Postdoctoral Fellowships of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Postdoctoral Fellowships of the Marie
Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

            The recording of our Infoevent on the MSCA Postdoctoral
            Fellowships from 5 May 2021 can be found here.

Call Opening: 27 May 20221
Call Deadline: 15 September 2021

General Features of Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF)
       — PF are about Career Development and Training for excellent researchers
       — PF are fostering excellence through the implementation of a research
         project
       — PF build bridges to the non-academic sector
       — PF are open to all scientific fields (bottom-up approach)
       — PF are great opportunities for postdoctoral researchers looking to give
         their career a boost by working abroad or in a different sector
       — PF can take the form of either a European or a Global Fellowship

European Fellowships
       —   For researchers coming to Europe or moving within Europe
       —   12-24 months
       —   Secondments possible worldwide up to 1/3 of the fellowship duration
       —   Option of an additional placement of up to 6 months in non-academic sector at the
           end of the fellowship!

Global Fellowships
       — For researchers going to countries outside EU Member States or Countries Associ-
         ated to Horizon Europe for 12-24 months in an outgoing phase & returning for a 12
         months mandatory return phase in Europe
       — 24 to 36 months
       — Secondments possible worldwide up to 1/3 of the fellowship duration
       — Option of an additional placement of up to 6 months in non-academic sector at the
         end of the fellowship!

© Exclusive property of Euresearch. Copying or republishing is strictly prohibited.
All information is based on the draft MSCA Work programme. Although no major changes are expected the final
legally binding information will be published only upon call opening at the end of May 2021.                1/6

How do PFs work?
Host institutions from an EU Member State (MS) or HE Associated Country (AC) can apply
together with a researcher proposing a research project. If funded, the project will be carried
out by the researcher under the supervision of a PI at the hosting institution. The hosting in-
stitution will be the beneficiary of the action and receive the money from the EU. The hosting
institution will hire the fellow on a regular working contract, pay salaries etc. In Global Fellow-
ships, the return host in Europe will be the beneficiary and pay the fellow’s salary also during
the outgoing phase.

Host Institutions
       —   Active in research and training
       —   Located in EU MS/AC
       —   Academic OR non-academic
       —   Universities, Research Institutions, Businesses, etc.

Secondments
       — International
       — During PF or after PF (new!)

Researchers
       — Any nationality (for European Fellowships), nationals or long-term residents of EU
         MS/AC (for Global Fellowships)
       — In possession of a PhD at the call deadline
       — Maximum of 8 years research experience after PhD
         (exceptions: career breaks, work outside research, etc.)
       — Must comply with the mobility rule

Mobility Rule
       — Eligible researcher should not have resided or carried out their main activity in the
         country of the future host institutions for more than 12 in the 36 months before the
         call deadline

Triple i - Dimension
       — International, Intersectoral & Interdisciplinary
       — Researchers are strongly encouraged to move between countries, sectors and disci-
         plines

© Exclusive property of Euresearch. Copying or republishing is strictly prohibited.
All information is based on the draft MSCA Work programme. Although no major changes are expected the final
legally binding information will be published only upon call opening at the end of May 2021.               2/6

Supervision
       — New guidelines on supervision
            ↳ www.euresearch.ch/en/horizon-europe/excellent-science/msca

Funding Mechanism
       — Fully based on Unit Costs
       — One unit = one researcher month
       — Unit costs are organized in several cost categories
            ↳ Budget is calculated automatically from information provided in the proposal

Part-time Work
       — Limited to a maximum of 50%
       — For professional or personal reasons
       — In agreement with the supervisor, beneficiary and granting authority

Evaluation > Panels
       — 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)
       — The Reintegration, Career Restart and Society&Enterprise Panels were discontinued
       — Each panel will establish two ranked lists, one for European and one for Global Post-
         doctoral 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

© Exclusive property of Euresearch. Copying or republishing is strictly prohibited.
All information is based on the draft MSCA Work programme. Although no major changes are expected the final
legally binding information will be published only upon call opening at the end of May 2021.               3/6

Evaluation > Award Criteria
       — Applications will be evaluated by experts, based on 3 Award Criteria:

Evaluation > Scoring
       — Evaluation scores will be awarded for each of the three criteria
       — 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
       — A weighted total score will be calculated based on the scores of the three individual
         criteria
       — For this call there aren’t yet any resubmission limitations. But such are expected for
         the calls from next year on.

Proposal Parts
       — A: Administrative data
       — B: Core of the proposal (including subparts: Excellence, Impact & Implementation)

Proposal Part B > Excellence
       —   Quality of Research
       —   Soundness of Methodology
       —   Quality of Supervision, Training, Transfer of Knowledge
       —   Quality of Researcher

Proposal Part B > Impact
       — Dissemination, Exploitation, Communication
       — Career Perspective, Employability
       — Scientific, Societal & Economic Impact

Proposal Part B > Implementation
       — Workplan, Risk Assessment

© Exclusive property of Euresearch. Copying or republishing is strictly prohibited.
All information is based on the draft MSCA Work programme. Although no major changes are expected the final
legally binding information will be published only upon call opening at the end of May 2021.               4/6

— Host Institution
Next Steps
    ‒    Look for Host Institution & Supervisor
    ‒    Think about Secondment during and after the PF
    ‒    Think about Career Development & Training
    ‒    Find Documents & Support
    ‒    Contact NCP of your future host country

NCPs Worldwide
    ‒    Contact Data
         ↳ https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding- ten-
         ders/opportunities/portal/screen/support/ncp

Important Documents
    ‒     Guide for Applicants PF2021
    ‒     MSCA Part of the Work Programme 2021
         (available upon call opening)

Our Proposal Writing Support
    ‒    Priority given to applicants with a Swiss host institution
    ‒    Applicants‘ Trainings
         ↳ www.euresearch.ch/events
    ‒    Online Tutorial (upon request, shortly after call opening)
    ‒    Annotated Guide for Applicants (upon request, shortly after call opening)
         ↳ www.euresearch.ch/msca

Association to Horizon Europe – Status of CH
    ‒    As non EU MS Switzerland has to negotiate its association to Horizon Europe
    ‒    These political negotiations are still ongoing
    ‒    Switzerland expects to be able to participate in ‘Horizon Europe’ and is committed to
         this objective
         ↳ Please check the information provided by the State Secretariat!

Links
    ‒    Funding and Tenders Portal (applications, documents)
    ‒    Marie S.-Curie Actions Website
    ‒    Euraxess Portal (vacancies, more information)

    ‒    Twitter: @MSCActions
    ‒    Facebook: marie.curie.actions

© Exclusive property of Euresearch. Copying or republishing is strictly prohibited.
All information is based on the draft MSCA Work programme. Although no major changes are expected the final
legally binding information will be published only upon call opening at the end of May 2021.               5/6

Contact
National Contact Points for MSCA
Sibylla Martinelli PhD, Juliane Sauer PhD
msca@euresearch.ch
www.euresearch.ch

Sibylla Martinelli, 10. Mai 2021

© Exclusive property of Euresearch. Copying or republishing is strictly prohibited.
All information is based on the draft MSCA Work programme. Although no major changes are expected the final
legally binding information will be published only upon call opening at the end of May 2021.               6/6