Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions

Horizon 2020
Hasanov Zaur NCP
Hasanov Zaur NCP MSCA

zaurmail@gmail.com

050-988-4239
RATIONALE
“Ensure excellent and
innovative research
training as well as
attractive career and
knowledge-exchange
opportunities through
cross-border and
cross-sector mobility
of researchers to best
prepare them to face
current and future
societal challenges”

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 MSCA in Horizon 2020

• Operates in a “bottom-up” basis

• Open to all research and innovation domains – from basic

research to market take-up

• Mobility is a key requirement

• Aim: develop new knowledge / enhance skills of people

behind research and innovation

• Dissemination and public engagement through public

outreach activities
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 MSCA in Horizon 2020

DEFINITIONS

Early Stage Researcher (ESR)

At the time of recruitment (ITN) the researcher must be in the
first 4 years (full-time research experience) of their research
careers and have not been awarded a doctoral degree

Experienced Researcher (ER)

At the time of the call deadline (IF) the researcher must be in
possession of a doctoral degree or have at least 4 years of full-
time equivalent research experience.
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Reasons for Research Orgs to get
involved
Attract up-and-coming researchers

Attract leading researchers

Build links with research groups worldwide (“swap” your

researchers)

Fund a Sabbatical Abroad

Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions in Horizon
2020:

€6.1 billion budget Trainin

g

Funds all research areas

(no thematic calls or Marie
priorities) S-Curie
Career
Actions Mobility
Implemented via Annual
Calls for Proposals
 RISE • Research & Innovation Staff Exchange
Funding for PIs/Research Orgs

ITN • Innovative Training Networks

• Co-financing fellowship or doctoral

COFUND programmes with transnational
mobility

NIGHT • European Researchers’ Night

IF • Individual Fellowships
Mobility is key
For ITN and IF
• In the main, cannot apply for a fellowship in a country where you
have lived for >12 months in the 3 years before the Call deadline
• No nationality/citizenship requirements

For RISE
• EU and Associate member countries should have secondments
only in the Third World countries and vice versa
 ITN:
Innovative Quality of Research
Training
Training • Objective: to train a new
Networks generation of creative,
entrepreneurial and innovative
researchers
• A Research Training Programme
for Early-Stage Researchers
(ESRs)
• Less than 4 years’ research
experience after undergrad
Typical Activities of an ITN
• Joint research programme – each researcher has an
Individual Research Project
• Advanced research skills and complementary skills
training
• Networking events
• Secondments for each researcher to another sector
Two types of participant
1. Beneficiary: recruits researchers and receives a budget
2. Partner: does not recruit researchers, claims costs back
from a Beneficiary
Number of Consortium Members
• ETN and EJD: 6 to 10 Beneficiaries is typical.
• EID:?? In FP7 consortium was limited to 2 Beneficiaries,
in H2020 you can have more.
• No limit to number of Partners
• Funded for min 3 months and max 36 months
 3 ITN Modes
European European European
Industrial Joint Doctorate Training Network
Doctorate (EID) (EJD) (ETN)

Duration 48 Months

2 beneficiaries 3 academic
3 beneficiaries
Min. 2 countries beneficiaries
3 countries
2 sectors 3 countries

Partner Organisations from any sector (no min or max)

ESRs funded 3 to 36 months

5 ESRs* / 15 ESRs 15 ESRs

PhD
No educational
(50% of time in
Joint PhD degree reqd.
non-academic
(PhD typical)
sector)

* For a two-beneficiary project

Funding Model
Categories Costs of researchers (1) Institutional costs (2)
of  
eligible costs Living Mobility Family Top-up Research, Managemen
  allowance allowance allowance allowance training and t and
  (a) (b) (c) (d) networking indirect
Marie     costs costs
Skłodowska- (a) (b)
Curie action

ITN 3 110 600 500 -- 1 800 1 200

(100%)

All values are PER MONTH

Individual Fellowships
• A personal fellowship to
support a period of mobility
• For Experienced Researchers
• Post-PhD or equivalent
• No upper age or experience limit
• Fully-funded fellowships
• Salary, research costs etc.
• Academic or non-academic host
 IF – European and Global

European
Fellowship
s
1 – 2 years

Global
Fellowships

2 – 3 years (incl. 12 months back in Europe)

 IF Funding Model
Categories of Costs of researcher Institutional costs
eligible costs  PER MONTH PER MONTH
  Living Mobility Family Research, Management
  allowance allowance allowance training and and indirect
Marie (a) (b) (c) networking costs
Skłodowska-     costs (b)
Curie action (a)

IF 4 650 600 500 800 650

(100%)

• Fellow’s Salary = Living Allowance + Mobility Allowance (+ Family

Allowance)
• Rates in table are inclusive of employers’ costs (e.g. employer’s PRSI,
pension contribution)
How to apply
 euraxess.ec.europa.eu
Prospective Fellow Prospective Supervisor
• Find a host organisation • Find an applicant
and a supervisor
• Search EURAXESS CV
– 2 of each for Global F’ship Database
• Look for ads on EURAXESS
• Ask research
• euraxess.ec.europa.eu collaborators for
• Ask your supervisor for recommendations
recommendations
• Write the application • Write the application
together together
• Submit application • Submit application
together together
Writing a good
proposal
Quality of Training/Transfer of Knowledge

• Explain how the host will gain new knowledge

from the researcher
• Explain how the researcher’s activity will
impact on European society and/or the
economy
Quality of Training/Transfer of Knowledge 2
• Precisely what knowledge will be transferred
• Provide a bulleted list or a table of objectives – easy for the
evaluators to follow
• How will you transfer it?
• What specific measures will you use to embed this
knowledge into the host organisation and the wider Europe
• Examples: mentoring students, delivering workshops,
attending conferences, building collaborations with other
European research organisations.
• Be creative!
Capacity of the researcher / CV
• Need excellent track record appropriate to career stage,
discipline and sector (academic/non-academic)
• Include all relevant experience (e.g. teaching, consultancy,
supervision, event organisation)
• Need to provide a clear statement that the Researcher is a
good match to the proposed research but need to
demonstrate that they will learn something new
• Include a description of major research achievements
RISE: Research &
Innovation Staff Promoting transfer of
Exchange knowledge between countries
and sectors
• Research programme executed by:
• Exchange of “staff” around the
consortium
(Duration 1 month to 1 year)
• Networking activities
• Collaborate with any sector and any
country worldwide
• Per Researcher/Month:
• €2000 for travel costs
• €2500 networking, management, etc.
RISE Requirements
• Project duration 48 months
• Minimum consortium 3 participants in 3 countries
1. 2 academic participants plus 1 non-academic (or vice versa)
2. 2 European participants plus 1 non-European participant
• Secondments:
• “Staff” must be active at their host for 6 months before
secondment
• Must be reintegrated after secondment (no duration or
mechanism specified)
• All secondments within Europe must be international &
intersectoral
Non-European Countries
• Secondments from Europe to non-European countries
are paid for
• Secondments from most non-European countries* to
Europe are paid for, except:
• Secondments from high-income countries e.g. USA,
Brazil must be financed by their own budget
• All countries are funded to participate in the project’s
networking/training events
Evaluation
Evaluation Panels
Proposals are read by at least 3 disciplinary experts
Distribution of awards across Panels is proportional to # of proposals received

• Chemistry (CHE)
• Physics (PHY)
• Mathematics (MAT)
• Life Sciences (LIF)
• Economic Sciences (ECO)
• ICT and Engineering (ENG)
• Social Sciences & Humanities (SOC)
• Earth & Environmental Sciences (ENV)

ITN EID and EJD– multidisciplinary ranking

Evaluation Criteria
Criterion Weighting Priority
(ex-aequo)

Excellence 50% 1

Impact 30% 2

Implementation 20% 3

Overall threshold of 70%

No individual thresholds