Funding programme

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are part of the wider Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programme and support researchers at all stages of their careers, across all research disciplines and in all employment sectors.

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Call overview

This call co-finances new or existing doctoral programmes and postdoctoral fellowship schemes.

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Call detail

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.

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Expected impact

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

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

Expected 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.

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.

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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^[3] 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.

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Eligibility

Particpating organisations:

• Applications must be submitted by a single entity established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
• Affiliated entities are not allowed to participate as they cannot claim costs in MSCA COFUND.
• The conditions for financial support to third parties defined in General Annex B do not apply.
• 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 will be responsible for the availability of the necessary complementary funds to implement the proposal.
• In each COFUND action, a minimum of three researchers must be recruited.
• COFUND proposals foreseeing research training for fewer than three researchers will be deemed ineligible.
• Implementing partners must be established in one of the countries eligible for funding listed in the General Annexes.

Recruited researchers:

• Recruited researchers can be of any nationality (see also specific condition for COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes below) 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 or implementing partner for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the deadline of the co-funded programme's call.
• Supported researchers must be either doctoral candidates or postdoctoral researchers,
• depending on the action
• For COFUND Postdoctoral Programmes: researchers must be nationals or long-term residents of an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country, in case the main part of the research training activities is carried out in a country other than an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
• Limitations regarding the researchers' origin and destination should be avoided. Researchers who are already permanently employed by the organisation hosting them cannot be funded by COFUND.

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Budget

Total indicative budget EUR 101 820 280.

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Duration

The maximum duration of the action must be 60 months from the starting date set out in the grant agreement. It also includes the time that is needed to select and recruit the researchers.

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Support

Check the MSCA COFUND 2025 Guide for Applicants