interests and EU external policies;

·Strengthen co-operation between European and national initiatives and programmes in support of researchers who are experiencing threats to their life, liberty, or research career, and those who are forced or have been forced to flee because of such threats.

The following call(s) in this work programme contribute to this Action:

Call - MSCA Feedback To Policy 2023

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-FTP-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 60

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-FTP-01-01: MSCA Feedback To Policy 2023

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

·Coordinated monitoring and exploitation of the contribution of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe MSCA projects 62 to the EU Missions 63 ;

·Enhanced interaction between MSCA beneficiaries, researchers and policymakers, on research results and their contribution to policy developments, and greater collaboration among MSCA beneficiaries and researchers themselves particularly in view of possible follow-up partnerships and funding opportunities 64 ;

·Detailed MSCA portfolio analysis in the EU Missions areas;

·Recommendations for strengthening the policy impact of the MSCA;

·Assessment of the contribution of the MSCA to the ERA policy objectives related to support for researchers’ training and skills development, and intersectoral cooperation;

·Strengthened synergies and complementarities between the MSCA and other relevant EU-funded initiatives and programmes linked to the EU Missions, researchers’ training, skills and career development and related intersectoral cooperation.

Scope: While the bottom-up nature of the MSCA is and will remain its core principle, there is a need to have an overview of the funded research portfolio and make stronger thematic links between MSCA projects, raise visibility of their impact on ERA priority areas and gather stakeholder feedback on ways to maximise the MSCA impact. Given the thematic diversity of MSCA-funded projects, the scope of this call cannot cover all the areas to which the MSCA contribute. It should be seen as a pilot to map areas and types of intervention for possible similar actions in the future that will support a broader policy feedback process.

One of the objectives of this action is to support ongoing and planned Commission initiatives 65 which focus on exploiting and assessing the impact of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects results in relation to thematic and cross-cutting priorities, including the EU Missions.

It also aims to assess the extent to which MSCA projects achieve two of the core horizontal policy objectives of the programme: the development of researchers’ training, skills and career and the related promotion of intersectoral collaboration.

Activities should therefore include the contribution and impact of MSCA projects in relation to:

·The EU Missions and societal challenges they address;

·Researchers’ skills development, including but not limited to the skills needed to tackle the thematic areas of the Missions;

·Cooperation between academic and non-academic organisations 66 , with the emphasis on the business sector.

The activities should contribute to strengthening complementarities between ongoing MSCA projects, especially with a view to better exploiting their results and maximising their impact vis-à-vis the thematic and cross-cutting priorities mentioned above.

The proposed activities should include:

·Consolidating the ongoing EU Missions cross-portfolio analysis to make full use of MSCA projects results and analyse their contribution to each individual Mission;

·Identifying good practice examples of cooperation between academic and non-academic organisations, with a special emphasis on the business sector as well as the main obstacles for stronger intersectoral cooperation in MSCA;

·Identifying researchers’ training, skills and career development needs (both research-related and transferable) to tackle societal challenges, including those covered by the Missions;

·Exploring ways to consolidate the available training material developed in MSCA projects, especially on transferrable skills, and exploring how to make it more broadly accessible for further exploitation;

·Following up the existing policy feedback activities under the MSCA, particularly through coordination with the ongoing Commission activities (cluster events, studies and analyses) and through regular consolidation of the outcomes and deliverables of policy feedback activities;

·Supporting/complementing existing communication and dissemination efforts by the European Commission 67 to promote and share MSCA success stories and examples of good practice in the thematic and horizontal priorities of this call (EU Missions, intersectoral cooperation, researchers’ training, skills and career development);

·Identifying good practice of synergies between MSCA projects and other relevant programmes and initiatives;

·Providing practical recommendations on how to better exploit MSCA project results and enhance impact in the areas of EU Missions, intersectoral cooperation and researchers’ skills and career development in line with the call’s objectives.

·Analysing trends in research to feed back into the MSCA and Commission R&I policy. Due to their bottom-up nature, the MSCA provide a valuable resource for tracking changing research trends and can provide and evidence base for any changes in the latter stages of Horizon Europe as well as the design of subsequent framework programmes;

The expected deliverables should include a combination of analytical reports, ad hoc policy briefs, stakeholders’ events and meetings, policy roundtables and different communication and dissemination support actions, such as:

- Studies, analyses, reports looking into trends and developments in MSCA relevant to:

·The EU Missions, including citizens’ engagement activities;

·Researchers’ skills and career development and training;

·Intersectoral cooperation between academia and other sectors (businesses, industry, SMEs, public administration, civil society organisations, etc.), as well as motivation and obstacles to engage in such cooperation;

·Examples of synergies and complementarities with other EU/national/regional programmes and frameworks.

- Consolidation of projects results for policy feedback and communication and dissemination purposes;

- Dissemination and networking activities using the results of cluster events and communities of practice identified for the events; consulting project beneficiaries on policy needs, dissemination based on reports and feedback from cluster events; providing input into coordination of cluster events (e.g. suggesting themes, format and structure of cluster events);

- Synthesis of coordination activities linked to policy feedback and the improved exploitation of MSCA projects results: e.g. preparatory briefings, follow-up reports, feedback consolidation linked to MSCA cluster events, ad hoc policy briefs and monitoring of exploitation opportunities.

The maximum duration of the action is 48 months.

Call - Trans-national cooperation among Marie Skłodowska-Curie National Contact Points (NCP) 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-NCP-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 68

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-NCP-01-01: Trans-national cooperation among Marie Skłodowska-Curie National Contact Points (NCP) 2024

Expected Outcome: Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

·An improved and professionalised NCP service across Europe, thereby helping simplify access to Horizon Europe calls, lowering the entry barriers for newcomers, and raising the average quality of proposals submitted;

·​Harmonised and improved trans-national cooperation between NCPs;

·More consistent level of NCP support services across Europe and beyond, notably in widening countries;

·Increased participation of third-country NCPs in the activities of the action.

Scope: The objective is to facilitate the trans-national co-operation between National Contact Points (NCPs) for the MSCA, including those established in Third Countries, with a view to identifying and sharing good practices and raising the general standard of support to applicants, taking into account the diversity of actors and experiences.

Support will be given to a consortium of formally nominated MSCA NCPs. The activities will be tailor-made to the needs and priorities of the NCPs concerned and may include benchmarking, joint workshops, enhanced cross-border brokerage events, training sessions linked to the MSCA and wider R&I priorities and tools, twinning and mentoring schemes. Special attention will be given to enhancing the competence of MSCA NCPs, including helping newcomers and less experienced NCPs to rapidly acquire the know-how accumulated by their peers. Cooperation with other EU networks such as Euraxess Worldwide, Enterprise Europe Network, COST, will be encouraged to increase the visibility to potential beneficiaries, especially in the non-academic sector.

Addressing the R&I gap

There still is a research and innovation gap across Europe and discrepancies remain between European countries in their capacity to attract funding and researchers. This gap is observed in the MSCA as well. Particular emphasis on continuing the efforts to close this gap will mark the first years of the MSCA under Horizon Europe. Therefore, specific measures to support the NCPs in “widening countries,” such as training and mentorship schemes, should be organised to stimulate more high-quality applications with beneficiaries in these countries and increase their success rate in MSCA.

Attract researchers from third countries

The MSCA are the main EU instrument to attract researchers from Third Countries to Europe. Specific measures to encourage Third-Country NCPs to create contacts and participate in the activities of the project (e.g. training, twinning, mentoring, and other capacity building and networking activities) should be foreseen.

The focus throughout should be on issues specific to the MSCA and should not duplicate actions foreseen in the NCP network under “Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area”.

The consortium should have a good representation of experienced and less experienced NCPs and include NCPs from widening countries.

Submission of a single proposal is encouraged. NCPs choosing not to participate as a member of the consortium are nevertheless invited and encouraged to participate in the project activities (e.g. workshops).

The expected duration of the action will be 36 months.

Call - MSCA International Cooperation 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-INCO-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 70

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-INCO-01-01: MSCA International Cooperation 2024

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

·Broader and more strategic promotion of international cooperation opportunities offered through MSCA;

·Monitoring progress, opportunities and challenges in MSCA bilateral and bi-regional cooperation with main international partner countries and regions;

·Strengthening complementarities with other relevant promotion and cooperation initiatives funded through Horizon Europe or other EU programmes.

Scope: The objective is to foster international cooperation in MSCA in Horizon Europe, through a dedicated support action to complement and ensure coordination between existing promotion channels at local level, and ensure consistency with formal R&I policy dialogues at bilateral and regional levels. Focus should be given:

·At bilateral level on countries having concluded bilateral Science and Technology Agreements with the EU (Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine and the United States).

·At regional level, on bi-regional research and innovation policy dialogues, established notably with the African Union, ASEAN, LAC, Mediterranean partner countries, Eastern Partnership countries and Western Balkans.

Based on the outcomes of a study 72 on the MSCA international dimension in Horizon 2020, activities to be implemented should include:

·Policy support to bilateral/bi-regional cooperation: 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.

·Promotion of MSCA cooperation opportunities: 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; organising 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

·Cross cutting activities: analysing consistency with EU R&I bilateral and bi-regional, cooperation roadmaps and action plans, people-to-people dialogues, synergies with promotion events and activities related to Horizon Europe, including ERC or COST and other EU programmes (in particular Erasmus+).

The expected duration of the action is 36 months.

Call - MSCA for Researchers at Risk 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-RR-01

Conditions for the Call

Indicative budget(s) 73

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-RR-01-01: MSCA Researchers at Risk 2024

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

·A more consistent and sustained level of coordination and preparedness for supporting researchers at risk at European, national and institutional level;

·Improved support to researchers at risk through the provision of policy recommendations, as well as advice and assistance on their implementation;

·A more sustainable and professionalised support network/structure/system for researchers at risk across Europe, facilitating access to funding and networking opportunities, creating level playing field for applicants to European and national R&I programmes, and raising the quality of submitted proposals;

·More synergies between initiatives supporting researchers at risk funded by EU programmes (such as Horizon Europe and Erasmus+) and national or institutional actors;

·Increased exposure of researchers at risk to the industry and to the non-academic sector;

·Greater awareness in Europe and beyond on why researchers are at risk and ways to support them.

Scope: To build on the available results of past and on-going Researchers at Risk initiatives 75 further support is envisaged towards national and international organisations working with researchers at risk and aiming to enhance and professionalise their activities. It should further facilitate and strengthen cooperation and linkages between European, national and institutional initiatives and programmes, increasing awareness on why researchers are at risk, as well as identifying and delivering the best possible solutions to the challenges these researchers are confronted with.

The support action should be aligned with the general objectives of the MSCA, in particular scientific excellence, skills and career development, inter-sectoral mobility, equal opportunities and inclusiveness, attractive working conditions, work/life balance, while fostering open science, innovation and entrepreneurship. It should not duplicate other actions foreseen under Horizon Europe or other EU-funded programmes such as Erasmus+, but rather build synergies between these programmes. The activities carried out under this support action should complement actions in Member States and third countries associated to Horizon Europe.

The expected duration of the action is 36 months.

Other Actions not subject to calls for proposals

Grants not subject to calls for proposals

1. Presidency event: MSCA Spanish Presidency Conference 2023 76

The challenges the world is facing require a joint response from policymakers, society, academia, and industry. We have witnessed how science and scientists have become, more than ever, fundamental in the global response to current crisis. Moreover, science is also a key dimension of the EU digital and green transitions. However, much needs to be done in order to make even more of scientific knowledge and highly skilled professionals with a scientific background towards addressing EU´s vision.

The role of MSCA in the following areas will be discussed in the MSCA Conference: How to foster knowledge interfaces that better connect science, policy making, industry and society and how to diversify scientific career paths while ensuring to nurture these interfaces, keeping in mind the relevance of gender equality in the European Research & Innovation Area (ERA).

The Conference will target the following expected outcomes:

·MSCA towards addressing global challenges

·MSCA fostering the connection between science, policy making, industry and society

·How MSCA can contribute to diversify scientific career paths

·How MSCA can contribute to gender equality in the European Research & Innovation Area (ERA)

Legal entities:

FECYT F.S.P. (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology), C/Pintor Murillo, 15 – 28100 Alcobendas (Madrid)

Form of Funding: Grants not subject to calls for proposals

Type of Action: Grant to identified beneficiary according to Financial Regulation Article 195(e) - Coordination and support action

Indicative timetable: Third quarter 2023

Indicative budget: EUR 0.15 million from the 2023 budget

2. Presidency event: MSCA Belgian Presidency Conference 2024 77

The Conference will address the following subjects:

·A reworked Charter and Code, the competence framework, career observatory (incl. Open Science) and the reforming of research assessment of researchers;

·Showcasing excellent open science practices from the first running Horizon Europe MSCA projects;

·Scientific impact: how to rhyme the long term impact of the research (as requested in the proposal) with MSCA also supporting fundamental bottom-up science where the outcome and its applications may still be unknown?

·Societal/economic impact: the importance of the MSCA and its bottom-up nature for innovation;

·Sharing the perspectives of fellows, supervisors, institutions and policy makers on two novelties of HE: the Green Charter and Guidelines on Supervision;

·Synergies between European instrument to support R&I: do transnational alliances of European universities integrate MSCA calls in their strategy and what are the results so far?

·Gender inequalities in careers and the issue of precarious careers, in particular the tension between sustainable careers versus unsustainable funding: what role can universities and funders play in supporting long-term career opportunities in a context of short-term funding?

Legal entities:

Service Public de Wallonie, Place Joséphine Charlotte 2 5100 Namur

Form of Funding: Grants not subject to calls for proposals

Type of Action: Grant to identified beneficiary according to Financial Regulation Article 195(e) - Coordination and support action

Indicative timetable: Second quarter 2024

Indicative budget: EUR 0.15 million from the 2024 budget

3. Support to the Marie Curie Alumni Association

Expected Outcome: This coordination and support action is expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

·A well-functioning MCAA, providing useful services to its members;

·Relevant policy feedback to the European Commission;

·An expanded network of MSCA alumni;

·Improved networking and cooperation among MSCA alumni;

·Improved visibility, sustainability, reach, relevance and impact of the MSCA.

Expected Impact:

·Increase the impact of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions through greater networking and cooperation between MSCA fellows (current and past);

·Promote the outreach and visibility of the MSCA at European and Global level;

·Promote Europe as an excellent research destination;

·Enhance the policy feedback to the European Commission on the MSCA and EU policies more broadly.

Scope:

This grant will be awarded without a call for proposals according to Article 195(e) of the Financial Regulation and Article 24(3)(b) of the Horizon Europe Regulation. The use of a grant to identified beneficiary is justified by the particular role and purpose of the MCAA, its unique nature and the fact that the association gathers around 20.000 MSCA alumni.

This action should support the MCAA in achieving the following objectives:

·Supporting the functioning of the MCAA, foster its expansion and growth on the European and international stage;

·Facilitating professional networking and career development of former and current MSCA fellows;

·Encouraging networking and cooperation among members from different countries, sectors of the economy and across scientific disciplines;

·Enabling alumni to act as MSCA ambassadors and promoters within the global research and innovation community, but also for the European Commission and EU Delegations throughout the world;

·Provide feedback to the European Commission on the MSCA to constantly improve its success, relevance and impact; and provide feedback on relevant EU policies.

The beneficiary may provide financial support to third parties (individual members of the MCAA as well as Working Groups and Chapters). The support to third parties can be provided in the form grants, prizes or similar forms of support. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 10 000. The conditions for financial support to third parties defined in General Annex B do not apply.

Eligible activities include inter alia:

-Organisation of physical and virtual MCAA governance body meetings according to the need of the MCAA;

-Organisation of General Assembly meetings of the MCAA and annual MCAA Conference;

-Support for Alumni, Chapters and Working groups;

-Maintenance and continuous development of the MCAA’s IT infrastructure and website, including the membership database;

-Data collection and provision of structured feedback on the MSCA, including online surveys, in agreement with the Commission, to obtain feedback on EU policy topics, on the MSCA, on the development of the network or any other topic of interest to both parties.

The following deliverables will have to be submitted:

-Yearly work plans on the functioning and growth of the MCAA submitted at month 6 and updated at month 18;

-A long-term plan for the evolution of the MCAA submitted at month 6, and updated at month 18;

-A communication plan to be submitted 6 months after the beginning of the grant;

-A progress report at month 6 and month 18.

The expected duration of the action is 36 months.

The evaluation committee will be composed fully by representatives of EU institutions. The evaluation committee can be assisted by external experts if required.

The general conditions, including admissibility conditions, eligibility conditions, award criteria, evaluation and award procedure, legal and financial set-up for grants, financial and operational capacity and exclusion, and procedure are provided in parts A to G of the General Annexes.

Indicative timetable: second quarter 2024

Legal entities:

MCAA-Marie Curie Alumni Association, MCAA, c/o Inovamais, Avenue des Arts, 24, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

Form of Funding: Grants not subject to calls for proposals

Type of Action: Grant to identified beneficiary according to Financial Regulation Article 195(e) - Coordination and support action

Indicative budget: EUR 4.00 million from the 2024 budget

4. MSCA Special Needs Allowances to Horizon 2020 legacy projects

The MSCA pay particular attention to accessibility and inclusiveness and foresee financial support for the additional costs entailed by recruited or seconded researchers/staff members with disabilities whose long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments 78 are as such that their participation in MSCA would not be possible without extra financial support.

Beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 ITN, IF, RISE and COFUND grants can continue to apply for a dedicated special needs grant. This grant will cover the additional costs that researchers/staff members with disabilities face due to the increased costs of their mobility. It can also be used to ensure necessary assistance by third persons or for adapting their work environment 79 . It cannot cover costs which are already covered by another source, such as social security or health insurance.

The support will be granted based on the request submitted by the coordinator of the MSCA grant (Horizon 2020 ITN, IF, RISE and COFUND grants) to the granting authority. The request can be submitted at any moment during the implementation of the MSCA grant, when the need arises. The request should contain a description of the special needs, the type of support and the budget requested. The request will be evaluated by the granting authority and, if needed, an assistance by external experts may be requested.

Once agreed, the MSCA grant agreement will be formally amended and the requested amount for the special needs will be covered by the increase of the budget in the Management cost category. This extra amount will be paid together with the payment of the balance. The support will be limited to a maximum of EUR 60 000 per researcher/staff member.

Form of Funding: Grants not subject to calls for proposals

Type of Action: Grant to identified beneficiary according to Financial Regulation Article 195(e) - Coordination and support action

Indicative timetable: Throughout 2023 and 2024

Indicative budget: EUR 0.20 million from the 2023 budget and EUR 0.10 million from the 2024 budget

Procurements

1. Public Procurement for Events and Outreach

During 2023 and 2024, the Commission will organise several events (conferences and workshops) dedicated to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and to contribute to leading research conferences. Moreover, a dedicated campaign will be organised to ensure the visibility of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and funded projects to the general public.

Form of Funding: Procurement

Type of Action: Public procurement

Indicative budget: EUR 0.50 million from the 2023 budget and EUR 0.50 million from the 2024 budget

Other budget implementation instruments

1. External Expertise

This action will support the use of appointed independent experts for the monitoring of ongoing actions (grant agreements, grant decisions, public procurement actions, financial instruments) funded under Horizon Europe and previous Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation and where appropriate include ethics checks, as well as compliance checks regarding the Gender Equality Plan eligibility criterion.

Form of Funding: Other budget implementation instruments

Type of Action: Expert contract action

Indicative budget: EUR 0.50 million from the 2023 budget and EUR 0.50 million from the 2024 budget

Budget 80

Specific conditions for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

DEFINITIONS

The following definitions apply:

'Academic sector' means public or private higher education establishments awarding academic degrees, public or private non-profit research organisations 81 and International European Research Organisations (IERO) 82 .

'Non-academic sector' means any socio-economic actor not included in the academic sector and fulfilling the requirements of the Horizon Europe Rules for Participation.

'Associated partners' are entities which participate in the action, but without the right to charge costs or claim contributions. They contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the grant agreement. Associated partners may not employ the researchers under the action 83 .

'Associated partners linked to a beneficiary' are organisations with an established capital or legal link with the beneficiary, which is not limited to the action nor specifically created for its implementation. These entities implement action tasks described in Annex 1 of the grant agreement, i.e. hosting and training of researchers in Doctoral Networks and Postdoctoral Fellowships and hosting and seconding staff in Staff Exchanges. The associated partners linked to a beneficiary do not have the right to claim unit contributions and may not employ the researcher under the action. In addition, they must fulfil the eligibility conditions 84 for participation and funding applicable to the beneficiary they are linked to. The type of link and involvement of such entities must be clearly described in the proposal and will be assessed as part of the evaluation.

'Beneficiaries' are the legal entities that sign the grant agreement (either directly or through an accession form) and have the responsibility for the proper implementation of the action. They contribute directly to the implementation of the research, transfer of knowledge and training activities. Depending on the type of MSCA action, this involves recruiting, supervising, hosting, training or seconding researchers/research staff or managing and/or funding programmes.

‘Implementing partners’ means third parties implementing the MSCA COFUND Doctoral or Postdoctoral programmes by recruiting researchers. Implementing partners can receive financial support from the beneficiary.

Implementing partners that are identified in the proposal must include a letter of commitment in the proposal to ensure their active participation in the action. The involvement of any implementing partner for which no such evidence of commitment is submitted will not be taken into account during evaluation.

‘Interdisciplinarity’ means the integration of information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts or theories from two or more scientific disciplines. The term discipline refers to the first level of MSCA keywords 85 .

1.MSCA DOCTORAL NETWORKS

1.1.Applicable unit contributions

The EU contribution for MSCA Doctoral Networks will take the form of unit contributions, as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

The following budget categories apply:

A country correction coefficient applies to the living allowance in order to ensure equal treatment and purchasing power parity for all researchers. This coefficient is the one applicable to the country of the recruiting beneficiary (see Table 1 at the end of this Work Programme part). The living allowance is a gross amount, including compulsory deductions under national law, such as employer and employee social security contributions and direct taxes. The beneficiary must recruit each eligible doctoral candidate under an employment contract or equivalent direct contract with full social security coverage (including sickness, parental, unemployment and invalidity benefits, pension rights, benefits in respect of accidents at work and occupational diseases). An exemption from this rule can be accepted only in cases where national legislation or the equivalent internal regulations of International European Research Organisations (IERO), entities created under Union law, or an international organisation, prohibit this possibility and subject to the prior agreement of the granting authority.

When an employment contract cannot be provided, the beneficiary may exceptionally recruit the doctoral candidate under a 'fixed-amount fellowship'. In this case, the living allowance will be halved and the beneficiary must ensure that the doctoral candidate enjoys minimum social security coverage (including sickness, parental and invalidity benefits, and benefits for accidents at work and occupational diseases).

The beneficiary must pay to the doctoral candidates at least the amount of the living allowance (minus all compulsory deductions under national legislation). A top-up may be paid to the researchers in order to complement this contribution. In addition to the living allowance, all doctoral candidates must receive a mobility allowance. This allowance covers their additional, private mobility-related costs (e.g. travel and accommodation costs), not their professional costs under the action, which are covered by the research, training and networking contribution.

If the recruited doctoral candidate has or acquires family obligations during the action duration, i.e. persons linked to him/her by (i) marriage, or (ii) a relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the legislation of the country or region where this relationship was formalised; or (iii) dependent children who are actually being maintained by the researcher, the family allowance must be paid to him/her as well.

The long-term leave allowance contributes to the personnel costs incurred by the beneficiaries in case of the researchers’ leave, including maternity, paternity, parental, sick or special leave, longer than 30 consecutive days. The special needs allowance contributes to the additional costs for the acquisition of special needs items and services for researchers with disabilities, whose long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments 87 are certified by a competent national authority, and of such nature that their participation in the action may not be possible without them (e.g. assistance by third persons, adaptation of work environment, additional travel/transportation costs). These special needs items or services must not have been funded from another source (e.g. social security or health insurance). Both long-term leave and special needs allowances should be requested when the need arises. The research, training and networking contribution should cover, for example, costs for training and networking activities that contribute directly to the researchers’ career development (e.g. participation in conferences, trips related to work on the action, training, language courses, seminars, lab material, books, library records, publication costs), research expenses, visa-related fees and travel expenses, additional costs arising from each secondment of six months or less, which require mobility from the place of residence (e.g. travel and accommodation costs).

The management and indirect contribution should cover the beneficiary’s additional costs in connection with the action (e.g. personnel costs for project management/coordination, indirect costs).

The above rates apply to doctoral candidates devoting themselves to their project on a full-time basis. Researchers may, in agreement with the supervisor and beneficiary and with prior approval by the granting authority, implement their project on a part-time basis. Such a request is limited to personal or family reasons. In cases of part-time work, the doctoral candidates must work at least 50% of the full working time in their recruiting organisation for the action funded by the MSCA. The recruiting beneficiary should report costs as pro rata of the applicable full-time unit contributions.

1.2.Admissibility

The following exception to the General Annex A applies:

·The page limit of the application is 30 pages (excluding annexes).

1.3.Eligibility

Given the specific nature of MSCA Doctoral Networks, the following exceptions and additional eligibility criteria apply. This section also contains eligibility conditions, which apply during action implementation but cannot be verified at proposal stage.

·All proposals must indicate if they are resubmitted from the previous MSCA Doctoral Networks call under Horizon Europe.

·Proposals submitted to the previous call of MSCA Doctoral Networks under Horizon Europe and having received a score of less than 80% must not be resubmitted the following year.

1.3.1.Participating organisations

·Applications must be submitted by a consortium including at least three independent legal entities, each established in a different EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country and with at least one of them established in an EU Member State. Should none of them be entitled to award a doctoral degree, a university or a consortium/grouping of academic/research institutions entitled to award a doctoral degree must be added to the project as an associated partner or an associated partner linked to a beneficiary.

·Not more than 40.0% of the EU contribution may be allocated to beneficiaries in the same country or to a single International European Research Organisation (IERO) or international organisation.

·International organisations with headquarters in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country will be deemed to be established in this Member State or Associated Country.

·Affiliated entities are not allowed to participate as they cannot claim costs in MSCA Doctoral Networks.

·All beneficiaries must recruit at least one doctoral candidate. They are required to host at their premises and supervise recruited researchers, or use associated partners linked to them to do so 88 .

·In order to reach the objectives of Joint Doctorates, at least three independent legal entities must be entitled to award doctoral degrees. At least two of the institutions conferring a joint, double or multiple doctoral degree must be established in an EU Member State and/or Horizon Europe Associated Country. An applicant from the academic sector, which has transferred the right of awarding a doctoral degree to a consortium/grouping of academic/research institutions to which it belongs to, is also eligible. Applicants must provide, at the time of the submission of the proposal, a pre-agreement to award a joint, double or multiple degree to the doctoral candidate(s). The proposal should indicate from which institutions a researcher is expected to receive the degree(s).

·Joint Doctorates must set up a joint governance structure with joint admission, selection, supervision, monitoring and assessment procedures.

1.3.2.Recruited researchers

·Supported researchers must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession 89 of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment. 

·Researchers must be enrolled in a doctoral programme leading to the award of a doctoral degree in at least one EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country, and for Joint Doctorates in at least two.

·Recruited researchers can be of any nationality and must comply with the following mobility rule: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date.

For 'International European Research Organisations' (IERO), 'international organisations', or entities created under Union law, the researchers must not have spent more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment in the same appointing organisation.

Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays and time spent by the researcher as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention 90 are not taken into account.

·Secondments are eligible for up to one third of the actual months spent implementing the research training activities under the action. This limitation does not apply in the case of Industrial Doctorates and Joint Doctorates.

·In case of industrial doctorates, doctoral candidates must spend at least 50% of their fellowship duration in the non-academic sector.

1.3.3.Duration of the action

·The duration of the action must not exceed 48 months from the starting date set out in the grant agreement (including the time needed to recruit and select the doctoral candidates), except in the case of joint doctorates where this maximum duration is 60 months.

·The duration of each fellowship (on the basis of full-time employment) is minimum 3 and maximum 36 months, except in the case of joint doctorates, where this maximum duration is 48 months.

·The overall EU contribution for MSCA Doctoral Networks actions is limited to a maximum of 540 person-months.

1.4.Award criteria 

·Proposals will be evaluated by experts on the basis of the award criteria 'excellence', 'impact' and 'quality and efficiency of the implementation'.

·Evaluation scores will be awarded for each of these criteria, and not for the different aspects listed in the table below. Each criterion will be scored out of 5. Scores will be awarded with a resolution of one decimal place and will be subject to a weighting factor as indicated in the table below.

·Proposals scoring equal to or above 70% will be considered for funding — within the limits of the available call budget. Other proposals will be rejected.

1.5.Procedure

·Proposals must be submitted to only one of eight 'main 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). Industrial and joint doctorates will be ranked in the scientific panel of submission. Each panel will establish a ranked list.

·The distribution of the indicative budget of the call will be proportional to the number of eligible proposals received in each panel. If the budget allocated to any panel exceeds the requirements of all proposals positively evaluated 91 in that panel, the excess budget will be reallocated to the other panels based on the distribution described above. Equally, if the allocated funding to a panel is insufficient to fund the highest ranked proposal in that panel, the necessary budget will be transferred from the other panels based on the distribution described above, in order to ensure that the highest ranked proposal can be funded. In order to ensure budget optimisation and an equitable success rate across panels, the excess budget remaining after the initial allocation of funding to the proposals in the panels may be transferred between panels.

Ex-aequo Proposals

·When the total scores of two or more proposals are equal (ex-aequo cases), the priority order will be established as follows:

1)The proposals will be prioritised according to the scores they have been awarded for the criterion ‘Excellence’. When these scores are equal, priority will be based on scores for the criterion ‘Impact’.

2)If necessary, the gender balance among the supervisors named in the proposal will be used as a factor for prioritisation.

3)If a distinction still cannot be made, the panel may decide to further prioritise by considering other factors such as gender and other diversity aspects in the research activities, participation of the non-academic sector (including involvement of SMEs), geographical diversity 92 , international cooperation, favourable employment and working conditions or relationship to the Horizon Europe objectives in general. These factors will be documented in the panel report.

1.6.Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements

The following exceptions and additional conditions apply:

·Eligible costs must take the form of unit contributions, as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

·When associated partners are involved, beneficiaries are encouraged to sign a partnership agreement with them to regulate the internal relationship between all participating organisations. The partnership agreement(s) must comply with the grant agreement.

·Beneficiaries must ensure full access — on a royalty-free basis — for the recruited researchers to background and results needed for their activities under the action.

·The following deliverables will have to be submitted for grants awarded under this topic:

-establishment of a supervisory board of the network;

-progress report submitted within 30 days after one year from the starting date of the action;

-mid-term meeting organised between the participants and the granting authority;

-mobility declaration submitted within 20 days after the recruitment of each researcher and updated (if needed) via the Funding & Tenders Portal Continuous Reporting tool;

-career development plan: a document describing how the individual Career Development Plans have been established (listing also the researchers for whom such plans have been put in place), submitted before the mid-term meeting; 

-evaluation questionnaire completed by each recruited researcher and submitted at the end of the research training activity; a follow-up questionnaire submitted two years later;

-data management plan submitted at mid-term and an update towards the end of the project if needed;

-plan for the dissemination and exploitation of results, including communication activities, submitted at mid-term and an update towards the end of the project.

2.MSCA POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS

2.1.Applicable unit contributions

The EU contribution for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships will take the form of unit contributions, as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

The following budget categories apply:

A country correction coefficient applies to the living allowance in order to ensure equal treatment and purchasing power parity for all researchers 94 . For European Postdoctoral Fellowships, this coefficient is the one applicable to the country of the beneficiary. For the Global Postdoctoral Fellowships two different country correction coefficients apply:

-For the outgoing phase: the coefficient of the country where the postdoctoral researcher is hosted (i.e. the country of the associated partner hosting the outgoing phase);

-For the return phase: the coefficient of the country where the postdoctoral researcher returns to (i.e. the country of the beneficiary).

The country correction coefficients are listed in Table 1 at the end of this Work Programme part. The living allowance is a gross amount, including compulsory deductions under national law, such as employer and employee social security contributions and direct taxes.

The beneficiary must recruit the postdoctoral researcher under an employment contract or equivalent direct contract with full social security coverage (including sickness, parental, unemployment and invalidity benefits, pension rights, benefits in respect of accidents at work and occupational diseases). An exemption from this rule can be accepted only in cases where national legislation or the equivalent internal regulations of International European Research Organisations (IERO), entities created under Union law, or an international organisation, prohibit this possibility and subject to the prior agreement of the granting authority.

When an employment contract cannot be provided, the beneficiary may exceptionally recruit the postdoctoral researcher under a 'fixed-amount fellowship'. In this case, the living allowance will be halved and the beneficiary must ensure that the postdoctoral researcher enjoys minimum social security coverage (including sickness, parental and invalidity benefits, and benefits for accidents at work and occupational diseases).

The beneficiary must pay to the postdoctoral researcher at least the amount of the living allowance (minus all compulsory deductions under national legislation). A top-up may be paid to the researcher in order to complement this contribution. In addition to the living allowance, the postdoctoral researcher must receive a mobility allowance. This allowance covers his/her additional, private mobility-related costs (e.g. travel and accommodation costs), not professional costs under the action, which are covered by the research, training and networking contribution.

If the postdoctoral researcher has or acquires family obligations during the action duration, i.e. has persons linked to him/her by (i) marriage, or (ii) a relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the legislation of the country or region where this relationship was formalised; or (iii) dependent children who are actually being maintained by the researcher, the family allowance must be paid to him/her as well.

The long-term leave allowance contributes to the personnel costs incurred by the beneficiary in case of the researcher’s leave, including maternity, paternity, parental, sick or special leave, longer than 30 consecutive days. The special needs allowance contributes to the additional costs for the acquisition of special needs items and services for researchers with disabilities, whose long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments 95 are certified by a competent national authority, and of such nature that their participation in the action may not be possible without them (e.g. assistance by third persons, adaptation of work environment, additional travel/transportation costs). These special needs items or services must not have been funded from another source (e.g. social security or health insurance). Both long-term leave and special needs allowances should be requested when the need arises. 

The research, training and networking contribution should cover, for example, costs for training and networking activities that contribute directly to the researchers’ career development (e.g. participation in conferences, trips related to work on the action, training, language courses, seminars, lab material, books, library records, publication costs), research expenses, visa-related fees and travel expenses, additional costs arising from optional secondments (e.g. travel and accommodation costs).

The management and indirect contribution should cover the beneficiary’s additional costs in connection with the action (e.g. personnel costs for project management, indirect costs).

The above rates apply to postdoctoral researchers devoting themselves to their project on a full-time basis. Researchers may, in agreement with the supervisor and beneficiary and with prior approval by the granting authority, implement their project on a part-time basis. In addition to the possibility to request part-time work for personal or family reasons, postdoctoral fellows may opt to work part-time in order to pursue supplementary activities. These might include creating a company, pursuing another research project 96 , or engaging in advanced studies not related to the MSCA grant. Part-time arrangements are not allowed during the outgoing phase of the Global Postdoctoral Fellowships. Any supplementary activities carried out part-time in parallel with the MSCA action must be agreed upon by the researcher and the beneficiary and approved by the granting authority.

If the action is implemented on a part-time basis, the researcher must dedicate at least 50% of his/her working time to the action funded by the MSCA 97 . The beneficiary should report costs as pro rata of the applicable full-time unit contributions.

2.2.Admissibility

The following exceptions to the General Annex A apply:

·The page limit of the application is 10 pages (excluding annexes). 

2.3.Eligibility

Given the specific nature of MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships, the following exceptions and additional eligibility criteria apply. This section also contains eligibility conditions, which apply during action implementation but cannot be verified at proposal stage.

·All domains of research and technological development are eligible for funding (including areas of research covered by the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025).

·Proposals involving the same recruiting organisation (and for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships also the associated partner hosting the outgoing phase) and individual researcher submitted to the previous call of MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships under Horizon Europe and having received a score of less than 70% must not be resubmitted the following year.

·Only one proposal per individual researcher can be submitted. In case of several proposals involving the same individual researcher, only the last submitted one will be considered eligible.

·If proposals with the same research objectives and work plan are submitted for different researchers, only the first submitted one will be considered eligible.

2.3.1.Participating organisations

·Applications must be submitted by a single independent legal entity, established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country. This is a mono-beneficiary action.

·The associated partner hosting the outgoing phase in Global Postdoctoral Fellowships must include a letter of commitment in the proposal to ensure their active participation in the action.

·Applications in the research areas of research covered by the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025 must be submitted by a single independent legal entity, established in an EU Member State or a country associated to the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025. Nuclear-related proposals submitted by entities established in other countries will be ineligible 98 .

·Affiliated entities are not allowed to participate as they cannot claim costs in MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships.

·International organisations with headquarters in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country will be deemed to be established in this Member State or Associated Country.

·The beneficiary must employ and supervise the researcher during the action.

2.3.2.Recruited researchers

·Supported fellows must be postdoctoral researchers at the date of the call deadline, i.e. in a possession of a doctoral degree 99 . Applicants who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will also be considered as postdoctoral researchers and will be considered eligible to apply. The successful defence must be unconditional (no further requirements/corrections that need to be addressed) and take place before the call deadline. Supporting documentation may be requested.

·At the call deadline, supported researchers must have a maximum of 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research, measured from the date of award of the doctoral degree. Years of experience outside research and career breaks (e.g. due to parental leave 100 ), will not count towards the amount of research experience. For nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries who wish to reintegrate to pursue their research career in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries, years of experience in research in third countries will not be considered in the above maximum.

·Recruited researchers must comply with the following mobility rule: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the beneficiary (for European Postdoctoral Fellowships), or the host organisation for the outgoing phase (for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships) for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.

Researchers wishing to reintegrate from a third country must either be based in a third country at the call deadline, or have moved directly from a third country to an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country within the last 12 months before the call deadline.

For 'International European Research Organisations' (IERO), 'international organisations', or entities created under Union law, the researchers must not have spent more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline, in the same appointing organisation.

Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention 101 are not taken into account.

·Supported researchers can be of any nationality. However, researchers going to a third country (‘Global Postdoctoral Fellowship) or researchers who wish to reintegrate to Europe (i.e. in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country), must be nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. Long-term residence means a period of legal and continuous residence within EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries of at least five consecutive years. Absences of less than six consecutive months and no more than ten months over the whole period are permitted when calculating the five years.

Researchers who are refugees in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country according to the Geneva Convention may also apply to both European and Global Postdoctoral Fellowships, irrespective of whether they are long-term residents or not, if they fulfil the other eligibility conditions.

·Applicants in the research areas covered by the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025 must recruit nationals or long-term residents of an EU Member State or a country associated to the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025

2.3.3.Duration of the action

·European Postdoctoral Fellowships should last between 12 and 24 months. Global Postdoctoral Fellowships should last between 24 and 36 months, consisting of 12 to 24 months for the outgoing phase and 12 months for the return phase.

·If requested and justified in the proposal, an additional period of up to six months at the end of the project can be awarded to researchers who will spend that period in a non-academic organisation established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.

2.4.Award criteria

·Proposals will be evaluated by experts on the basis of the award criteria 'excellence', 'impact' and 'quality and efficiency of the implementation'.

·Evaluation scores will be awarded for each of these criteria, and not for the different aspects listed in the table below. Each criterion will be scored out of 5. Scores will be awarded with a resolution of one decimal place and will be subject to a weighting factor as indicated in the table below.

·Proposals scoring equal to or above 70% will be considered for funding — within the limits of the available call budget. Other proposals will be rejected.

2.5.Procedure

In Postdoctoral Fellowships, proposals will be evaluated by one of eight 'main 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). Each panel will establish two ranked lists, one for European and one for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships.

European and Global Postdoctoral Fellowships will have separate budgets. The distribution of respective available funds will be proportional to the number of eligible proposals received in each main evaluation panel. If the budget allocated to any panel exceeds the requirements of all proposals positively evaluated 102 in that panel, the excess budget will be reallocated to the other panels based on the distribution as above. Equally, if the allocated funding to a panel is insufficient to fund the highest ranked proposal in that panel, the necessary budget will be transferred from the other panels based on the distribution as above, in order to ensure that the highest ranked proposal can be funded. In order to ensure budget optimisation and an equitable success rate across panels, the excess budget remaining after the initial allocation of funding to the proposals in the panels may be transferred between panels.

Ex-aequo Proposals

·When the total scores of two or more proposals are equal (ex-aequo cases), the priority order will be established as follows:

1) The proposals will be prioritised according to the scores they have been awarded for the criterion ‘Excellence’. When these scores are equal, priority will be based on scores for the criterion ‘Impact’.

2)If necessary, the gender balance among successful applicant researchers will be used as a factor for prioritisation.

3)If a distinction still cannot be made, the panel may decide to further prioritise by considering other factors such as gender and other diversity aspects in the research activities, participation of the non-academic sector (including involvement of SMEs), geographical diversity 103 , favourable employment and working conditions or relationship to the Horizon Europe objectives in general. These factors will be documented in the panel report.

Seal of Excellence

·Seals of Excellence will be awarded to applications with a total score equal to or higher than 85%, but which cannot be funded due to lack of budget available to the call.

2.6.Legal and Financial set-up of the Grant Agreements

The following exceptions and additional conditions apply:

·Eligible costs must take the form of unit contributions, as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

·When associated partners are involved, the beneficiary is encouraged to sign a partnership agreement with them to regulate the internal relationship between all participating organisations. The partnership agreement(s) must comply with the grant agreement.

·The beneficiary must ensure full access — on a royalty-free basis — for the recruited researcher to background and results needed for his/her activities under the action.

·The following deliverables will have to be submitted for grants awarded under this topic:

-mobility declaration submitted within 20 days of the start of the research training activities and updated (if needed) via the Funding & Tenders Portal Continuous Reporting tool;

-career development plan of the recruited researcher, submitted at the beginning of the action (not later than 6 months after its start) and updated if needed throughout the project;

-evaluation questionnaire completed by the recruited researcher and submitted at the end of the research training activity; a follow-up questionnaire submitted two years later;

-data management plan submitted within the first 6 months of the project;

-plan for the dissemination and exploitation of results submitted towards the end of the project.

3.MSCA STAFF EXCHANGES

3.1.Applicable unit contributions

The EU contribution for MSCA Staff Exchanges will take the form of unit contributions, as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

The following budget categories apply:

The top-up allowance for the seconded staff member contributes to travel, accommodation and subsistence costs related to the secondment.

The special needs allowance contributes to the additional costs for the acquisition of special needs items and services for staff members with disabilities, whose long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments 105 are certified by a competent national authority, and of such nature that their participation in the action may not be possible without them (e.g. assistance by third persons, adaptation of work environment, additional travel/transportation costs). These special needs items or services must not have been funded from another source (e.g. social security or health insurance). The special needs allowance should be requested when the need arises. 

The research, training and networking contribution should cover costs for training, transfer of knowledge and networking activities, as well as research expenses.

The management and indirect contribution should cover the beneficiary’s additional costs in connection with the action (e.g. personnel costs for project management/coordination, indirect costs).

3.2.Admissibility

The following exception to the General Annex A applies:

·The page limit of the application is 30 pages (excluding annexes).

3.3.Eligibility

Given the specific nature of MSCA Staff Exchanges, the following exceptions and additional eligibility criteria apply. This section also contains eligibility conditions, which apply during action implementation but cannot be verified at proposal stage.

3.3.1.Participating organisations

·Applications must be submitted by a consortium including at least three independent legal entities in three different countries, two of which established in a different EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.

·International organisations with headquarters in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country will be deemed to be established in this Member State or Associated Country.

·The European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding. 

·Affiliated entities are not allowed to participate as they cannot claim costs in MSCA Staff Exchanges.

·Only legal entities that are established in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries can be beneficiaries.

·If all participating organisations are from the same sector (i.e. either only academic or only non-academic), there must be at least one organisation from a non-associated Third Country.

·Secondments within EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries must be between different sectors (academic and non-academic), except for interdisciplinary secondments, which must be limited to a maximum of one third of the total months spent under the action.

·For secondments from associated partners linked to a beneficiary, only the sector (academic or non-academic) of the beneficiary counts; the linked associated partners will be considered to belong to the same sector as their beneficiary.

·Secondments must be between different countries 106 ; secondments between non-associated third countries are not eligible.

·Secondments must be performed on a full-time basis.

·Associated partners must include a letter of commitment in the proposal to ensure their active participation in the action. The involvement of any associated partner for which no such evidence of commitment is submitted will not be taken into account during evaluation.

3.3.2.Seconded staff members

·Secondments are open for researchers at any career stage (from doctoral candidates to postdoctoral researchers 107 ), as well as administrative, managerial and technical staff supporting R&I activities under the action.

·Supported staff members must be actively engaged in or linked to R&I activities for at least one month (full-time equivalent) at the sending institution before the first period of secondment.

·After the period of secondment, seconded staff should return to their sending institution, thus maximising the impact of the action for knowledge sharing and long-term collaboration.

3.3.3.Duration of the action

·The maximum duration of the project is 48 months from the starting date set out in the grant agreement. 

·The overall EU contribution for MSCA Staff Exchanges amounts to a maximum of 360 person-months per project.

·Secondments must last at least one month and cannot be longer than 12 months for the same staff member (independently of the number of organisations the staff is seconded to).

·The secondment of a staff member may be split into several stays with one or several beneficiaries or associated partners.

·Secondments beyond the project duration cannot be funded.

3.4.Award criteria 

·Proposals will be evaluated by experts on the basis of the award criteria 'excellence', 'impact' and 'quality and efficiency of the implementation'.

·Evaluation scores will be awarded for each of these criteria, and not for the different aspects listed in the table below. Each criterion will be scored out of 5. Scores will be awarded with a resolution of one decimal place and will be subject to a weighting factor as indicated in the table below.

·Proposals scoring equal to or above 70% will be considered for funding — within the limits of the available call budget. Other proposals will be rejected.

3.5.Procedure

·Proposals will be evaluated by one of eight 'main 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). Each panel establishes a ranked list.

·The distribution of the indicative budget of the call will be proportional to the number of eligible proposals received in each panel. If the budget allocated to any panel exceeds the requirements of all proposals positively evaluated 108 in that panel, the excess budget will be reallocated to the other panels based on the distribution as above. Equally, if the allocated funding to a panel is insufficient to fund the highest ranked proposal in that panel, the necessary budget will be transferred from the other panels based on the distribution as above, in order to ensure that the highest ranked proposal can be funded. In order to ensure budget optimisation and an equitable success rate across panels, the excess budget remaining after the initial allocation of funding to the proposals in the panels may be transferred between panels.

Ex-aequo Proposals

·When the total scores of two or more proposals are equal (ex-aequo cases), the priority order will be established as follows:

1) The proposals will be prioritised according to the scores they have been awarded for the criterion ‘Excellence’. When these scores are equal, priority will be based on scores for the criterion ‘Impact’.

2)If a distinction still cannot be made, the panel may decide to further prioritise by considering other factors such as gender and other diversity aspects in the research activities, participation of the non-academic sector (including involvement of SMEs), geographical diversity 109 , international cooperation, favourable working/secondment conditions or relationship to the Horizon Europe objectives in general. These factors will be documented in the panel report. 

3.6.Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements

The following exceptions and additional conditions apply:

·Eligible costs must take the form of unit contributions, as stipulated in Decision of 11 March 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions and unit contributions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions under the Horizon Europe Programme.

·When associated partners are involved, beneficiaries are encouraged to sign a partnership agreement with them to regulate the internal relationship between all participating organisations. The partnership agreement(s) must comply with the grant agreement.

·Grants awarded under this topic might be linked to other actions funded by Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe.

·Beneficiaries must ensure full access — on a royalty-free basis — for the staff members to background and results needed for their activities under the action.

·The following deliverables will have to be submitted for grants awarded under this topic: